Brooklyn's Birth Story

Brooklyn's Birth Story begins with Sunday, July 31st

Mommy slept in until it was time to get ready, have a quick lunch at home and then head to a movie with her friends, Sam and Jen. We saw "The Smurfs" and Mommy was very uncomfortable the whole movie, shifting in her seat and trying to keep her feet elevated. After the moving Mommy ran to Babies R Us to buy four boxes of diapers (they were having a sale, and getting these diapers made us finally feel "ready" for Brooklyn to arrive). By the time Mommy got home, it was time to start thinking about what we were going to have for dinner, but Mommy was too uncomfortable, and Daddy was too tired (he had been having very hard work days for a few weeks) to actually cook. Mommy suggested ordering a pizza (actually, P'Zones from Pizza Hut) but when Daddy called to order, they said they were out of P'Zones. So we had Breakfast for dinner instead! Mommy and Daddy decided to go to bed early, but Mommy was just too uncomfortable to sleep! She was having Braxton Hicks contractions and they were keeping her awake. Finally at 1:30am Mommy fell asleep.

Monday, August 1st

At 4:45am the painful contractions started, and Daddy had already left for work. By 5:30am, Mommy was way too tired to time contractions, and thought "There has to be an app for that" and downloaded it to her phone. From 5:30am-6:30am, contractions were 7 minutes apart. The doctors had been saying that if contractions are consistently 4-6 minutes apart, don't even call the office - head straight to the hospital. Mommy texted Daddy to stay tuned and planned on waiting until 8am to make a decision. At 7am, Mommy could not get out of bed to shower, have breakfast, let Jack and Lola out of their cages, or pack a hospital bag because the contractions would intensify when she stood up. 8am seemed very far away. At 7:30am, thanks to the app, Mommy saw that contractions were 4 minutes apart and texted Daddy "I need you to come home. I think it's time." Daddy got home at 8am, let Jack and Lola out and fed them, helped Mommy pack her bag and get ready to go, and we were on the road by 8:10am.

We checked in at Labor & Delivery at 8:30am and they said they didn't have any rooms available and made us wait in the waiting room. It was a very long, painful wait. Mommy sat crouched on a chair, and Daddy kicked everyone out of the waiting room so I could have some privacy. At 9:45am we finally got into a room, and after a few minutes of changing into a gown and giving some vitals, they checked and Mommy was 5cm dilated (up from 1cm 6 days earlier). The nurse said "You're at a 5, you're going to have a baby today!" WOW!

They started an IV and then an hour later Mommy got an epidural and finally got some pain relief. Minutes after the epidural went into effect, the rechecked and Mommy was 9cm dilated. Mommy got to 9cm pain medicine-free! Daddy was very proud. Then since Mommy's water still hadn't broken, they had us wait to see if it would break on its own. At 2:10pm, the doctor came in to break Mommy's water, and then said she would need to start pushing soon. Our friend Sam brought Daddy Jimmy Johns since he hadn't eaten anything since he left the house at 4:30am for work. Then, at 3:00pm, Mommy started pushing. Just a little over 2 hours later, at 5:16pm, weighing 8lbs and 20in long, Brooklyn Kate was born. Mommy and Daddy agreed on the name immediately, while Brooklyn was getting cleaned up. Then, an hour later, Mommy was moved to Mother & Baby, Brooklyn went to the Nursery for a bath, and Mommy's parents arrived. Shortly after, Daddy's mom came, and we were so happy to have all of our visitors there within just 3 hours of Brooklyn being born!

Day 2 with her Proud Daddy!

Going home day - Wednesday, August 3rd