It's a Wonderful Life: Brooke's Birth Story

I joked with Jamie on Monday that Anna's birth story took me several posts to tell; I could tell Brooke's in two sentences. This little girl was in a hurry to get here! Here's how it happened:

We went to bed around 11 on Sunday night and I was having Braxton Hick's contractions, like I did most every night at bedtime. I didn't think anything of it because it wasn't at all unusual. Every contraction made me feel like I had to go to the bathroom, so I kept getting up. I wasn't looking at the clock or keeping track of how often I got up, but I would guess between 11pm and 2am, I probably got up 4 or 5 times. Maybe if I was timing it I would have noticed a pattern, but I wasn't.

At 2 I woke up with a particularly uncomfortable contraction, but it still didn't feel like the real thing, just a slightly more crampy Braxton Hick's. I was laying in bed, rubbing my belly, waiting for the discomfort to pass so I could get up more easily, go to the bathroom, and go back to sleep. And then my water broke. I gasped and grabbed Jamie's arm, startling him awake and told him, "My water just broke!" And then the fun began :)

He got out of bed, called his grandparents to come stay with Anna and threw a bag together for himself. I already had my bag packed (a lesson learned from Anna's early arrival - pack early!), but Jamie tossed in a few last minute items like our camera and then we were ready to go. Except that this whole time, while Jamie got us ready to go, I was just sitting in bed unsure what I should be doing. I finally snapped out of it, put some clothes on, went into Anna's room to give her a kiss goodbye (and you know totally break down and start bawling over how she wasn't my baby anymore) and then we were ready!

This whole time I was having contractions and I kept expecting them to get really painful, but they weren't. A couple of deep breaths was all I needed to get through each one. Once we were in the car, they started to get a little stronger, but I could still talk to Jamie through them. As long as I could squeeze his hand and take a deep,slow breath during each contraction I was fine. I tried timing a couple as we drove in case they asked me at the hospital how far apart they were coming. Within two minutes, I had three contractions. I decided that "less than a minute apart" was a good enough estimate.

Once we arrived, I asked Jamie to go inside, tell the registration desk we were there and ask them to come get me with a wheelchair. My water had already broken, my contractions were kinda weak but close together, and I had no idea how far along I might be. I didn't want to try walking in. I had one really strong and painful contraction while I waited. And let me tell you something, when you're waiting in your car having contractions it feels like those wheelchair people take FOREVER!
They got me registered and in a room quickly and asked if I felt ok to go into the bathroom and change into a gown. I did feel ok. Until I got in there. Then I quickly started feeling not ok! I had a very strong contraction, felt like the baby was coming NOW, sat down on the edge of the tub and could not move! Jamie called for the nurses who came in, helped me out to the bed and then helped me get changed. The midwife came in, checked me and said I was complete and the baby was coming! Two pushes later, Brooke was delivered, just 1 hour and 20 minutes after we woke up! Thank goodness we got there when we did or Jamie would've delivered her on the side of the road! After her arrival, Jamie and I were just looking at each other, laughing and going "What the heck just happened?"

Brooke did great. She had a little bit of trouble clearing her lungs and the pediatric nurse considered having a respiratory doctor have a look at her. But within a few minutes she was breathing really well on her own. I got sick after delivery and felt pretty crummy for a few hours, but nothing like what I went through with Anna! By 6am, we were both doing great and ready to move up to the mother/baby wing to recover. Brooke's official time of birth was 3:21am on Monday, and by 3:00pm on Tuesday we were ready to head home!

She's a super easy, content baby who hardly cries. She's such a wonderful addition to our family and we are really enjoying her!

In case you're wondering, her name is one we liked for Anna but we knew Anna's middle name would be Marie and our second daughter would have the middle name Ellyn (after Jamie's mom). We decided Brooke sounded better with Ellyn, so we decided to save it. After discussing every other possible name in the book, we went back to it. One thing I wasn't too sure about was that I liked Brooke, but didn't love the nickname Brookie. It's funny though now that she's here, I call her Brookie all the time. It's just her.

Thanks for reading my "2 sentences" that of course turned into a saga!