brecken rose reece: a birth story

first of all...happy DUE DATE baby girl! i am SO glad we are on this side of things....as opposed to you still being in my belly....ugh.

it's been ONE WEEK since our little one joined us! perfect time to write down her birth story. these can get long and somewhat detailed so if you aren't into that......stop now.

it was monday, the 22nd. i had a doctors appointment and i had been dilated to a 3 for a few weeks now. i wasn't expecting much. came in with low expectations. expecting to be at a 3 still and life would go on. i would make my next weekly appointment.

so we went through the usual routine. weight, blood pressure, etc etc. doc comes in and finds baby's heart beat, then he checks me...."you're at about a 3 plus...probably more of a 4." at this point i'm thinkin....strip those membranes, oldroyd (that's my doc's name) lets get things moving! but he didn't. he walked over to his chart to write down whatever it is they write down....and i thought welp...see you next week, i guess. then he turns around and says the most magical words to an almost full term pregnant lady..... "would you like to be induced this week?"

ummmm.....YES!!! so he asked me if i preferred wednesday or thursday. i chose thursday because it fit our schedules better. so he called the hospital and scheduled it, and told me to be there by 6:30 so we could get the penicillin in me before inducing labor (i had the strep B virus so they needed to get rid of that before baby came).

i was thrilled!! so all week i start packing bags, cleaning the house, and prepping for baby girls' arrival. wednesday night rolls around...it had been an emotional day for me. i was excited to have this baby, but sad that it wouldn't be just grant and i anymore. norman came home from school and we were both wiped out, so we headed to bed around 10.

as i am sleeping, 12:45 am rolls around and i am woken up by what feels like peeing my pants a little bit.... so i wake up and not being all the way there, i wonder if i just peed, or if my water is breaking. i wait for a minute....nothing else happened, so i rolled over to go to sleep....and more came out. so i thought hmm....i should go to the bathroom just to rule out the whole "peeing the pants" thing. as i stood up...more came out. then i kinda knew that it was my water breaking. i went to the bathroom.....got a little bit cleaned up and as i'm walking back into the bedroom to get norman, i find him standing in the hallway headed to the bathroom himself... seeing my state (no pants on.....), i answer his question he hasn't asked by saying "i think my water is breaking...." he pauses, rubs his eyes, still half asleep and says, ".................what?" 

we decide to go to the hospital. we laughed because this happened with grant.... my doctor set a date for me to be induced and i went into labor the day before. this time... i went into labor the night before.... apparently i just need an inducement date and my body kicks into gear.

so we called normans sister to come be at the apartment with grant and we head to the hospital. we get there... get checked in, i hadn't been having any contractions that i could feel, and they checked me and i was at a 4. they started me on the penicillin and said we had to wait 4 hours for it to finish to start me on my second one, and at that point they could do some things to speed up my labor.

so they got me on the penicillin at 3 am and we had to wait til 7. my mom headed over to hang out with us and we talked for a bit, then all of us took a little nap. i woke up around 6:15 and started having some harder contractions but nothing terribly unbearable. my nurse kept asking me if i needed an epidural yet and i said no....cause it didn't hurt yet. (in retrospect i don't know why i didn't just get the epidural.....) finally...my nurse asks me again around 6:45 and at that point my contractions had started to pick up and i was dilated to a 6.5. so i said yes.....the anesthesiologist came in around 6:55 and at this point my contractions are getting haaaaaaard and frequent. i couldn't even focus on all the things the doctor was telling me about epidurals ...i just wanted him to get it going! 

they finally get the epidural in me by around 7:15 maybe??? and i lay back down....feeling my feet start to go numb but the contractions are still in full force. this is when things start to get a bit blurry for me. basically.... my epidural was working everywhere except for where i needed it to. it was working in my legs, and a little in my back, and a little in my downstairs region....but absolutely NOTHING in my uterus. they kept asking me "are the contractions ANY better than before you got the epidural???" the answer was no every time. if anything they were getting worse. it was sooooo incredibly painful. i started holding my breath through them...so the nurse threw an oxygen mask on me and kept saying "I need you to breath for your baby, morgan....keep breathing" while norman was on my other side holding my hand and comforting me telling me i was tough, that i could do this.

i was in so much pain.....i remember thinking i should've read something about how to cope with labor naturally...i always planned on an epidural so i have no idea how to deal with this pain. they called the anesthesiologist to come back, it was a new guy and he was trying to give me more drugs to help....it didn't help. i remember thinking these drugs are going to work eventually....pleeeeeeeease work. and at around that point norman leaned into my ear and i don't remember what he said, but he knew that the epidural wasn't going to work by the time this baby came. he said something to the affect of this baby is coming, and you gotta do this for us...you can do this. that's when it clicked for me. and i finally had the conscious thought.....this epidural isn't going to work...i got this. lets do this. lets get this baby out. around this time my doctor had arrived and came in to check me ... this was probably around 7:45? i have no idea.... it felt like i was in my own world. like this big bubble around me and everyone talking seemed so far away. all i remember is my doctor checking me and saying "oh, yeah...she's complete...i'm going to go change." he left and i said "what???? what does that mean??" so the nurses said, you're having this baby, we just have to wait for doctor oldroyd to get back and then you can start pushing. 

so. much. pressure. i seriously kept asking is he here yet???? is oldroyd back yet??? it felt like foooooooorrrrrreeeeevvver. there was so much pressure and i really wanted to push. he finally got there and i started pushing. it was such a relief. the contractions don't hurt near as bad when you're pushing through them. i probably pushed for 10 minutes? (at least ...that's what the nurse told me...time was so skewed for me). and then she was out! and at first i didn't even know she was here! i was so focused on getting her out, that i didn't even realize for a second that she WAS out. and i didn't hear her cry. i heard the doctor say we have a double something something something---insert doctor terms i don't know. i looked down and he was unwinding the umbilical chord from her neck. and she was really purple. so i kept asking is she ok??? is she ok? they all assured me that she was as they started sucking the stuff out of her mouth and nose. they handed the scissors to norman to cut the chord and right when he did she let out her first cry. :)

they set her on my stomach and i have never felt more relieved in my life. she was finally here and the pain was gone. 

they weighed and measured her while i got put back together.... i finally took my oxygen mask off (which i had accidentally tied into my hair when quickly putting my hair up during labor) and they handed her to me. she was perfect. that newborn feeling is the best. the spirit is always so strong and the peace is overwhelming. 

right away she was ready to eat. so we nursed and she was a natural. perfect latch. (thank you for that, b). honestly, she has been the BEST baby ever. i finally understand why some people have said they love the newborn stage. because if all my kids are like brecken....i would have 70. she nurses effortlessly, sleeps like a champ, never cries, in fact, i have to wake HER up at night to feed her. she is kind of the best ever. (grant was a whole different ball game....ugh).

So even though everything didn't necessarily go as planned..... epidural not working, and you possibly dislocating my tailbone during labor........here we are, brecken, on your due date...feeling a little more complete now that you are a part of our family. 

brecken rose reece

February 25, 2016
8:08 a.m.
7 lbs 1 oz
19.5 inches long