Well, it has been 3 weeks since Brynlee Rae joined our family. I should have blogged about this a long time ago. I am sure I have forgotten things already. I can't believe it's been 3 weeks already! Time sure does fly when you have an infant. I just hang on tight and hope I can keep up :) Right now I wanna make sure I get down all the details of my beautiful second daughters birth and you all are welcome to read along.
First off I should probably begin with a disclaimer: WARNING! I was NOT a pleasant person to be around during the last few (ok several) weeks of my pregnancy. As long as I am blogging the story I should probably be honest. In my defense I have spent the last 3 years expecting to "have a c-section or at the very least be induced early", in the words of the doctor I had with Hayden. THIS doctor had different ideas from the beginning. Needless to say, the closer my due date got the more of a...ehh hmmm...I became. I would trade off being scared, irritable, frustrated and out right infuriated. I also have to admit that I didn't act like the child of God that I am supposed to be a lot of the time. There were times when I was just plain upset with God toward the end. I knew there was no where in the Bible that said He would protect me from all the experiences that I had with my first delivery and that scared me to death. I was at the point where I didn't even pray about it because I didn't thing there was a point. If I tore, I tore; plain and simple. There was nothing I could do about it. But, blessed that I am, I had a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of people who were acting a lot more mature that me and were praying hard on my behalf. For all of you who prayed...I am truly thankful! I have since repented of my rotten attitude and know that God is in control no matter what.
Anyway, on to the fun part. During this pregnancy I always measured a couple weeks smaller than my due date and at the end I quit growing completely at 33cm. I also wasn't gaining weight the way the dr. thought I should (I thought I was gaining just fine!). So at 37 weeks I had an ultrasound. Turns out the baby was right on with my due date and weighed about 6lb 1oz. BUT...they told me they could be up to 14oz off in either direction. I am no dummy, I did the math. If she was 14oz bigger she could potentially be 8lb 7oz by my due date! And if she was smaller than they estimated she would still be well over 7lb by then. Believe me, I said as much to my doctor. I know she wasn't as small as everybody thought she was. And what did the doctor do...oh she's not that big. And besides, you are really close, you could go anytime on your own. RIIIIIIIGHT.
Well, I finally convinced her to induce me on April 10 (one of my 2 due dates they came up with. Either the 10 or 12). She almost put me off another day but with Kyle's encouragement I stood my ground. Which ended up being a good thing cuz they had 2 more babies born the next day. It was a full house around there! Kyle's mom came up Monday night before the scheduled induction to stay with Hayden and early Tuesday morning we headed out for the hospital in Le Mars. The dr. broke my water at 8am and I was really hoping that's all it would take. Unfortunately this stubborn girl had other ideas. At 1pm when nothing much had happened and I still hadn't made much progress they started me on pitocin. I started out with a very low dose and they uped it very slowly over the next couple of hours. I was planning on getting an epidural but I wanted to hold out on that as long as I could to make sure my labor didn't slow down. Kyle was actually having a harder time with it than me I think :) He kept trying to convince me to get the epidural. I assured him I was fine and the pain actually reminded me that this was actually happening and things were progressing. I had been feeling contractions for months and had one instance where I was sure I was going into labor and then didn't. I was so frustrated and was just glad to finally be having this baby!
About 3 or so I finally got the epidural. By that point the pitocin was definitely doing it's job and things were getting intense really fast. Plus the nurse convinced me that there was no chance of my labor slowing down since I had the pitocin. Finally able to relax a little I settled in for what I hoped wouldn't be too long of a wait. The dr. came and checked me about 5pm and I was at about 5 cm and the nurse said usually you progress about 1cm per hour. So hopefully by about 9 or 10 we should have a baby! At 8pm they checked me again and I was 6cm. Talk about disappointing! I was about ready to cry. What is wrong with this kid?? Why doesn't she want to come out?? The nurses tried calming me down and assured me the last half goes much quicker than the first. Thankfully she was right and when they checked me again at 8:30 I was almost complete :) At 9pm I gave a little practice push to help the last little "lip" as the dr called it and I was fully effaced and 10 cm dilated. A few minutes later I started pushing.
