Sooo.... a whole 8 weeks have passed and I'm finally writing about Brody's birth. I've been busy, folks :)
I had my last doctor's appointment on Monday, July 25th. My OB was confident that Baby Boy Clegg would be born by Friday the 29th. I was almost dilated to a 3, thinned out, blah, blah, blah, all the things you want to hear, but not necessarily the things you should be publicly sharing with the blogging world, you know what I mean :) I went home, packed my hospital bag and started to do everything in my power to kick the boy out of the cozy little home he'd inhabited for the last 9 months.-- On a side note, I hated when people would tell me to go walking. What did they think I was doing over here?! Sleeping all day, lounging, getting massages, putting my feet up? Did they forget that I have a very active 21 month old???-- Ok, back to the story :)
I had my last doctor's appointment on Monday, July 25th. My OB was confident that Baby Boy Clegg would be born by Friday the 29th. I was almost dilated to a 3, thinned out, blah, blah, blah, all the things you want to hear, but not necessarily the things you should be publicly sharing with the blogging world, you know what I mean :) I went home, packed my hospital bag and started to do everything in my power to kick the boy out of the cozy little home he'd inhabited for the last 9 months.-- On a side note, I hated when people would tell me to go walking. What did they think I was doing over here?! Sleeping all day, lounging, getting massages, putting my feet up? Did they forget that I have a very active 21 month old???-- Ok, back to the story :)
My due date was Wednesday, July 27th. There was no sign of him coming, so Steve, Liv and I decided to go to the State Fair at Cal Expo. We walked around for a good 4 hours in the heat hoping that my body would start getting ready to deliver Baby Boy. No. Luck. I loved seeing people's faces at the fair when they'd ask when I was due and I'd say, "Oh, today." Haha! That was the best part of the trip.
My mom and little sister, Katie, came into town on Thursday. They were both ecstatic that the boy hadn't come yet, but once they had finally arrived they were eager to get him here :) On Friday, July 29th, my mom, Katie, Olivia and I went to Fairytale Town in Sacramento to pass the time. Again, we walked around in the heat for a good 3 hours hoping for something to start. Nothing. While at Fairytale Town, I got a call from my OB's office. They informed me that I would need to be at the hospital at 5:15am to be induced. I started freaking out. I was going to be in the hospital having a baby in less than 24 hours. It felt as close as going into labor on my own as possible. We went home and enjoyed our last night as a little family of three.
I can tell you that 5:15am on Saturday, July 30th came sooner than I would have liked. I had been so worried about how I would feel bringing a baby into our already perfect family. Would it be better, worse, a smooth transition, a complete disaster?? I wanted Olivia to adjust well and love her brother. I felt awful that I wouldn't be able to see Olivia in the morning before going to the hospital and that the next time she's see me she'd have to share me. I thought that I was being so irresponsible having a second baby. I don't know how many times in the last few weeks leading up to my due date that I thought to myself, How can I do this to Olivia?! There were nights that I would just hold her and cry. I didn't know if I could love another baby the way I loved her. It didn't seem possible.
