Brynlee's Birth

I never posted any hospital pictures. Nothing too gory. Or inappropriate.

Joe and I after long discussion and prayer decided to schedule to have my water broke to try and evict Brynlee. I had been dialated to a 4 for 2 weeks, and was unable to walk or sleep in my bed for the last 3 weeks. Thanks to really painful hips, and tailbone, I was forced to sleep in a semi-upright position on the sofa downstairs. Not awesome for Frodo feet. I had been having contractions every 5 minutes for weeks, but I wasn't going into LABOR. It was... rough (serious understatement there). I was tired. Joe was tired.

It was at my 38 week appointment the nurse informed me they were going to set a c-section date incase I didn't go into labor by my due date. I was SET on VBAC, so I told her that was fine, but I wasn't going to show up. This went on for a few minutes, I think I flustered her pretty good with my stubbornness. It was her that called me later that night and pitched the idea to have my water broke and try and kick-start labor that way. I love her for hearing me.

And so we did. I went to the hospital February 24th, I was checked, hooked up to IV's and my wonderful doctor (Dr. Weltman) came in with a knitting needle and broke my water. Talk about a MISERABLE feeling. Joe and I were watching TV talking names and genders, filmed pre-delivery interviews, and with every giggle, contraction or movement, a gush of water came out.

We watched the monitor (well Joe did, I knew when a contraction was forming with out his play-by-play), and the contractions were good and close and reagular, but I wasn't in enough pain. My doctor came in again and broke my water a second time, hooked me up to the slightest amount of pitocin and wished me luck. About that time, the anesthesiologist came in and put in an epidural. That is required of VBACs, just in case something goes wrong and a c-section is necessary. I wasn't going to complain. We chatted, watched Ellen, talked about boy names and girl names, reminisced, and had a really relaxing time. Then my epidural began to wear off, and my focus changed. I knew my baby was ready to come out, and I wanted to get it out. In a short amount of time after the pitocin, I was fully dilated and the baby was crowning. I kept gripping the arms of the bed while turned on my side, muttering to myself how much it hurt saying things like, "dirty rotton! OUCHY! OUCHY! OUCHY!" which is really about as vulgar as I get. The doctor laughed, "Does she ever cuss?"

Holy painful. But, thankfully, in three pushes she was out. I shouted, "I FEEL BETTER!"

Dr. Weltman smiled, "Ya think?" She turned Brynlee over, and let Joe announce what the baby was, and in shock he said, "It's a girl!" He, the nurse and Doctor all said boy. My vote was girl. I win.

What a prize!!