I should mention that this labor experience was COMPLETELY different than with Hayden. With Hayden I went into labor naturally and all they had to do to get my labor progressing quicker was brake my water. I also had the epidural of all epidurals and didn't feel a single thing until well after I delivered. When it was time to push the nurses had to tell me when I was having a contraction so I would know when to push. I couldn't feel any of it. It was wonderful! I wish it was like that this time too! Not so much...I wasn't in a lot of pain at first but I could definitely tell when I was having a contraction. And when it came time to push...not fun. Definitely felt that too. I can't imagine going through all of that without drugs. More power to all you ladies that do it. It's just not for me.
So like I said, I felt that urge to push that everybody talk about. Things went pretty well and I was tolerating the pain ok until right at the very end. They kept telling me just a little more. And the dr. had the nerve tell me she had a big head!! Seriously!!! Not what I wanna hear right now!!!! That's when things started get crazy. Her shoulders got stuck (didn't know that at the time) and all I could see was the dr looking like she was pushing her straight down as hard as she could. I have never had anything hurt that bad in my life. I about climbed out the back of the bed. I wanted to say DON"T LET ME TEAR! but the only thing I could manage was "ow, ow, ow" over and over again. (That is the understatement of the century btw, I am just not much of a screamer or crier so I said ow instead). Thank the Lord she wasn't stuck too bad and it was over relatively quick.
At 9:31pm Brynlee Rae FINALLY decided to grace us with her presence :) It took the dr just a couple of minutes to stitch up my ONE second degree tear (not four third degree like last time) and then I was holding my beautiful 8lb 5oz, 19 in long baby girl. If I wasn't so preoccupied I probably would have said "I told you so!" I was even gracious later on when the dr was wondering where I "put it all" and just smiled.
Well, in spite of my attitude, struggles with trusting God, fear of this delivery and tearing in the end...it was a MUCH better experience than last time. Now, three weeks later, I am doing really well and am light years beyond where I was at this time with Hayden. In spite of the tear and my attitude, God has helped me heal well and I am very optimistic that the rest of the healing process won't be stretched out over the next 6 months.
(Sorry, not sure why the pictures all went here. And I can't figure out how to turn them either.)
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Brynlee Rae Oswald
8lb 5oz, 19" long
Born at 9:31pm, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 |
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| Brynlee and momma right after she was born |
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| Brynlee and daddy minutes after birth |
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| Hayden seeing her sister for the first time :) |
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| Sisters!! |
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| Brynlee at 1 week old |
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| 3 weeks old today! |
At three weeks, Brynlee is doing great! At her 2 week appointment she has surpassed her birth weight and was 8lb 6oz and had grown 1/4". I am nursing and doing really well with it. She doesn't have much of a schedule to speak of...sometimes she'll eat after 2 1/2 hrs and sometimes at night she'll go 5. But, she isn't even a month yet and still sleeps ALL the time so I am hoping that a schedule will come soon :) She is a really good sleeper and only wakes me up about twice during the night and than goes right back to sleep again. She has a long period of about an hour or more in the morning where she's awake and again in the evenings. It's kinda interesting because she had about the same schedule in the womb too :) I try to give her a bottle a couple times a week just so she's used to it and she takes it really well. Maybe Kyle and I will get a date night soon! Brynlee does not like to be put in her car seat but calms right down once we get going. I am hoping it stays that way! Right now she sleeps in many different positions. I have her on the boppy in the bassinet at night (she didn't like the bassinet so much when we first tried it), and throughout the day she sleeps on her back or side in her crib and on her tummy on the floor. Sometimes I'll put her on her back on the couch too. I am hoping not to get her too dependent on any one place or position. We'll see how my plan goes :) When she's awake she is very alert and likes to look around at everything and seems to listen very carefully too. She likes when people talk to her.
Hayden has done very well with her new sister. She was so excited to meet her. When she came to the hospital to meet her for the first time she made a beeline straight for Brynlee and wanted to hold her right away. She kept telling everybody, "that's my baby sister". It was the sweetest thing :) Even now at home she loves to help with everything from bath time to diaper changes. Sometimes she can be too much "help" but I am glad she love her sister. Never having a sister of my own I am hoping these two are best friends throughout their lives. Sisters are special things :)
