The Labor Story

Four nights ago we welcomed our third, beautiful child, Brielle, into the world. Friday night I was having contractions quite regularly- about one minute  apart for several hours. We debated on going in or not. My contractions didn't seem too hard most of the time so I just wasn't sure. The thing that confused me the most was with Jaston I was having contractions about every 2 min for a few hours but they weren't painful and when we went in I progressed really quickly. We decided to wait it out and see if they continued or stopped. I attempted to go back to sleep. The next morning I was still having light contractions but not regularly. We decided to take advantage of a Saturday with Jeff not working and no baby to do some things we have been putting off- work on the yard and clean out the garage.
    We worked all morning on that and I started having some more contractions pretty regularly. We decided to just go in and get checked out. This baby has stressed me out SO much with when I should go in. You would think it being my third I would be over that by now but this is my first baby being away from family. It takes three hours for my family to make it here and my parents really didn't want to miss the birth. All of those I had lined up to watch the kids were out of town this week so I texted my sweet friend, Hillary and asked if she would mind watching my kids while we went in. Bless her heart she was over at my house in like ten minutes to pick up my kids and Jeff and I headed to the hospital not knowing if it was real or not.
     I was so worried that as soon as I got to the hospital the contractions would stop but when we got there they were still going. I heard that the people in the ER were allergic to pregnant people and would get you up to labor and delivery pretty quickly. They were right. Someone was down to wheel me up in like three minutes tops. They hooked me all up to the monitors, checked me- said I was at a 3 and about 60% effaced and they would check me again in an hour. So we waited... I texted my mom to let her know we were going in but not to leave yet cuz we didn't know if it was real or not. After the hour they checked me and I had progressed a tiny bit. She said I could either go home or wait a few more hours and see if anything progressed. I was having constant contractions but they just weren't big enough to really progress me. We decided to stay but the whole two hours I just was so stressed they were going to send me home and then I would just really struggle with when to come back. After the two hours they checked and said I still was pretty much the same. Right at the end of the two hours I was starting to get stronger contractions. The nurse said she would call the doc and let him know but she would guess he would just send me home. I was super disappointed. When she came back in she told us it was our lucky day, he was going to come in and check me and she started prepping me and giving me an IV and everything saying she had worked with him for ten years and if he was coming in he was going to break my water. Now I was panicking cuz this was really going to happen.
     Lo and behold he came in and broke my water. He does his own epidurals so I told him I was just fine with an epidural at any time. Little did I know they were going to push fluids into me pretty quick and give me my epidural. Within 15 min of breaking my water I had my epidural and life was much better. This was about 6PM we went in about 3:00. After about an hour they started the pitocin and that was when the contractions really started coming. My parents showed up abt 9:00 and when she checked me I was at about a 6 and fully effaced, the baby had dropped as well. My parents lied to us and told us Kelsi and Emil weren't coming but lo and behold abt an hour later Kelsi and Emil walked in. That was a fun surprise. Abt the time they came I started feeling some back pain and I was feeling super nauseous. Both weird symptoms since I had an epidural and she had already given me Zofran for my nausea. After about a half hour of them being there I started feeling extra nauseous and really shakey. The nurse came in and checked me and said I was about a 9 1/2 and it was just about time to push. That explained the pain, nausea, and shakiness. My body had progressed way quick from the 6-10 and it was just responding. About ten min later the doc came in, set everything up and said it's time to get this baby out. I started pushing about 11:00. It was so hard to push her out. I was exhausted and she just didn't want to come. But at 11:45 she decided to grace us with her presence and I  was instantly in love. They put her right up on me while they wiped her down and Jeff cut the cord. They weighed her - 6 lbs 7 oz and 19 inches long and then we got to do skin to skin. After just a few min i tried feeding her and she latched right on and was a champ feeder and still is. The doc was surprised how hard she made me work for a third baby.
       She then got to meet everyone else before they headed to bed ( She was born at 11:48 PM on 4-13-13). It was so neat to have some of my family there to meet her. We sure missed the rest of the family that wasnt there.
      The next morning the kids came to meet her. Skylee couldn't get enough of her and wanted to hold her  every second- she didn't want to give anyone else a chance. The minute Jaston walked into the room he wanted to play my phone and could care less abt me or the baby. Since then he has started to show more interest in her. I have been spoiled and my mom has been here with us all week and has helped with cleaning, helping with kids, and helping with the babies. So I don't feel like real life has hit yet. The real test of if I can handle three kids will happen when she leaves. That is when I will really see what I'm made of ;). Til then I'm soaking up my time with this sweet baby girl. I seriously could just hold and cuddle her all day long! She is so so sweet and really pretty chill. When she doesnt' like something she will let you know! She screams every time you change her diaper or is hungry but as soon as you are done changing her and warm her up and/or feed her she is a happy little camper. I sure love this sweet girl and cant believe she hasn't always been a part of our family. I def know she was meant to be in our family. It's always a surprise to me that I can love a child as much as my other children. I think our hearts just grow more and more with each child. I can't stand how much I love her. What a blessing to have her in our lifes. We love you Brielle Barbara Winger! Welcome to our family. Pics to follow