Braegan Mae is one month today, and the days have been flying by since she arrived.
As most of you know, I live on a schedule. This is good and bad at the same time;) I honestly was predicting Braegan to arrive late only because "no one every has their first child early or on their due date". I don't know how many people told me that....so when I woke up at 2:25 am on Friday, February 8 and my water had broke, I honestly didn't think it was for real. I then reminded myself that I had told myself that my due date was February 8...and that obviously meant it was time:)
Jeff and I made sure we had everything together and left for the hospital. It's crazy how quickly you can get somewhere when everyone is sleeping! We pulled into the ED to get admitted, and when they told me I needed a wheelchair, I told them I was only taking it because "I had to". I wasn't even having contractions, and was joking about driving myself to the hospital. I was also joking about how "easy, breezy" of a day this was going to be since I hadn't had contractions and my water broke on it's own....little did I know what type of day was ahead.
Once we got up to the maternity floor, we were greeted by the amazing labor and delivery staff at Methodist. I couldn't have asked for better care during my short stay! For the first couple of hours, before the sun came up, I was directed to walk laps around the maternity floor in order to get my body progressing more. This really didn't do much for me, because Braegan had been head down for quite a while, and was positioned very low. At about 9:00 am, we decided to start the pitocin, since my water had broke on it's own, there is always a risk for infection. Every so often the nurse would come in to check my progress and up the amount of pitocin coming through my IV line. I was trying to hold off on the epidural for as long as possible, only because I knew once I got it, I wouldn't be able to walk until the baby arrived. I did not like the idea of being confined to a bed...no matter how short or long that time would be. So at noon, I called for the epidural, because the contractions were coming stronger and closer together. It wasn't until about 1:30 that I actually had the procedure done and it had kicked in....but only on my right side. I asked the nurse if it was normal to feel contractions on just one side of your body after having the epidural and she said no, so I turned to my other side to see if gravity would help to spread the medication...after about 20 minutes and the pain continuing, they shot more medicine into my epidural line.
Many hours passed, my parents and Jeff's parents had been to the hospital to check on our status, then went to dinner. I didn't actually start pushing until about 5:30/6:00 pm. This was starting to feel like the longest day ever, and I know longer found it funny thinking about how "easy" of a day this was going to be. The only thought that put me at ease was knowing that Braegan had to come out within the next few hours. After pushing for about an hour, the nurse thought it'd be best to take a break, because Braegan's heart rate was increasing along with my blood pressure. The way Braegan was positioned was making it hard for the monitor to get a consistent read on her heart, so they decided to hook her up to an internal fetal monitor to track her heart. For those of you that don't know what a internal fetal monitor is, you can read about it here. We had learned about this technology during our child birthing class, and honestly I had a feeling I'd be getting one only because Braegan had been a wiggle worm throughout my complete pregnancy...and didn't like to hold still. After an hour of rest, we started pushing again for another hour. At about 8:30 pm, the doctor mentioned that we were going to most likely need to going to need to do the vacuum extraction to get Braegan out a little faster, I looked at Jeff when I heard this and my eyes welled up...I didn't want this at all, but I knew if that was what the doctor was recommending, it was going to be the safest method of getting her out. At 9:13 pm she was born. I realized that I was the first one admitted to the maternity floor that day and the last one to deliver. The nurses had competitions going on throughout the day because there were so many mothers in for delivery to see who would deliver first.
Braegan weighed 6 pounds, 13.7 ounces and was 20 inches long at birth. Jeff was a trooper the whole time, I honestly thought he'd pass out once things started progressing faster, but he was by my side helping me push the entire time. I never knew I could love someone so fast. Within a second of Braegan being placed in my arms, I knew life would never be the same.
We were discharged from the hospital on Sunday, February 10 in the afternoon. Coming home was quite intimidating, because I realized that Jeff and I were now responsible for making sure Braegan survived...that's a lot to take in. Not that I doubted our ability, but knowing that we had to figure out when she needed to eat, sleep, etc....was a lot.
I've now been on my maternity leave from school for 4 weeks, and the days are flying by. The nights are long, but the days are fast. I love watching Braegan move and her hands are my favorite. She has so much expression in her face, and I can't imagine life without her now.
Jeff came across a Carrie Underwood song that I love, Forever Changed. The chorus is exactly how I have felt since Braegan was placed in my arms on February 8th!
Forever changed,
Forever changed,
Nothing ever stays the same
Forever named,
Forever child,
Forever loved,
Forever changed.
No comments:
Post a Comment