FINALLY, we got our little girl here! 9 days after her due date she finally made her appearance. I went to the hospital Thursday April 14 arriving around 4:30pm. I was admitted and the process of getting baby here began. My body was not wanting to cooperate and my cervix was no where near ready to allow this baby out of her comfy home. So began the ripening process. Baby was doing her usual evening strength training exercises and got her heart rate up pretty high, up to 170-180bpm, enough to make the nurses nervous. So they began the IV fluids in
hopes of settling her heart rate down. I wasn't concerned as her movements were normal, at least as I've been experiencing them for the last few months. Normally she's not being monitored when she does them. She is a vigorous exerciser. No rest for the weary with the nurses coming in and out trying to get baby to calm down. Three doses of cytotec and 16 hours later I was finally ready enough to start on the pitocin, dilated near a 3 and mostly thinned out, not to mention already exhausted from a sleepless night and mild to moderate contractions.
Pitocin started at about 8:30am April 15. I did fairly well dealing with contractions through the cytotec and through most of the pitocin. I thought to myself for one brief moment that maybe I could have this baby without getting an epidural. Who was I kidding. After ramping up the pitocin to help things move along even more, by 11:30am I was done. The tears were starting to stream down my cheeks as the pain was pretty intense. I said enough! It was time for my epidural. Hooray for modern medicine! Anesthesiologist was called, epidural given, and all was well in Zion, or at least labor and delivery.
About 12:45pm I was checked again and at 6cm. My nurse reminded me that if I felt any pressure or change to call her as I'd told her Sadie came quickly as I went from 7cm to 10cm within 15 minutes. This time was no exception. Maybe 10 minutes later I pushed the nurse button and before the desk could answer my nurse was flying through the door. Sure enough I was at 10cm and it was time to have this baby!My doctor was called, she came in a got ready, Eric got ready as he was wanting to deliver this little one. I wanting this historic moment filmed, Daddy delivering his first baby and his own at that, but we didn't have anyone to do it...so I filmed the delivery while pushing. Crazy I know, but I did. :) Luckily for me it took less than 5 minutes of pushing to get our new little one here.
Daddy did a great job, so good that I required no additional care post delivery. Baby arrived at 1:21pm on April 15 weighing in at 8 pounds 10.6 ounces and 21 inches long. I think they said her head measured at 14 inches but who really keeps track of that besides the doctors anyway.I held our new little one in my arms and gazed at her beautiful face and full head of hair.
I had been quite concerned about coming up with a name for her. I really didn't have a list of favorites. I had a list but didn't have any particular name that floated to the top. Eric had a list narrowed down to four names. I had prayed more than once that we'd be able to find a name for this little girl and quickly. As I looked at her bright eyes I hear a voice in my head say "Bree. Her name is Bree" and with that she was named. I wanted her to have a middle name and we didn't have one picked yet. As the night went on the name Justine seemed to flow really well with Bree and I'd always liked that name. I ran it by Eric and he agreed. So we had our new little baby girl named Bree Justine. Prayers were answered and I was grateful for the prompting and gift of the Holy Ghost in my life.
Brooklyn immediately fell in love with Bree and has been busy helping out. She keeps the changing stations well stocked, helps feed her the bottle, talks to her, gives lots of kisses and hugs. She's a good big sister.
Sadie has taken a little longer to warm up. Once we got Bree home Sadie was really interested in adding hairbows and putting on cute little baby shoes. Sadie loves her "footies" and plays pat-a-cake with them as often as she can. Now that Bree's been here for a few weeks Sadie asks to hold her on occasion but always gives her kisses and hugs. She's quite interested in how she eats and loves to help gather up the dirty clothes and rearrange the clothes on the changing table. I think she's adapting to the role of big sister very well.
Now seven months later, I finally update my blog. Bree is army crawling, crawling, and pulling herself up to stand every chance she gets. She's a very determined little girl with lots of things to do. I love all her hair. It's about 4 inches long on top, and only the top, and getting to be an inch or so long everywhere else. She's got lots of hair. I love my girls, all three of them!