By 8:30am I was in my room, paperwork done, IV in, pitocin started, at that point it was just a waiting game. Steve and I decided to walk around the labor and delivery floor to pass the time and to try to get things moving a little faster. At the hospital there was an outdoor space where they let some women labor, but since the baby's heartbeat was irregular they were really concerned with him staying on the monitor. They let us out there for about 4 minutes and then they made us come back inside :( At around 12:30pm, labor really started. My contractions were getting more intense and getting closer together. By 1:30pm I wanted to punch babies. They were 90 seconds apart and lasted about 45 seconds. I was no longer enjoying myself. At 2:00pm the nurse checked me, she said she'd "give me a 6" and also said that she would call the anesthesiologist. At 2:30, my new best friend arrived with giant needle in hand, ready to make me a happy, sane soon-to-be mommy again :) I had more contractions than I could count waiting for him to prep me for the epidural. They were 60 seconds apart and lasted for about 45 seconds, so that was a whopping 15 seconds between contractions. No bueno. On pitocin, contractions aren't normal contractions, they're like contractions on steroids. In-freaking-tense. I don't know how or why women do it without drugs. Seriously. Maybe I'd be singing a different tune if I went into labor on my own :) Maybe not. About 10 minutes after I had my epidural and before it really started working, my water broke. With Olivia my water broke when I was complete, so we thought for sure I'd be pushing soon. The nurse came and checked me and I was at a 7. The pitocin was turned up to 14(I don't really know what that means, but some of you might) and with my water being broken and me only being at a 7, Baby Boy's heartbeat started going nuts. The doctor came in and wanted to place the monitor on the baby's head. They did, but couldn't get a heartbeat. My doctor, although calm, seemed extremely concerned. They tried a new monitor and finally got his heartbeat. She turned my pitocin down to a 1 because the intensity of the contractions were pushing him into my not-so-ready cervix causing him stress. Even with the pitocin being turned down, he was still having both very rapid and very slow heartbeats. They turned the pitocin off completely around 4:30pm and hoped that my body would continue laboring on it's own. At 5:15pm, my entire left side was no longer numb and I started feeling contractions because I had been lying on my right side. I also got a wave of nausea and threw up. I adjusted to be on my back again and we called the nurse. We told her that I had thrown up and she said, "Good! I bet you're done. It's common for women to throw up when they're complete and ready to push." Sure enough, she was right :) Dr. Watson arrived at 5:30pm and I started pushing. Since they turned down my pitocin my contractions had been pretty far apart, so we were waiting for a good 3 minutes between contractions. Haha! It was kind of awkward. I pushed through only a few contractions and he was here.
At 5:41pm, Dr. Watson held up this beautiful baby boy. Steve and I both cried. Steven cut the umbilical cord and then they placed the most perfect baby boy on my chest. I wanted to hold him like this forever. The nurse moved the band that held the monitors onto my stomach over his little body so that the band swaddled him against my chest and allowed us to be skin to skin. He soothed immediately listening to my heartbeat from outside my body for the first time. He wrapped his little hand around my pinky finger and we soaked in all that we could of his first few minutes on this earth.
I held him for about 15 minutes until they took him to check him out. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz., he was 20.5 in. long, and his head was 13.75 in. His apgar scores were 8 and 9. They listened to his heart and heard a normal heartbeat. When they told us about his heartbeat, we knew that prayers had been answered. Throughout the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy they detected that our baby had premature atrial contractions. We could even hear it throughout my labor and delivery. Knowing that both the nurse and the pediatrician listened to his heart and neither one of them heard an arrhythmia was such a blessing!!
When it was time to go to recovery, they handed me my perfect little angel and wheeled us up to our new room. As we were moving past the nurses station, a lullaby started to play to inform everyone that a new baby had arrived. Our new baby :)
Once in our room, we called my mom to bring Olivia over to meet her little brother. While we waited for them, we started to discuss what name we were going to choose. When we were first settling into the delivery room, we wrote on the white board a list of about 15 names we liked. As I started laboring, the names I truly didn't like began to annoy me and Steven would erase them. Grayson, gone. Landon, gone. Jackson, gone. Walker(never annoyed me), gone. By the time he was born we had Preston, Benton, and Brody on the board. By the time we were moving into recovery, we were deciding between Benton and Brody. We needed to see which name fit him best.
Before we could decide, we got a call from my mom that they were on their way up. I wanted to be sure that the baby was in his bassinet so that my arms were empty and ready for Olivia. Right before they came into the room baby boy had his first big meconium poop. Steven was in the process of changing him and boy was the baby unhappy!! Olivia walked into a room where her new baby brother was screaming his itty bitty head off. I took one look at her confused little face and lost it. I was hysterical. All of my fears seemed to become real. She climbed up onto my lap and wiped my tears. She gave me a huge hug and kiss, but then stood up to try to see what in the world was making that incredibly loud sound. She sat back down on my lap, said, "pee pee" and within 3 seconds peed all over the bed. Seriously? Seriously. Not how I envisioned their first meeting. Thankfully my mom had brought her a change of clothes in the car, so it was an easy fix. After the initial craziness of the diaper change and Olivia's accident, everything was perfect. She opened her present from mommy and daddy. We got her her own baby to bring home from the hospital. She loved it! She kissed her brother and wanted to hold him. She couldn't have responded better to his arrival.
