Brenna's Birth & Our Hospital Stay

August 25, 2015

Little Miss Brenna came into this world on a Tuesday at 10:03pm, weighing 7 lbs 8 oz and was 19.75 inches long. Born at Banner Gateway Medical Center in Gilbert, AZ. She is such a little miracle! 

So here's how the story goes: My wonderful mom came into town on Sunday morning. We picked her up from the airport and headed back home to drop her luggage off at our house and then headed to church. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon after getting hom1e from church later that afternoon. The next morning we spent getting everything ready for Brenna to come! We went and got some grocery shopping done and I finished packing my hospital bag and the kids had a blast spending time with Grandma! 

Rick had to go in for his family medicine rotation with Dr. Woods that day so that he could take off a couple days to be with me in the hospital. Anyway, we were scheduled to go in the next morning on August 25 at 5am. We got to bed pretty early so that I could get enough rest and still be up and at the hospital by 5. Well, during the night I got up to go to the bathroom and decided to check my phone really quick and saw I had a missed call.... from the hospital. They told me to call them back as soon as possible. I called and they said that they had several laboring women come in and that they obviously have first priority and had no extra rooms. They said to go ahead and sleep in and call back around 8 am to check in. Noooooo!!!! That's what was running through my head. Haha. I wanted to get this baby here! Rick decided to just get up and head to his rotation since we weren't sure when we would actually get to go to the hospital.

So just before 8am I called and asked what the status was at the hospital. They were STILL booked to the max and said to call back at noon. I couldn't believe it. I began thinking that it would never happen. Good thing Rick went ahead and went in to work. 

To pass the time my mom and the kids and I decided to go walk around Walmart and then we headed to Target and walked around some more! They were having a huge summer clearance and so we got a huge lot of sand toys for $5 and my mom got the kids a couple new movies and some bubble machines which they love! We walked and walked and walked up and down aisle after aisle trying to get contractions to start on their own, but nothing happened. 

We got back home a couple hours later and decided to make corn salsa. We were just getting everything out to make it and the hospital called!!! I excitedly answered and they asked if I was ready to come in.  I of course said YES! They said I should eat something before coming and then asked how long it would take me. I said, "I can be there in 20 minutes or less." Haha. I basically shoved something down my throat so that I could get there as soon as possible. My mom and I loaded up the kids and my hospital bag in the car and headed on over to Banner Gateway. 

I of course had called Rick to let him know I was headed to the hospital and was gonna get started with checking in. Even though I had pre-registered, it for some reason took almost an hour to get everything taken care of! So Rick got there in plenty of time. Anyway, after getting all checked in a nurse came and took Rick and I to the very. last. room. that they had. Yes! They said if I had been another 10 minutes then it would have gone to another lady that came in right after me. Score! I was so grateful to get to get things moving along and have a baby!

So it was finally around noon that I got all situated and hooked up with pitocin. They checked me to see if I had dilated anymore since my last appointment. Nope! Still at a 3. By the time I had been on the pitocin for a while, Dr Huish had already gone back to the office for the rest of the appointments for the day and the nurses said he wouldn't be able to make it over to break my water until after office hours. It was such a bummer because with Garrett they were able to break my water pretty quick after starting piton and I only had about 3 hours of labor and then was holding him in my arms. This was NOT true with Brenna.

So, to make a long story short, we waited and waited. The nurses gave me more and more pitocin. And my body didn't do a thing. Nothing. Nada. I was still at a 3, seven hours later! I thought the latest I would have to wait to get my water broken would be a little after 5 since that was when I thought office hours would be over. Nope again. So finally around 7:25, Dr Huish arrived and broke my water. Wahoo!!! I was ready to get this baby here!

I originally was gonna try to go without an epidural because my labor was so quick with Garrett but after so many hours of so much pitocin, I was ready to just be able to relax and decided to get an epidural. So they gave it to me and we were just relaxing and playing the waiting game.... when all the sudden I felt SICK.

