Our Growing Bubble: Brygit is here!

Brygit Mae has arrived! If you are easily grossed out or just plain don't want to hear all the details of her birth then just know she was born February 12 at 12:55 pm and she weighed 8 pounds 1 oz and was 20 inches long. For those of you who dare to venture forth I'm going to share her incredible birth story. It was absolutely beautiful and amazingly painful.

I put Liam to bed on Saturday night then went to my room. I had outrageous heartburn that wouldn't go away but that wasn't anything new. The only thing that was strange about it was that I had just told Paul how much better my heartburn had gotten since the baby "dropped." So we stayed up to watch TV since the thought of laying down literally made me sick. When Paul was ready to go to bed I told him how awful I felt then I ran to the bathroom and threw up. This, again, has happened before but this time it didn't make me feel better. I started having stronger contractions (mind you I had been having them for 8 days at this point), I felt horribly nauseous and I was acting like I had a bad case of food poisoning. After spending a couple of hours this way I called labor and delivery and they told me that it sounded like I had this flu that has been going around and that my contractions were likely due to dehydration. I decided to go in anyway when it started to feel like Brygit stopped moving as much and after I threw up my one sip of Sprite and half a saltine.

When we got to the hospital the nurse that checked me in was the one I spoke to on the phone. She was really nice but was sticking to her "flu" theory. She checked my cervix at about 3:30 am and I was at 1.5 cm. She hooked me up to an IV and started monitoring Brygit. That's all I really wanted. But then an angel walked through the door. She was holding a syringe full of nausea medication to make me stop throwing up and she looked at my chart and told me my contractions were actually becoming pretty regular. She checked my cervix again at 4:25 am and I was now at a 3. She unhooked my IV and asked if I felt good enough to walk. I actually did by this time so Paul and I roamed the hall for an hour ducking into our room every now and then for a sip of water she snuck me. See, an angel. She checked me again and I was at a 4, almost 5. She told me that since I was progressing so quickly on my own I could be monitored in 20 minute increments then I could have free reign to do as I pleased. I was so happy things were going smoothly. But then they checked my vitals and my heart rate was a little high and so was Brygit's so I had to stay on the monitors a little longer. Then the shift changed and my new evil nurse told me I wouldn't be getting out of bed until I delivered. At that point her reasoning was that my doctor was busy doing c-sections so I needed to stop progressing for fear of delivering without her. I didn't really like that reason but then nurses kept running into my room telling me how to lay and sit because whenever I would move Brygit's heart rate would drop. We watched it happen on the monitor over and over again so I was trying to hold still but I was just too uncomfortable. My doctor got out of surgery and came to see me. I was 5 cm and she broke my water at about 9am. Now I was uncomfortable and leaking buckets of fluid everywhere. I kept going to the bathroom just to get a break from the bed and attempt to let the fluid all drain out. I guess this is where things get gross. At one point I was apologizing to the nurse who had to mop the floor in my room and later on Paul nearly fell from slipping on amniotic fluid. It was seriously everywhere.

Anyway, I wasn't feeling very strong contractions and I was starting to worry about progressing without pitocin. A little while later super strong contractions hit me out of nowhere. They started getting very intense very fast until a half hour later I started telling my nurse to call for an epidural. She came in holding a bag of the dreaded pitocin but immediately set it aside after seeing my crazy contractions. The anesthesiologist was on call so she took about a half hour to get there. I told her how much I loved her then she proceeded to put the catheter in my spine. Before she could put medicine in it I started shaking uncontrollably and my body started pushing. People explain the sensation as a strong urge to push. I would say it's more of an impossibility to not push. I wasn't pushing. My body was. And I was doing everything I could to stop it. I started yelling, "The baby is coming out!" and everyone started running around the room. The nurses called for the doctor, made me lay on my side, then started discussing which one of them was going to deliver my baby. The anesthesiologist gave me my medicine then apologized for the fact that it wasn't going to get to me quick enough. I held on to the side of the bed and screamed (something which I was proud to say I never did in either of my deliveries thus far). Finally the doctor was there, I pushed 4 times and I met my little girl...then my epidural kicked in. It was an hour from the start of my painful contractions to the time she was born. So I got what I wanted. A pitocin-free, semi-epidural-free birth even though it wasn't what I really wanted in the moment.

They put my messy baby girl on my chest and I started sobbing. It was the most amazing moment and I just kept saying, "oh my God! Oh my God!" Then every now and again for the rest of the day I would get teary eyed just remembering that moment. Everyone (even the nurses) was on a high. I was up all night staring at my sleeping baby and husband on such an adrenaline rush.