My mom and little sister, Katie, came into town on Thursday. They were both ecstatic that the boy hadn't come yet, but once they had finally arrived they were eager to get him here :) On Friday, July 29th, my mom, Katie, Olivia and I went to Fairytale Town in Sacramento to pass the time. Again, we walked around in the heat for a good 3 hours hoping for something to start. Nothing. While at Fairytale Town, I got a call from my OB's office. They informed me that I would need to be at the hospital at 5:15am to be induced. I started freaking out. I was going to be in the hospital having a baby in less than 24 hours. It felt as close as going into labor on my own as possible. We went home and enjoyed our last night as a little family of three.
I can tell you that 5:15am on Saturday, July 30th came sooner than I would have liked. I had been so worried about how I would feel bringing a baby into our already perfect family. Would it be better, worse, a smooth transition, a complete disaster?? I wanted Olivia to adjust well and love her brother. I felt awful that I wouldn't be able to see Olivia in the morning before going to the hospital and that the next time she's see me she'd have to share me. I thought that I was being so irresponsible having a second baby. I don't know how many times in the last few weeks leading up to my due date that I thought to myself, How can I do this to Olivia?! There were nights that I would just hold her and cry. I didn't know if I could love another baby the way I loved her. It didn't seem possible.
By 8:30am I was in my room, paperwork done, IV in, pitocin started, at that point it was just a waiting game. Steve and I decided to walk around the labor and delivery floor to pass the time and to try to get things moving a little faster. At the hospital there was an outdoor space where they let some women labor, but since the baby's heartbeat was irregular they were really concerned with him staying on the monitor. They let us out there for about 4 minutes and then they made us come back inside :( At around 12:30pm, labor really started. My contractions were getting more intense and getting closer together. By 1:30pm I wanted to punch babies. They were 90 seconds apart and lasted about 45 seconds. I was no longer enjoying myself. At 2:00pm the nurse checked me, she said she'd "give me a 6" and also said that she would call the anesthesiologist. At 2:30, my new best friend arrived with giant needle in hand, ready to make me a happy, sane soon-to-be mommy again :) I had more contractions than I could count waiting for him to prep me for the epidural. They were 60 seconds apart and lasted for about 45 seconds, so that was a whopping 15 seconds between contractions. No bueno. On pitocin, contractions aren't normal contractions, they're like contractions on steroids. In-freaking-tense. I don't know how or why women do it without drugs. Seriously. Maybe I'd be singing a different tune if I went into labor on my own :) Maybe not. About 10 minutes after I had my epidural and before it really started working, my water broke. With Olivia my water broke when I was complete, so we thought for sure I'd be pushing soon. The nurse came and checked me and I was at a 7. The pitocin was turned up to 14(I don't really know what that means, but some of you might) and with my water being broken and me only being at a 7, Baby Boy's heartbeat started going nuts. The doctor came in and wanted to place the monitor on the baby's head. They did, but couldn't get a heartbeat. My doctor, although calm, seemed extremely concerned. They tried a new monitor and finally got his heartbeat. She turned my pitocin down to a 1 because the intensity of the contractions were pushing him into my not-so-ready cervix causing him stress. Even with the pitocin being turned down, he was still having both very rapid and very slow heartbeats. They turned the pitocin off completely around 4:30pm and hoped that my body would continue laboring on it's own. At 5:15pm, my entire left side was no longer numb and I started feeling contractions because I had been lying on my right side. I also got a wave of nausea and threw up. I adjusted to be on my back again and we called the nurse. We told her that I had thrown up and she said, "Good! I bet you're done. It's common for women to throw up when they're complete and ready to push." Sure enough, she was right :) Dr. Watson arrived at 5:30pm and I started pushing. Since they turned down my pitocin my contractions had been pretty far apart, so we were waiting for a good 3 minutes between contractions. Haha! It was kind of awkward. I pushed through only a few contractions and he was here.
