A Birth Story

On Monday July 18th I went to the doctor hoping for the news that baby sister was getting ready to be here. Instead I found out that I was still only 1 cm dilated and not effaced. Dr. Phillips mentioned checking at the hospital for availability for being induced. I seriously did not think that would happen because we tried with Bella but couldn't get a room at the hospital. I just figured that would probably be the case again and pretty much ignored the statement. I went home. I was feeling quite defeated. I was tired, uncomfortable, and ready to meet our newest baby girl. I even put a status update on facebook that said something along the lines of, "I think I'm going to be pregnant forever." Obviously I knew that wasn't true. Just feeling a little sorry for myself. It happens when you are 39 weeks pregnant.

So I went on about my business. I had a play date planned for Bella with her favorite friend Natalie, who was in town from Austin. Natalie came over on Tuesday and brought her mommy and sister. Bella and Natalie played there little hearts out and Laura and I talked (mostly about child birth, HA!). At about 4:00 pm I heard my phone ringing and saw that it was my doctor's office. Wondering what they were calling for, I answered the phone. Amy, the office manager, began giving me instructions for my induction that would begin at 7:30 that night. Wait, WHAT?!? is pretty much what I said. I asked Amy if she was serious, she said she didn't joke around about inductions. Then she asked me if I was going to cry, I told her no...... well maybe! So I had an hour to eat something then I was cut off with food and I needed to be at the hospital by 7:30. I sorta panicked but was SO excited! Laura helped me get the house picked up and I began trying to call Terry. Of course he was on a business call and wasn't answering my call. So I did the ole call and call and call trick to let him know that he NEEDED to call me back. It worked. I called Mom and Dad and they got over to our house at about 7. Dad stayed here with Bella and Mom headed to the hospital with us.


It's time to meet Baby Sister!!

Our last pictures as a family of 3! And we are off to the hospital!

We got to the hospital right at 7:30. They took me straight to my room and I got into the ever so beautiful hospital gown. I wasn't exactly sure how this was going to work. But, I soon found out! I met my first nurse. She checked me at about 8:15 and what do you know I was already dilated to 2-3 cm and 70 % effaced. Let's get this party started!! At about 8:20 I was given Cervidil to help ripen my cervix. I was having contractions and it didn't take long for them to start getting stronger. At about 11:15 I got an ambien to help me sleep. It did not work. I pretty much stayed awake all night. Terry slept and snored. Mom was awake all night too. At about 8:10 the next morning (July 20) the cervidil was removed but I was still only 2-3 cm and 70-80% effaced. Dr. Phillips came in and broke my water at about 8:30 am and the pitocin was started at about 8:40. Things get a little fuzzy for me after this point. I started hurting pretty bad, pretty fast. I was given stadol and phenergan sometime after that. That stuff makes me SLEEPY! About 10:00 I could not take the pain any longer and asked and received my epidural.


This was me from about 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Nice. Mom says she took this picture at about 3:00.

I literally slept all day. I tried real hard to wake up a few times but it was impossible. My mom and my nurse talked over me all day. Mom was on my right, Nurse Rosie on my left. I heard things about enchiladas and saw Mom showing Rosie my photography blog on her little computer. I knew people were in and out of my room but I was Out. Of. It. Apparently Terry sent out text updates all day. I believe alot of them had to do with me being completely out of it and the room being so cold (more on that later).


Terry keeping everyone updated!

At about 3:00 Rosie checked me to find that I was fully dilated. She had me try a practice push. I couldn't. There was no feeling and I couldn't make my body do what I wanted it to do. Scary feeling. So she sat my bed up so that the baby would come down and turned off my epidural in hopes that I would be able to push. Still couldn't feel to push. She called in a different anesthesiologist to assess the situation. I could tell everyone was nervous that I still couldn't feel anything. Meanwhile, Baby sister was descending on her own. The Doctor ended up pulling medicine straight from my line. He was using cold alcohol pads to see if I could feel. Luckily, I started waking up. All of me. So all through this Baby Sister was coming down and the top of her little head was actually exposed. I kept being told she had a lot of hair. Dr. Phillips was called and I could finally feel enough to push. At 5 pm I started pushing. 16 minutes and 5 pushes later...............



