Brooklyn's Birth Story

I have to back up to my due date to begin baby Brooklyn's story. I was taking a felting class downtown with my Mom, relieving some stress and distracting myself from the fact that I was probably going to give birth past my due date. I used the restroom at the shop, came back and sat down, and began felting my sheep again when IT happened. As I sat down I felt a little pop and I was sure my water was broken. My mom went to get the car, John was waiting for me when we got home, and we were on our way to the hospital. Turns out it was a false alarm (which also happened with Josiah...ugh!) and we were on our way home a couple hours later.

I ended up having to be induced a week after my due date, on Monday morning, February 27th, 2012. We called at 6:00 a.m. after not sleeping much the night before, and they told me to call back at 7:15. We did and they had a bed for us, so we raced out the door again. We had to wait a little while before they got us a room, but by 11:00 a.m. we had my labs completed, an IV in place, and a plan to get baby out! They started by inserting a cervical ripening agent called Cervadel, which takes 12 hours to do its very important job of preparing my body in hours what usually takes weeks. An hour later I was regularly contracting at 3-4 minutes apart, and growing stronger and closer together soon thereafter. My nurse told me I was an overachiever and that it was uncommon that my body react so quickly and consistently. I gave all the glory to God and could feel that John, myself, and baby were all covered in prayer.

We spent the next hours laboring and visiting with my parents, who brought Josiah up to see me. John went to get dinner with them at the cafeteria and in the meantime the pain was becoming really intense and I asked for something to take the edge off. As soon as the family came back in the room, so did the narcotic. It was minutes after they gave me the medicine and it was night night for me for a few hours. I remember waking up and trying to stay conscious to watch "The Bachelor" on tv...haha.

Then came the hardest part of the labor. The meds wore off and I was laboring from 10-12 midnight with intense, 2-minute apart contractions until they allowed me to get my epidural.

After that, it was smooth sailing. John and I were both able to catnap until a little after 4 a.m. when my nurse came in to check out the progress I was making. She asked if I felt pressure, which I did, and rolled me over on my back and told me not to cough or sneeze because the baby would come out. She was right there and, after the midwife came in to deliver, asked me to push during my next contraction. Three easy pushes during the one contraction and out came our beautiful baby girl, to forever change our lives. I laughed and cried at the same time, looked at John who had watery eyes and beaming with a smile from ear to ear. They laid her on my belly and I'll never forget that feeling. We are so blessed to be a mommy and daddy a second time to a baby girl, and to have 2 healthy kids. Welcome to the world, Brooklyn Dawn!