Macey’s Birth Story | May 27, 2017
Here are my scattered thoughts and memories from the day our sweet Macey was born –
The night before she was born I was up about 7 times to pee. I felt very uncomfortable throughout the night – more than usual. It was an aching kind of uncomfortable and was different than anything I had felt before…but it didn’t seem like labor. When Jonathan and I woke up that morning I asked him to take a picture of my bare belly. I had read recently that many moms never take a picture of their naked bellies when they’re full term and regret not having a picture to look back on. So we snapped a quick photo and went on with our morning.
My mom and I had planned to go shopping for some last minute items, so that’s what I did next. I still needed a nursing bra and some other essentials and my mom needed shoes for my sister’s upcoming wedding. Throughout our shop I kept noticing how fatigued I felt and I kept needing to sit down. This made sense to me because I hadn’t slept well, so labor wasn’t even on my mind at this point. However, we ended shopping a bit early because of my fatigue and my mom suggested we head to the nail salon for some R&R. Funny enough, at the nail salon I picked out the most appropriate nail color, I just didn’t know it yet.
After the nail salon we headed to my parents for lunch. I ate, still dealing with waves of fatigue and an annoying uncomfortable feeling, and then I headed home. I was pooped and desperately wanted to lay on the couch. I remember my mom making a comment before I left. She said “you know, you and your twin brother were born at 38 weeks and you are 38 weeks today…” π – I laughed then proceeded to make the 20 minute drive to my house. This drive was where it first dawned on me that this could be labor. I had a few instances where the pain was sharper and that’s when the thought crossed my mind, “is this labor?”.
By 1pm I was now feeling waves of pain but still in denial and unsure what was happening. I decided to open my contraction app (FYI – it’s called Contractions…yes, that’s what the app is called. Super creative!) on my phone and started tracking just out of curiosity. My husband was on the golf course until about 2pm and when he returned home I updated him on how I was feeling because things were getting more intense. At this point I did in fact think I was in labor but being first time parents we were unsure about what to do. The pain was coming in waves and lasted for about 1 minute and was about 6 minutes apart! At this point we decided to call the doctors office to let them know what was going on. They told us to wait 30-60 minutes, drink lots of water, and call back if things progressed. At this point we decided to throw some things in a hospital bag in case this really was labor. About an hour later we called the hospital back to tell them things had intensified for me and contractions were less than 5 minutes apart. The nurse on the phone told us to start making our way to Swedish Issaquah. So around 4:30pm we made our way to the hospital. π
It was a good thing we went to the hospital when we did because Robin, the nurse who assessed us in triage, said I was about 4 minutes apart and the doctor who checked me said I was already dilated to 4cm. As soon as those words came out of the doctors mouth it truly hit me…I was in labor!
At this point, Robin moved me to my labor and delivery room and worked with me to get me comfortable – she was wonderful and so encouraging through my contractions; so was Jonathan. Although based on my face in this photo it doesn’t look like I’m too happy.
My labor progressed quickly. Just a few hours later I was dilated to 8cm! Dr. Howard (my doc) wasn’t on call or working that Saturday, so Dr. Bernal-Schmidt came in to introduce herself. She was charismatic, genuinely excited to help us, and extremely helpful in explaining what to expect…we immediately felt safe with her. So around 8cm I began to feel like I wanted an epidural so they took my blood (a million pokes later!) and confirmed that my platelet count was strong enough for an epidural. My platelet numbers had been a bit erratic throughout the pregnancy but the blood test confirmed I was in the clear and could have the epidural. Robin got me set up and the anesthesia doctor came in to get things started. Then 7pm rolled around and the nurses switched. Enter Cathy. π She helped me through the last few contractions before the epidural kicked in. Cathy would then be the one in the room for the delivery!
Then the party started! The hospital had gotten quite busy so the nurses let my visitors come in to say hi while we were waiting for the right number of nurses to become available – also Dr. Bernal-Schmidt was with another patient and my condition was stable so we could wait. I got to see Mom, Dad, Stephanie, Doug, Jared, Anna, Eleah, and Jillian!
Then, around 9:30pm the doctor came back in and said we were ready to go! She talked me through how best to push and she got herself ready! It was time to have a baby!! She asked us how we wanted to find the gender out and we decided that we wanted her to hold baby up after I delivered so we could see him/her at the same time.
I got the hang of pushing pretty quickly and within 30-minutes Dr. Bernal-Schmidt told me we were so close! She said she could see baby had a full head of hair. They did start to get concerned about a lower heart rate with baby and were having a hard time keeping baby on the monitor so they attached a monitor to baby’s head to better track the rate.
A few more pushes…then the doctor got really concerned and wanted to get baby out right away because the heart rate wasn’t improving so she attached a head vacuum and we did one final set of pushes…
“IT’S A GIRL!!!” I heard Jonathan say those words as I got a look at my sweet baby girl for the first time! They immediately placed her on my chest and we took in our firstborn for the first time. She was perfect!
Also, check out my nail color! π
Macey Reed Brodin | Born at 10:30pm May 27, 2017 | 7lbs 1oz | 20.5 inches
Macey had some trouble latching so we did a lot of skin-to-skin while I hand expressed and we syringe-fed. Before we left the hospital she was feeding at the breast but using a nipple shield.
Completely overjoyed, a little freaked out, and heading home. I was still sore but just taking Advil by the time we left the hospital. We stayed over night both Saturday and Sunday night, home on Monday.
And just like that, we were parents!
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