We welcomed Brynlee Mae Richards into this world. She weighed in at 6lbs 12 ozs and was 20 inches long.



I could not believe how easy it was to have her. Seriously. It was so quick when it came down to it. She sure is a beaut. I was beyond excited to greet her when she was put on the outside of my belly. I had gotten to know her quite well on the inside of my belly but was more than ready to get to know her on the outside. She did not disappoint. Although, she did give us a scare. I held her for a minute or so and the nurses took her to get measured and cleaned up. I started to be able to tell that something was not quite right. I heard something about her temperature and noticed that they took her temp several times. Her temp was 94 degrees. Not good. They wrapped her up very tightly and brought her to me to hold for a few minutes.







And then they wisked her away to the transitional nursery. And then I was completely alone. All by myself in my room that had just minutes before been filled with a doctor, nurses, Mom, Terry, and a sweet tiny baby. And then I was sick. The nausea set in and oh dear. I had not eaten in 26 hours and the epidural on top of that made me sick. Luckily my nurse came back in just in time to get me a barf bag. I had sent Terry with Brynlee to make sure she was ok. He came back to my room and I told him to send my mom back and he needed to get back to the nursery to make sure Brynlee was ok. Mom came back and sat with me while I shook violently and threw up a little more. Both things side effects of the epidural. Terry called me to tell me that they were doing and X-Ray on our new baby. I told him to find out what in the world was going on. Luckily our pediatrician showed up shortly after that. Come to find out not only was her temp really low but her oxygen was satting around 80%. Not good.


Sweet baby girl under the oxygen hood.

Dr. Quillin ordered a chest x-ray to make sure she didn't have an infection in her lungs. They were baffled as to why she seemed "sick" because I did not have anything wrong with me. She did have a small amount of fluid in her lungs but there was no sign of infection. Terry and Dr. Q came back to L&D to see me and give me an update. On the way back, Terry was telling Dr. Q that it was really cold in my room. Dr. Q came to the conclusion that she sat in the birth canal with her little head exposed for too long in a too cold room. He even told my doctor on the way to my room they needed to warm these rooms up for these newborns. So the conclusion was that her body temp was compromised by the temp in the room. Crazy. Needless to say, she had to stay in the transitional nursery for 5 hours to get her temp back up and get her oxygen back up. 5 long hours we had to wait to see her precious face again. Terry stalked the nursery and was a wreck worrying about her. He still had not gotten to hold her and he was anxious to do so. I got moved into post partum and continued to wait for Brynlee to come visit us. I did get wheeled by the nursery to get a pick at her from the other side of the glass. It wasn't enough but it had to do.

Terry had to run home to let the dog out and he wanted to take a shower (so not fair!). Dad sat with me while he was gone. Of course they brought Brynlee in while Terry was gone. Dad called Terry to come back and he was on his way in a hurry. I tried to nurse Brynlee but she wasn't having it. I let them take her back to the nursery to give a little bit of formula because they thought she was probably to tired and hungry to nurse and the bottle would be easier. I really did not want to do this but I knew she needed to eat so I allowed it. She was back with in 5 minutes or so. She had taken down her bottle and was ready to be back with us. Terry got there about the same time she got back. Dad was still there and actually got to hold Brynlee before Mom did.

Daddy FINALLY got his hands on his second baby girl!

I was finally able to nurse Brynlee at about 4:45 the next morning. She is such a sweet baby. I just can't hardly get enough of her! I just eat her up as much as possible because I know this will be the last time I get to experience this.

Next up - Big Sister finally gets to meet Baby Sister.