My Family: Baby Brynn is Here

She is actually 8 days old right now - she was born last Friday, February 17th at 5:11 PM. She was 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long. Her name is Brynn Marie. I will give a short story of her birth.

Friday morning Brandon and I went to the doctor's office and my friend Denice met us there. She stayed with me the whole day and was there through everything - thank you Denice (if you are reading this!) for EVERYTHING! You helped me so much you have no idea! I'm so glad you were there!

We didn't see the doctor until 9:30 AM and when she saw me she said she had looked for my name over at the birthing center, expecting me to already be there. But no, I had made it through the night. She asked if I had been feeling anything - I told her about the cramps and that I had been quite bloody since that morning. She checked me and said I was now 5-6 cm dilated since the previous evening and told me to go over to the hospital to get checked in. She said they would probably give me a hard time since I wasn't feeling the contractions - and she said to just tell them I had a high tolerance for pain. I asked her what if they said no? She said they wouldn't. But then she had direct admittance orders written up for me so I wouldn't have to "talk them into" letting me stay. So, that was good.

We got to the hospital around 10:15 AM I think. The doctor came over and broke my water around 11:15 AM. I really wasn't feeling anything and they started pitocin around 1:45 PM. I didn't feel anything until around 4 PM. The contractions were still bearable for another 30-40 minutes though. Around 4:50 PM I was in some serious pain and had the nurse check me and I was 7-8 cm. I was getting somewhat upset though because I was convinced I wouldn't be ready to have the baby before the doctor left for the day (since she wasn't on-call that night). I asked the nurse how much longer she thought I had - she said probably half an hour to an hour. I also asked how likely it would be my doctor would deliver and she said she would most likely stick around to deliver me since I was so close. My contractions got extremely painful right at this point and within 10 minutes I was sure I had to push. Denice got the nurse and she checked me again and I was 10 cm! This was a 5 PM exactly. She had me push once, and could see the head so she called the doctor. The doctor got there 5 minutes later and I had one big long push with a short break after the head was out, and then she was born at 5:11! It hurt really badly, worse than my other two. It turns out I had torn pretty badly up the side - but I didn't have an episiotomy this time. The cord was also around her neck, which is why I had to stop pushing for a second after her head came out, so the doctor could unwrap the cord. She was very blue when she came out, but she cried a few seconds later.

The pediatrician came the next morning to check on her and he could tell the cord had been around her neck because she was blue! I thought that was interesting. He said she was more at risk for jaundice because of that - and she did get jaundice. Her tongue was also "shorter than he'd like to see" but she turned out not to have tongue-tie and she is gaining weight, so it's not a problem. We were released from the hospital Saturday evening. Hayden and Theo came to visit while we were at the hospital - and Brandon's mom kept them for a few days and then Brandon's dad and ex-stepmom kept them for a couple days. It was nice to have some time with just the baby!

I took her to the doctor Tuesday morning and she was down to 6 lbs 15 oz and had a jaundice level of 11.6. We took her back to the doctor Friday morning and she was up to 7 lbs 1 oz and her jaundice was down to 8.7. So everything is improving! She is so cute!

Here are some pictures: