I’m delighted to be updating the blog with the heartwarming
news of the birth of our baby girl.
Meet Brooklynn May Foster. Born on February 14, 2015. 8 lbs.
8 oz. 20 inches
We are absolutely in love with our little valentine.
Birth story
On Thursday, February 12 I had an OBGYN appointment to have
a sweep done to see if we could get this little munchkin to evacuate the
premises. I was huge and uncomfortable and overdue (due date was Feb. 10).
Appointment went well. I had been dilated 1 cm for weeks and nothing had
changed. Doctor said that if the sweep worked then I would go into labor within
24-48 hours.
That evening, around 6 p.m. while preparing dinner, I
started getting contractions. I started timing them and realized that they were
coming about every 2-3 minutes and lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to 1
minute. Josh got home, we had dinner and debated going to the hospital, but I
decided that I wanted to labor a while within the comfort of my own home. Plus,
I could still talk through the contractions so I knew they weren’t strong
enough yet. Around 11, I sent Josh to bed and told him I would wake him up if I
needed him. I figured that one of us should get some sleep. The contractions
continued and started increasing in intensity. I tried going to sleep to see if
they would stop, but they were painful enough that I knew that sleep wasn’t
going to be an option.
Finally, around 4 a.m. I woke up Josh and told him that I
was ready to head to the hospital. We got there and headed to triage. The nurse
told me that I didn’t look like I was in enough pain to be in labor (eye roll).
They took my vitals and finally hooked me up to a monitor and checked my
cervix. I was only dilated to 2 cm, but the nurse was surprised at the strength
and frequency of the contractions. They gave me some fluids and told me that I
wasn’t dilated enough to admit me, but that I could try walking around for an
hour to try and get dilated more. So Josh and I walked around for 2 hours.
When I went back to triage, basically nothing had changed. I
was still at a 2 and the contractions were still the same. They called my
doctor and she told me that they could either induce me or they could give me
some morphine to ease the pain of the contractions and send me home.
I hadn’t wanted to be induced, but by this time I had been
awake all night and was extremely tired and ready to be done with the pain, so
I opted to be induced. It was about 10 a.m. when I got moved to labor and
delivery and immediately met with the anesthesiologist. I opted for a walking
epidural initially so I could move around to help with the dilation. Once the
epidural was in place Josh and I walk the halls again and I was given a birth
ball to bounce on to help move things along. During this time I was feeling
pretty good. I threw up a couple of times, but things were manageable. Well,
the Pitocin, fluids, blood pressure dance began and day turned to evening and
evening turned to night. At some point the contractions got too painful for
just the walking epidural so I got the full epidural and was bed bound from
that point forward. My body was taking forever to dilate. The nurses kept
telling me to sleep, but they had the pressure cuff thing on me that kept
waking me up every 10 minute to take my blood pressure, so no sleep for me
sadly.
Around 1 a.m. I had finally dilated to a 10 and was at a
point where I could start pushing. I’ll spare you some of the gory details
here, but suffice it to say that I pushed for over three hours and it was
undoubtedly the most physically demanding things I have ever done. I was so
tired that I could hardly open my eyes. At 4:21 a.m. Josh and I finally got to
meet our baby girl. She was a whopping 8 lbs. 8 oz (well, large for a Morley
baby…I blame Josh on how big she was, haha). Holding her for the first time was
one of the best feelings in the world. I’m so glad she chose Josh and me to be
her parents.
I wanted to give a huge shout-out to my incredible husband, Josh. He was my rock, my cheerleader, and my advocate. He was so strong for me. I love him so much!!
Here are a few pictures of our valentine.
