The story...

Here is as much of the story as I can remember. Mostly for my own benefit but you can read if you want.......

The Birth of Brynlee Claire Bowdoin

James and I spent Monday going to wal-mart, running errands, and seeing "UP" in 3-D. At about 4:30pm we picked up my mom and went to Subway for dinner. After eating at about 5:30pm we went into the hospital. By 7pm they had broke my water and started me on an IV and my induction medication.

I had always been told that if you are going to get an epidural, don't wait. I was told that a lot of women will wait till they are in as much pain as they can Handel and then they ask for it and by the time they actually get it they are in too much pain or it's too late to get one. So I was told that I could have an epidural at any time, from the time I got there if I wanted. I decided that I wanted to be able to appreciate the epidural but was not going to wait till I was in a lot of pain to ask for it. I got to the point where I was about as uncomfortable as I WANTED to be and decided that because I have always been told it takes the anaesthesiologist forever to get there I would ask. That way by the time he got there I wouldn't be in more pain than I could handle. So I asked and almost instantly he was there I had my epidural in moments. Then for several hours nothing really happened...

It took what seemed like forever to get from a 2 to a 5 but once I was a 5 I progressed at about 1cm per hour till I was at an 8. In the next hour I had progressed to a 10. When they checked me at an 8 the baby was looking the wrong way. So they spent 30-40 mins turning me on my side to get her to look the right way. She did about a 90 degree turn and then I was placed in a position to push which relived A LOT of pain, because she had been facing the wrong way and the epidural was slowly wearing off I was in quite a bit of pain.

Once placed in a position to push (I say placed because I couldn't feel my legs) the pain for the most part subsided. I pushed for 30-45 mins (approx 6-8 contractions) after she had crowned her vitals started to get too low and weren't coming back up. The Dr said "We need to get this baby out!" so without a contraction and with an apeaseotomy I pushed. The Dr. got her head out and removed the cord from around her neck. I pushed one more time and she was out. She cried just a little. She has been a very good baby!

Healing for me has gone well. We are on day 5 and I am in a lot less pain and things have become manageable. Brynlee is a happy healthy hungry little girl.

Our next adventure: Introducing Cowgirl!