Brelynzie

Well, that's what David calls her.  Officially she's Brelyn Dakota Nilsen - our little girl!

Her birth story: 

David predicted she'd be born "next Saturday" a week ago and will always be proud of being right. No reason - just picked that date very adamantly.  

Friday, May 15,  I had a my weekly OB appt - the first one without an ultrasound - a normal  one! To our surprise I was 2 cm dilated and 70-80% effaced, but my OB was fine with that.  He said that if our little girl came that day she'd do just fine, but 4 more days (to reach 36 weeks) would be best.  Some women can be dilated/effaced like me and still go weeks - even overdue.   I had been having a little crampiness on and off that week, but that wasn't supposed to indicate anything.

David had taken Friday off for our special 3 day weekend we'd been planning for over a month. The forecast said sunshine and we had been hoping to take Miles to the zoo before his sister came - a special day just for him.  We had the BEST day.  Miles and 1,000 + other kids his age with monkey style back packs pulled parents down paths and into exhibits and explored electrical outlets (his favorite exhibit.) 

 

Much later that evening my contractions, which I'd had for months, started feeling a little painful.  Not bad - just a little different.  We went grocery shopping and had a regular night.  I did time them and they were about 12 minutes apart, but that was nothing too out of the ordinary.  

I had been waking up 2-3 times per night regularly for weeks, but Saturday morning when I woke up at 3:19 and felt a slightly painful contraction I was suddenly wide awake.  I spent the next two hours wondering if I'd actually go into labor that day.  At that time the contractions were about 10 minutes apart and I would've taken an Aleve if I could've, but they were definitely tolerable.  

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day and I wanted to "do something fun." That morning we went to Home Depot and bought some seeds for our garden.  When we returned I felt inclined to call the hospital to discuss my symptoms "just in case," but felt like a bit of a hypochondriac.  The nurse I spoke with said to "have breakfast, take a shower and come in in a few hours if you still feel the same." Having already done those things we opted to plant our garden instead and contemplated if we should call a grandparent to come be with Miles.  It was a hard decision because we knew if we did go in with a false alarm that we would miss hours of the sunshine and have taken up a grandparent's afternoon. 

David's mom arrived about 4 hours after we'd initially called the hospital seeking their opinion. We entered Triage at 1:30 and I was hooked up to all the monitoring devices.  My contractions were 7 minutes apart for the 2 hours they monitored me, but I was still 2 cm and 70-80%.  The on call doctor and nurse decided that my contractions weren't the type to cause cervical change and offered me medications to stop false contractions (nothing stops real labor,) but I declined.  (Been there, done that.)  They were non commital and said that the contractions could indicate that I'd go into labor in the next 2-4 days...or weeks.  

Part of me was mad at the situation because we'd spent two hours of the best part of the sunny day in a dank room without windows.  The other part of me felt that the doctor was wrong.  I remember the contractions I had prior to "active labor" with Miles and they were overly suspiciously similar. But alas, we arrived home at 4:00.

I wanted to go on a walk - anything outside to bask in the sunlight (in between contractions anyway.) When I had a contraction I didn't feel like walking anymore.  At this point they were about 4-5 minutes apart.  David was going nuts trying to appease me.  I wanted to do something fun one minute and then I couldn't feel like it the next.  We sat on the grass and played catch. 

At 5:30 I decided I didn't' feel that great and wanted to go lay down upstairs while David and his mom went grocery shopping.  He kept saying "are you sure?" And I was.  David began to prepare for the outing, but at 5:45 I called his cell phone.  He was downstairs and picked up, but I didn't say anything, so he came to check on me at which time I announced that I wanted to go back to the hospital.  While he frantically made additional arrangements with Lynnette and Miles I put extra deodorant on, just in case.  When I confided this to David he snorted and said that he did too.  I just thought that was funny.

By the time we got out of the house and on our way my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart.  Our hospital is 20 minutes away and I think all the driver byers were looking at me.  When we arrived David jumped out of the car and jogged down the hall looking for a wheel chair because I'd told him I didn't think I could walk.  I thought his franticness was sweet, but at that time hadn't thought we really needed to rush that bad.  This was 6:40 PM and I was wrong!

David had parked in loading with the windows down and had to go relocate the car.  When he came back a few minutes later he said he was shocked because I was all "out there and ready to go."  The nurse concluded that I was 8 cm dilated and 100% effaced - all in the 3 hours since I'd left triage.  She also concluded (against my will) that I was too far gone for an epidural.  

I wouldn't accept the news and made things pretty hard for the nurses and doctors, refusing to position myself how they wanted me to or to push for that matter!  In my defense, I only had about 3 minutes to cope with the fact that I had to go natural before I...had to go natural. Apparently at one point the OB told David he needed to "get in my face and get me to focus." David said he was very scared of doing that considering my state of mind.  When I realized he was "in my face" I got a hold of him and wouldn't let go.  I felt much better that way, but apparently that's not what I was supposed to do and David's back was breaking.  They pried me off. 

A few minutes later our daughter was born - 7:33 PM - 45 minutes after re arriving at the hospital.  She gave a cry right away and had an apgar score of 9 (Miles was 1!)  David was able to "trim" the umbilical cord and hold her all swaddled before handing her to me.  It was perfect. 

At 4 lbs 6 oz and 17 and 3/4" , Brelyn was 1-1.5 lbs smaller than they'd expect from a baby born at 35.5 weeks pregnant.  Because of that she was transported to the NICU for monitoring, but David got to carry her all the way up there.  He said she was feisty and strong willed.  Probably due to the non epidural labor experience.  

"Brelynzie" is 3 days old now and is peaceful in daddy's arms.