Brooklyn's birth

I’m finding it hard to get a free moment these days and when I do blogging is the last thing on my mind. Usually when I get a little free time I use it cleaning, showering, working on Geopak orders or trying to catch a few needed z’s. Hate to admit it but I usually choose the naps because this precious baby angel of ours is not the greatest sleeper these days.

Here’s the story of our Brooklyn’s arrival:

*Warning: I tend to tell stories in great detail and wrote this for my records and didn’t feel like shortening it for the blog, so this is REALLY long… feel free to skip it entirely. There are pictures at the bottom.

Dec 21st: I had an appointment with Dr. Horsley right before we headed out of town for Christmas. I had told him at an earlier appointment that I wanted to go down to Utah County for about a week for Christmas so he wanted to see me right before to make sure I wasn’t too dilated. I was dilated to a 3 with Aubrey for a MONTH and she STILL came 2 days late! I was also dilated to a 2 a month before Carlee was born. I have never prayed that I would NOT be dilated until now. I really wanted to spend Christmas down with our families and I knew that Dr. Horsley would be a little concern with me going away for that long if I was dilated, although I knew that I had nothing to worry about because of my past pregnancy history. He checks me and I had an answer to prayers, I was only a fingertip dilated! I kept telling him “I NEVER go into labor early” so there was nothing to worry about; I wasn’t due until Jan. 14th. We tried to schedule an appointment for the next week and that wasn’t going smoothly. Nate and I wanted to stay in Utah County until the 30th because had plans to go to Anniversary Inn on the 29th and we were leaving the girls with his parents. To come all the way back to Logan for an appointment and then back down to drop off the girls would be a lot of driving. He was going to be out of the office on the 31st thru the rest of the weekend, so we scheduled an appointment for two weeks later on Jan. 4th. Just a funny side note: When we told Dr. Horsley we were going to Anniversary Inn he said, “Wow, you really want to have the baby down there don’t you?” Then when he said goodbye to us he said, “Have fun! (then looks at Nate), But not too much fun, don’t go putting her into labor.” : ) Nate was a little embarrassed, but it was quite funny. We headed off to Highland right after the appointment.

Dec. 22nd: Nate woke up early and left with his parents and brother to the Vegas Bowl. He had the flu the night before and was still feeling sick on the drive down there, but had a great time.

Dec.23rd-28th: We had a great Christmas and really enjoying having Nate all to ourselves, this was the first time since we’ve been married he had a job that allowed him to take this much time off. We LOVED every minute with family. The girls enjoyed their gifts (Silly Santa forgot a present or two in Logan) and time with cousins. We built gingerbread houses, attended family parties and played games! BUT… remember that flu Nate had? The girl had it a week before we left and we thought we were in the clear until Nate got it, then I got it a couple nights later, THEN both of our family starting falling to the flu one. by. one. There were sick people everywhere. Sorry to our wonderful families that we brought this terrible flu with us. It will definitely be a Christmas to remember.

Dec. 29th-30th: Nate and I got to have a much need night to ourselves before the baby came at Anniversary Inn! My sister calls this a “babymoon” and I highly recommend it since you don’t have a whole lot of free time after the baby comes. I highly recommend Anniversary Inn too, we loved it!

Dec. 31st- Jan 3rd: Since I didn’t have a doctors appointment until the 4th and I was feeling good, we decided to stay in Utah County through the new year. Played more games, saw a couple movies, and enjoyed all these free time with our family.

