Birth Story.

Little Miss Brooke is a procrastinator just like her Mommy. She took her sweet time coming out, stubbornly making us wait almost 2 days for her.

We were admitted to Labor & Delivery at 6 p.m. on Tuesday the 29th. I was immediately hooked up to an IV, fetal heart monitor, and contraction monitor. I was contracting when we got there, what we thought was a sign things would move right along. Not so much. After 12 hours of Cervadil, I was only 1 cm dilated as of 8 a.m. the next morning. So, round 2 of Cervadil began. Contractions got increasingly stronger, and by lunchtime on Wed. they were becoming unbearable. That afternoon was pretty rough, as I was experiencing the joys of back labor. But they finally gave me some pain meds that provided quite a bit of relief around 7 p.m.

I was started on Pitocin about 10 p.m. to really get my contractions going and boy did it work! That night was very difficult for me. I got almost no sleep, just breathing through each contraction in somewhat of a zen-like state. I surprised myself with how well I handled the pain. I just got in a zone and did some deep breathing (shocking that I knew how to do it since I never attended those childbirth classes, right?)

The next morning brought my new best friend: the epidural. The doctor checked me around 10 a.m. Friday and was pretty much convinced that this whole process would result in a c-section. They broke my water in an attempt to jump start things. After they broke my water, my contractions got strong enough that I was begging to be stabbed in the back. I was still only at 1 cm, but they decided to be kind to me since I'd been there 38 hours. There was a slight issue with my blood pressure (dropped to 74/50 at one point, yikes!) so I was on oxygen for a while. But almost instantly, the contractions were painless and I could finally relax.

This relaxation must have been all she needed because when I was checked a few hours later, we had jumped to 8 cm and she was dropping. An hour later, she was in position and I was at 10 cm. My nerves really kicked in then and I was on & off the oxygen. We started pushing right at 4:00 and she was out at 4:28 p.m. It was absolutely love at first sight for both me & the husband. She was huge but mostly calm and reserved. Our perfect little angel scored 9's on both of her Apgar scores, an indication that she's already striving to be above average :) At 9 lbs 9 oz and 22.5 inches long, she far exceeded our expectations on her size. It's incredible to me to think about how she fit inside my belly. No wonder I couldn't breathe!
Our little princess has stolen our hearts. We're all still getting the hang of things, but we're making progress each day. I'm feeling great now, which is making it easier to move about to take care of my girl. We've had a lot of help, but are finally starting to feel confident in our parenting skills. Brooke's future is in our hands; we're going to spend every waking hour making sure its bright and beautiful.