My theory is that my body had SOOOO much pitocin running through it (they went up to the max they were allowed without a dr approval and even after calling my dr they upped it even more) that once my water was finally broken, it was just trying to go too fast or something. I started to feel nauseous and severe pain. This all started around 8:50pm or so. I felt like the epidural wasn't working. And I was so confused at why I felt so much pain because with Garrett I didn't get an epidural till I was at a 9 (not by choice... i had to wait on the anesthesiologist) so I knew if I could make it that far without and epidural then why was I in so much discomfort WITH an epidural? And by this point I was only around a 4!! Anyway, I got so nauseous feeling that I almost threw up and that's when they gave me zofran through my iv to help with the nauseous feeling. And they also said they'd add a stronger medicine to my epidural. It helped immensely and the pain started to subside. The pain only lasted for about 30 minutes but it was a pretty bad 30 minutes.

I remember that around 9:20pm the nurses came back in and I was feeling great. Actually, I was so numb I wasn't really feeling anything from my waist down, so that was good. They said the doctor would come to check on me around 9:45 and see how far dilated I was so he could know if he should go home or not. Well he came in and checked me... I was hoping for him to say that I was at least at a 6 or 7. He looked at me and said, "It's baby time!" I think my jaw dropped. Was he for real?!?! No wonder my body was struggling! I went from a 4 to a 10 in an hour! I'm tellin' ya.... it was all. that. pitocin!!!

The Dr quickly got ready and said it was time to get this baby here and a few contractions later, Brenna Stone made her entrance into this world at 10:03pm. It was by far the easiest and fastest delivery out of the three kids. Rick got to cut the cord and they put her right up on my chest.

Wow. I couldn't believe I was holding our precious little girl. It was wonderful. Pure bliss. Just so incredible. It was so amazing to finally be getting to hold and snuggle Brenna in my arms! What a miracle it is to bring a baby into this world! 

They took her to weigh her and clean her up. She weighed 7lbs 8oz. I was actually pretty surprised at her weight. I thought she would be bigger. Even thought Kimbri was 3 weeks early, she was the exact same size and Brenna made it all the way to her due date so I thought she'd be a lot bigger! But she is perfect in every way. 

While they were weighing her, measuring her, etc... I started to feel kind of light-headed and dizzy. I don't know if it was from pushing so hard or what but it was making me feel so dizzy that I was scared to hold Brenna when they brought her back to me because I didn't want to risk dropping her if I passed out for some reason. So Rick had some snuggle time while I ate a couple crackers and laid down for a little bit. After a little while of laying down, I didn't feel dizzy anymore, so they brought baby Brenna to me and I got to snuggle her and let her nurse for the first time. And she is a great nurser! Thank goodness! 

Her first bath. She did NOT enjoy it. Although once it was all over and she was snuggled back up, she went right to sleep :)

Kimbri and Garrett meeting their new baby sister!! My mom came to the hospital the next day and brought Kimbri and Garrett to meet Brenna. It was so precious to see them love her so much. 

Hearing Test

Daddy Daughter Snuggle time

It looks like I'm holding a baby doll. She is so small!!

Kimbri had "Meet the Teacher" for the upcoming school year while I was in the hospital. So Rick left the hospital for a couple hours on Thursday afternoon and took her to meet her new teacher, Miss Geri. He took this picture and sent it to me in the hospital.

Grandma, Garrett, & Brenna

Both days I was at the hospital, a sweet lady came by within the 3 o'clock hour and gave Rick and I a cookie of our choice from their cookie tray. Oh my goodness. Best oatmeal raisin cookie I've ever tasted. It was so yummy. 

Our hospital stay was fantastic. We had excellent nurses and we were taken really good care of! I'm especially so grateful for such a supportive husband. Rick is the most amazing father and husband. I'm so happy to married to him! We also couldn't have done it with my mom, who came and was so helpful in taking care of Kimbri and Garrett so Rick could stay with me in the hospital. Thanks Mom!!! I am so grateful for our little miss Brenna in our lives. She is such a little angel. 

Car Accident

About one and a half weeks before my due date with Brenna, we got in a car accident. We had spent the morning as a family at the YMCA pool and had decided that we wanted to go pick up some food for lunch on our way home. We were just driving along minding our own business when another car pulled out to apparently try to turn left and didn't see us and hit our front right side of the Acura! We were going 45 mph and Rick hit the break hard but we still collided. By the time we hit it was probably only around 25 mph. So not terrible but hard enough to do some damage! I couldn't believe it. Their car flew up over the median and did some sort of 360 thing back over the median and landing in front of our car. Thank heavens there happened to be no oncoming traffic or stopped cars in that lane, as it was pretty close to a busy intersection. And wow, I don't know how their car didn't flip. It was a little car and it literally hit the median and bounced over and then bounced back. 