Monday Jan. 4th: I had my doctor’s appointment at 9am. Nate started a new semester on the 11th and so we were leaning more toward having an induction before the baby came so I asked the doctor about it. He said after he does my exam that we’ll see if my cervix is ready. The exam went well, a little bit painful, but well. I was at my usual 3cm; he stripped my membranes and said I was already bleeding a little up by my cervix. In fact he said, “After this exam you might be bleeding even more so you better put ‘this’ on”, and passed me a pad. We scheduled an induction for Friday the 8th but he said he wouldn’t be surprised to see me before then. I begin to tell him again about how I doubt that because I’m usually at 3cm for a while before giving birth and have had my membranes stripped many times with Aubrey and Carlee and it did nothing. I went home and told Nate about my appointment and induction and we discussed everything we needed to get done before Brooklyn arrived in the next 4 days…

1. Take Christmas decorations and tree down.
2. Unpack
3. Lots. Of. Laundry!
4. Repack clothes for the girls to go down to my parents when I’m in the hospital.
5. Pack for the hospital
6. Shop for a small dresser for the baby
7. Organize baby clothes
8. Clean the fridge (after you’re gone for 2 weeks, a lot of food goes bad)
9. Pull out the bassinet & car seat
10. Grocery shop

We immediately headed out to go shopping and run a few other errands. As always after an exam I felt crampy, but was feeling fine to run errands. We got back in time for nap time and I couldn’t resist getting a little shut eye myself… it felt heavenly. We had invited Nate’s brother Matt and his wife and son, Kenzie and Brayden over for dinner and the Boise St/TCU game. By this time I was still just really crampy and tired, although my braxton hicks WERE coming more frequently and I was passing… graphic I know… some bloody mucus. I was starting to feel more and more icky as the evening passed. I was eager to take a hot bath after our company left and we put the girls to bed, which I did. I felt so relaxed in the bath that I had to get out before I fell asleep. Not a minute passed after I got out, that my braxton hicks contractions started up again. I realized that these “braxton hicks” were a little more intense then normal and told Nate that the doctor might be right and that I might go into labor before Friday, maybe in a couple days. I went to bed while Nate was finishing up his post game show. I woke up to more of what I thought were braxton hicks and realized that Nate wasn’t in bed and must have fallen asleep in front of the TV (a normal thing for Nate). Nate came in right then and I could have sworn it was 2am, and after looking at the clock it was only midnight, just the beginning of my long night!

After 40 minutes, I could not relax due to regular contractions and got up to take FOUR Tylenol in hopes that it would lessen my pain enough to fall asleep. I know it sounds crazy but after having 2 kids that weren’t even close to coming early I still didn’t believe I was going to have this baby soon. I was sure they were going to go away. After another hour passed and the pain was worse I went out to the living room and turned on the TV. Again this was an act of denial because I was sure that TV would take my mind off the pain, especially because I had a few of my favorite shows recorded. I was even hopeful I’d fall asleep out there!

2:30am: After a half an hour of TV I was in more pain, so much that it was ruining my TV viewing experience! I decided to then take another bath because it helped me relax earlier. I was so desperate for sleep and the pain of the contractions to go away that I was even hopeful that I would fall asleep in the tub. Not a smart idea, to want to sleep in the tub, but I was so tired and uncomfortable everywhere else.

3:20am: The bath did NOT help like I wanted it too and I was just NOW giving into the fact that I was in labor. I’m someone that worries about inconveniencing people so I didn’t want to call anyone to wake them up. My sweet husband was concerned all night and I just kept telling him, I’m in pain, but I’m going to wait a while longer. I laid back in bed.

4am: The contractions were very regular coming every 3 minutes and lasting about 45 seconds each. I thought if I could get through 20 contractions it would be 5 o’clock and maybe I would feel comfortable to call somebody then. That was a really long hour of me sitting up, laying back down, rocking myself on my hands and knees, and counting myself through each contraction trying to remember to breath.

5am: Grabbed my phone and started a text to my mom, but was afraid to send it. The beeping of the phone woke Nate and he said he thinks we need to go in because I’ve been laboring all night. I agreed, but it still took me a couple minutes to send the text. Nate was up getting dressed and I realized we had to pack for both the girls and us AND I had only put one load of laundry in the wash and it was still in the washer. Fantastic. In fact the only thing we got done on our list was shopping, and unpacking. This early labor was so unexpected and we were so unprepared. We started gathering what we could to pack. I finally called my parents house phone at 5:30 because the text wasn’t loud enough to wake them up. My sweet mom didn’t even sound a bit like I just woke her up, she was ready to help and concerned about me. I had maintained my emotions to all of this pretty well until my mom asked me how I was feeling. I can’t hide that from my mom. It’s my mommy and I was hurting and mommies know how to make everything better even at age 25.

