Brinley's Story

The night of February 10 I had some lower back pain. I had been seriously uncomfortable for weeks, and I hadn't been able to sleep well since about 30 weeks . While we were watching LOST online and I had some sharp pain below my belly. I started to look at the clock every time it happened and it was about every 15 to 20 min. It wasn't unbearable pain, like contractions were with Hayden, so I wasn't sure exactly what was going on. I decided to go to bed and see if it continued. It didn't, but like most nights I wasn't able to sleep very well. The next morning I still had pain in my lower back. Josh and I talked about going to the the hospital, but it wasn't unbearable pain it was just constant. I didn't want to be one of those people that goes to the hospital and then gets sent home, especially since this was my second kid. After having Hayden I thought now I know what it's like to be in labor, I won't ever have to wonder again. WRONG.
Josh went to school and said he would call me after every class to see what I wanted to do. I ran a few errands and every time he called to ask what I wanted to do I would say " I don't know, the pain is the same." I called my friend Melissa to see if she would be able to take Hayden if we decided to go to the hospital. She reminded me it could be back labor, and that she didn't think it was the real deal when she went in with #2 and it was. I decided that I would put Hayden down for a nap and after he woke up Josh would be done, or almost done, with classes for the day so then we would go. Well Hayden didn't want to take a nap. He fought it so I decided to go get Josh and we could take Hayden to Melissa's and then go in.
Driving to the hospital Josh and I talked about what we thought was going to happen. Josh thought we should go in because in his words, "you are in pain and you are pregnant" but he didn't think that they would admit me. I thought the same thing. I was convinced that they would laugh and send me home, but at least I would know something. When we got to the hospital at 1pm they hooked me up to the monitors and just watched them for about an hour and a half. The contractions monitor wasn't picking up any strong contractions the numbers were in the 20's. When I was checked I was told I was a 3 on my way to a 4 and 70% effaced. WHAT?! I was was surprised since I was convinced this was nothing and I would be going back home. They wanted to monitor me for a little longer and then check me again to make sure I was progressing on my own. Because I was only 36 weeks and 3 days they didn't want to help progress anything without knowing for sure that my body was doing it on it's own. At about 5pm, after another hour and a half on the monitors, my Dr. came to check me. He was on at the hospital that night, how convenient. He laughed when he came into my room, since he had tried to convince me at my appointment 4 days earlier that I would not have the baby while he was on vacation the next week, he was sure that I would make it until the end of February! He checked me and said I was almost a 5 and 100% effaced, so they admitted me and started an IV. I asked the nurse when the point of no return was for the epidural not because I was in an unbearable amount of pain at that point, but because I didn't want to be! She said they could give it right up to the end. She told me that if I wanted it to let them know before I REALLY wanted it because it would take a while to get some stuff through my IV and whatever else they had to do. I assured her that I was going to want it. She said she would let the next nurse know. At this point I was uncomfortable, but it wasn't too painful. The contractions were going up into the 40's on the monitor. We called our families to let them know we were in the hospital. Needless to say they were surprised!
While waiting we talked about names again. We had talked about them before but hadn't decided on a specific name. We had our list and our top name was Jenna. Since we hadn't really talked about it again I was pretty sure that's what her name would be. While waiting Josh said let's just look at names again. So we looked online and made another list. Josh found the name Brinley and we both like it so we added it to our list along with some other names, but we still didn't make a decision.
Somewhere during all of the waiting Josh said " when do you think she'll come. I want to meet my little girl" I thought this was so cute!
At about 7pm the next nurse, who should NOT be a labor and delivery nurse, brought pitocin to put in my IV to get things going. I told her I wanted to have an epidural. She asked if I wanted it now. I told her I wasn't in unbearable pain, but the other nurse told me it would "take a while" and with Hayden I asked for it for an hour and a half before it came so if it was going to be that long then yeah I wanted it "now." She said the anesthesiologist was not busy and it would only take about 30 min to get some stuff through my IV, but she recommended I get it now if I wanted it. At 8pm I got the epidural. At 8:30 my Dr. broke my water. And from there things really started to progress and get more painful. I started to worry that because she was so early something would be wrong. I assumed that she would be in the 5lb range. Hayden was born at 37 weeks and 2 days and he was 5lbs 11oz and had to be in the NICU for 10 days, so you can imagine the things that were going through my head. At 9:30 I was really uncomfortable and could really tell when I was having a contraction. At 9:50 I made someone come check me. They said I was a 7. WHAT? 5 min later I said I know someone just checked me, but I'm REALLY pretty sure that they should check me again. The nurse checked me and said I was a 10 and 100% effaced. I had been sick the week before with a cold and cough so while pushing I would have coughing attacks and even threw up. It was lovely! I pushed for about 40 min. and our little girl was born at 10:47pm.
I was shocked when they said she was 7lbs 6.5oz. They thought that she might need to go to the NICU for some observation but told us she could stay with us for an hour and then they would see how she was doing. After an hour she was doing well so they said she could stay with us for another hour. After that hour they said she was doing well and would go to the regular nursery instead of the NICU. She didn't need any oxygen and was doing great. We were so glad!