It all happened so fast that when both cars had stopped moving after the hit, we were just stunned. I was an emotional basket case because of being so pregnant and worried about Brenna inside me. We were just sitting there and I started panicking since there were 3 lanes of traffic on just our side of the median so I was worried another car was gonna hit us from the back. We motioned to the other car to try and move over and pull into the parking lot closest to where we were.

A witness stopped and gave her info in case the police would need it. The cops showed up and a fire truck (which Garrett loved) and an ambulance. We figured we didn't need the ambulance as we were literally like a block from the hospital and said we could just drive there ourselves. Nobody was hurt and in need of a hospital, but we did want to go just to get Brenna checked out to make sure she was still moving around inside me... mostly just for piece of mind to make sure she was ok.

The other driver totally admitted fault, which was a good thing since it was completely their fault! They gave us their insurance info and we filled out the police report, etc... Now it's just a matter of getting everything figured out with insurance to get our car fixed and replacing car seats and all that fun stuff that is such a pain. But I'm just grateful everyone was fine and there were no injuries. It definitely startled me and stressed me out more emotionally since I was so close to my due date and worried about Brenna.

Anyway, we decided to head home and drop the kids off at our house and my wonderful cousin, Jeralyn, came and watched them for us while Rick took me to the hospital to get Brenna monitored and checked out. I'm SO grateful she was willing to do that! I didn't know who else to call!

They found her heartbeat right away and did some sort of shock test where they check to see if she responds with movement to a small shock on my stomach and she did :) It was nice to have the peace of mind that she was fine! They waited for my blood pressure to go down (I was still pretty freaked out!) and then released us. It was quite the experience and I'm grateful that we ended up all being fine and safe!

The new car seats that we got from the insurance company. A nice upgrade from our old ones! They love the built-in cup holders. 

Editing this post with the "after" picture once the insurance paid for repairs. I'm pretty sure it came back fro the shop looking better than it did even before the accident!

I want to have this baby!

Yesterday was my 38 week appointment. Dr. Huish checked me and I was still only 80% effaced but was dilated to a 3 now! He asked if I wanted him to strip my membranes. Since it didn't work with Garrett, I asked how effective he thought it was. He said only about 50/50. But I thought, why not? Might as well give it a try again. Ouch. I just told myself it would all be worth it if it really did work. 

Well the rest of the day I felt crampy and had quite a bit of spotting. We decided to go to Winco as a family for a few groceries and to get some walking in to maybe help things along. By this point I only had some mild cramps but it was still more than I had felt before.  By the time we got home the cramps were stronger. When we got home we all ate a late dinner and then I felt like I needed to clean the kitchen.... you know, just in case. After the kids were in bed I showered, again, even though I had just showered before my appointment earlier that day, just in case. 

Just before 10 I thought, well, nothing is happening so I guess I'll go to sleep. Then I guess I jinxed myself because right at 10 I felt a contraction. Then I felt another one and another one. They were about 10-13 minutes apart. Over the next several hours they got closer and closer together and they were getting to be around 6-7 minutes apart. I was starting to really believe that we would be heading to the hospital. Then around 4:30am the contractions totally stopped. Boo!! I was so disappointed. But obviously there was nothing I could do about it, so I went to sleep. The kids woke up 2 hours later and I was exhausted from being up so much the night before but Rick had to be at the hospital at 7 so we all got up and ate breakfast. I think we'll just hang out around the house today and just hope that labor starts, or that my water breaks, or at least something happens! Haha. I am so ready to meet our little baby girl!!

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Also, as a side note, Rick has been giving me foot rubs every night. He is such a sweetheart and his mom trained him well!! He used to give his mom foot rubs all the time and his mom always jokes around how she was just preparing him for marriage one day. Well, she prepped him well! Haha :) Rick gives a great foot rub!

I also found these random pics from right before Brenna was born that I don't think got added anywhere. We took the kids to the Children's Museum the week before Brenna was born. I snapped this pic from down below.... there was no way I was climbing up there at 39 weeks pregnant. Ha! But the kids had fun and we got this gorgeous picture of the sunset on our way home!

My last official pregnant picture.