Now that my parents were on their way, we just needed to call Matt and Kenzie to see if one of them could come sleep at our house with the girls until my parents came. We waited to do this until last minute because we didn’t want to wake them and have them come over just to watch us finish packing. As luck would have it, we couldn’t get a hold of them. Both of their phones were in the kitchen and weren’t loud enough to wake them up. We tried a few more times and finally decided to text my sweet friend and neighbor Brittany. She answered right away and said she was heading over. She was our lifesaver! Thanks again Brittany! I was hesitant to bug her because she had just had a baby herself 2 month earlier, but I knew that she was someone I could count on and is always so willing to help everyone. Lucky for us she was up feeding her baby at the time and heard her phone!

6:03am: We headed to the hospital. I knew it was 6:03 because I had a contraction right when we got in the car and then again at 6:06, 09, 12, 15 and 6:18 as we were pulling up to the hospital. After all I had been through I still was afraid they would send me home. I had to answer some questions for a sweet lady at a window before walking into the labor and delivery area. Poor lady was not really treated so nicely by me. Well, I was nice, but not really wanting to answer questions while having contractions. They sent me to room #4 and had me get changed into a gown. That take’s quite a while when your contracting.

6:30am: They started with more questions and had a nurse come check my cervix. I was at a 4½ and since they had record that I was at a three earlier, I was going to stay. Then we had more questions to answer and papers to fill out and sign. I was having a hard time with the questions and had Nate fill out all he could on the papers because I was really in a lot of pain. I got my IV which was nothing compared to the contractions that were starting to get me to the point of tears. They had already told me the anesthesiologist would come in to give me my epidural before a scheduled c-section (with my doctor actually) he had at 7:30. I could hardly wait for that blessed epidural. This was a really hard hour of me.

7:25am: The anesthesiologist waited until the last minute… thank you. I was beginning to get worried that he wouldn’t get there in time and I’d have to wait until after the c-section he was scheduled to be at. I was so happy to see him walk in. He started setting up and they had me sit up and lean on Nate. I had a couple contractions in this position and I remember trying not to cry while whispering to Nate that I didn’t think I could do this anymore. I had a contraction during the first poke in the spine and having another pain to concentrate on actually helped me. In fact I was in so much pain during contractions that when I had the next one and he wasn’t shoving a needle in my back, I was ready to plead for him to stick me with one so I had something else to focus on. He was working on my epidural during the next contraction and then he was done. It didn’t take long for it to start working and I was all smiles after that!

7:30am: Dr. Horsely was waiting there for the anesthesiologist to finish so he could break my water before he went into the c-section. As he started to check me, he told the nurse that he wasn’t going to break my water after all. He then told me I was at an eight, an EIGHT! He was afraid he wouldn't be out of the c-section to delivery me if he broke my water. Now that I was flying on the wings of an epidural I was fine with him waiting. I now know why that last hour was so horrible, I went from a 4 to an 8. If I would have know I went to an 8 without an epidural, I might have considered to try delivering without it. That's a very big might.

9:30am: Dr. Horsley broke my water.

10am: Nurse checked me and I was at a 10 and she called for Dr. Horsley down in his office. People started coming in and out getting everything ready. Pushed through one contraction…

10:27am: Brooklyn Lori Rowley was born! Dimpled chin and blue eyes just like her sisters! We feel so blessed that she picked us as her family. She’s a sweet baby and only really cries if she is hungry and sometimes when she’s tired. We have had a little bit of a struggle with nursing and sleeping, but hopefully that will work itself out in time.

My girls were blessed with the best daddy.

We had a few nights with Brooklyn under bili-rubin lights. To our pleasant surprise, she actually relaxed in there. I think it had something to do with the noisy and warm space heater we had on so she would stay warm.