At 5:41pm, Dr. Watson held up this beautiful baby boy. Steve and I both cried. Steven cut the umbilical cord and then they placed the most perfect baby boy on my chest. I wanted to hold him like this forever. The nurse moved the band that held the monitors onto my stomach over his little body so that the band swaddled him against my chest and allowed us to be skin to skin. He soothed immediately listening to my heartbeat from outside my body for the first time. He wrapped his little hand around my pinky finger and we soaked in all that we could of his first few minutes on this earth.
I held him for about 15 minutes until they took him to check him out. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz., he was 20.5 in. long, and his head was 13.75 in. His apgar scores were 8 and 9. They listened to his heart and heard a normal heartbeat. When they told us about his heartbeat, we knew that prayers had been answered. Throughout the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy they detected that our baby had premature atrial contractions. We could even hear it throughout my labor and delivery. Knowing that both the nurse and the pediatrician listened to his heart and neither one of them heard an arrhythmia was such a blessing!!
When it was time to go to recovery, they handed me my perfect little angel and wheeled us up to our new room. As we were moving past the nurses station, a lullaby started to play to inform everyone that a new baby had arrived. Our new baby :)
Once in our room, we called my mom to bring Olivia over to meet her little brother. While we waited for them, we started to discuss what name we were going to choose. When we were first settling into the delivery room, we wrote on the white board a list of about 15 names we liked. As I started laboring, the names I truly didn't like began to annoy me and Steven would erase them. Grayson, gone. Landon, gone. Jackson, gone. Walker(never annoyed me), gone. By the time he was born we had Preston, Benton, and Brody on the board. By the time we were moving into recovery, we were deciding between Benton and Brody. We needed to see which name fit him best.
Before we could decide, we got a call from my mom that they were on their way up. I wanted to be sure that the baby was in his bassinet so that my arms were empty and ready for Olivia. Right before they came into the room baby boy had his first big meconium poop. Steven was in the process of changing him and boy was the baby unhappy!! Olivia walked into a room where her new baby brother was screaming his itty bitty head off. I took one look at her confused little face and lost it. I was hysterical. All of my fears seemed to become real. She climbed up onto my lap and wiped my tears. She gave me a huge hug and kiss, but then stood up to try to see what in the world was making that incredibly loud sound. She sat back down on my lap, said, "pee pee" and within 3 seconds peed all over the bed. Seriously? Seriously. Not how I envisioned their first meeting. Thankfully my mom had brought her a change of clothes in the car, so it was an easy fix. After the initial craziness of the diaper change and Olivia's accident, everything was perfect. She opened her present from mommy and daddy. We got her her own baby to bring home from the hospital. She loved it! She kissed her brother and wanted to hold him. She couldn't have responded better to his arrival.
After they left, it was apparent that the name that fit him best was, Brody :) It still fits him perfectly! Steven also brought along my push present to the hospital so I could open it as soon as I wanted to. He got me the Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag I had wanted since before I had Olivia. Eeeekkk!! Exciting :)
The next day, I was holding Brody and knew that every fear I had about not loving him the way I love Olivia was unnecessary. It was almost as though my heart grew overnight. It was an instant bond unlike anything I had felt before. He is perfect. I waited a long time to have him here with us. It might have taken him a little longer, but his sweet little spirit was finally ready to come to earth. Those of you who know me best know exactly what I'm talking about :)
I loved everything about my labor and delivery. The entire experience from start to finish was incredible. Our perfect family of three is a now even more perfect family of four :)
3 comments:
Okay its safe to say that you had me in tears... Jen I am so happy for you!!! He is so perfect... Okay seriously how do you look so amazing after just having a baby?? Haha I looked like a crazy lady! And I seriously have the same fear you had... having another baby terrifies me because I am afraid I won't love it as much as I love Bristyn. I am so glad everything turned out good, your little family of four is perfect :)
You got me teary a few times! Thank you for sharing your story! I'm starting to get anxious about going through L&D again- you've helped calmed my fears...all will be well, and it will be worth it. I'm also still in the will-I-love-this-baby-as-much-as-Reine stage...but trying to have faith that my heart will grow too! Your pictures are gorgeous- you guys have such a beautiful little family. Love you!
I just have to tell you, I was crying the WHOLE time I read this post. I'm so happy for your adorable growing family and you made me feel like I can do this! haha :) Brody is so precious, congratulations mama x2!
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