Brittlynn’s Birth Story {By Mommy}

Brittlynn’s Birth Story {By Mommy}

Warning: This post will be long and detailed.

I like to be upfront and honest about things, even if they may make some people uncomfortable.

Do not read any further if you are one of these people or if you’re currently pregnant or someday plan to become pregnant.

I don’t want to be to blame if this makes you nervous about childbirth or makes you decide not to have kids to avoid childbirth! For the rest of you…here it is!!!

On Tuesday Dec. 6th I woke up feeling like it was “the day.”

I had my appointment that morning for my 39 week check-up at 8:45.

I met Mrs. Charlotte and gave her Kye then went to the appointment.

Teresa checked me (and did not scrape my membranes) and said the baby’s heart rate was awesome (161! Highest EVER!) and that my bag of waters was right there and she couldn’t believe it hadn’t already broken.

She said I was a solid -1 station, 90% effaced, and 4 cm dilated.

We talked some about induction for that Thursday since she was on call but I knew before leaving the office that I probably would turn down that offer.

We prayed together which was awesome and I was out of there by about 9:45.

I met Kye and Mrs. Charlotte at Chick-Fil-A and ran into about 10 people I know so it took a little while there.

Kye and I left at 10:30 to go to the Dollar Store to buy his present for his gift exchange at school the following week.

While in the store I started feeling contractions that were strong enough to make me pause what I was doing.

I was also in enough pain where people could tell and a lady nicely let us cut in front of her in the check out line.

At 11 Kye had his last swim lesson…I thought about calling to cancel but I had canceled on her the week before when I was sick and I didn’t want him to miss again. So we went!

On the way there I talked to Mom (she was 3 hours away working that day) and she suggested that I time the contractions during swim.

I started timing them once Kye got in the water and they were regular.

About a min long and 10 min apart.

I got up and down from the chair I was sitting in and even walked around (you’ll know it’s true labor if the pains don’t stop when you change positions) and, nope, they weren’t stopping.

I debated telling Ms. Margie to cut it short, but Kye was LOVING his lesson and having SO much fun!

They were doing so great, in fact, that instead of a 30 min lesson she kept him in the water for almost an hour.

Super sweet of her but I was counting every minute so we could get out of there.

By the time he was done it was tough for me to focus and get him ready.

I ended up just taking him to the car in his shirt and underwear and Ms. Margie carried him for me.

It may be obvious to you at this point that I was in labor, but I wasn’t sure.

I thought maybe it was all in my head since I was so sure that I would go into labor after my appointment ya know?

It was about 11:45 on our drive home and I called Zach who, thankfully, was also on his way home.

While talking to him I had a contraction and it was difficult to talk (another sign of true labor) he said we’d figure it out when I got home.

Once home Zach took over with Kye and fed him lunch while I decided to go ahead and treat it like labor.

I mean if it was legit I didn’t want to waste my “feel okay” time wondering when I should be packing up and getting ready!!!

Around 12:30 we decided that it was, in fact, legit.

I had gone pee and had some bloody show when I wiped so I assumed that was yet another way of my body announcing that it was baby time!

Zach called Mom so she would head home, I called Autumn so she would be prepared with the pictures, and I called Jordan to make sure he was nearby to watch Kye when the time came.

Timing could NOT have been more perfect.

I was still feeling okay and was able to get everything done and ready before Kye even went down for his nap (he walked in the bathroom while I was getting ready and said “you getting ready to go to the hopsitbul?” So funny b/c we did NOT tell him!!!).

When Kye went down I was able to go with Zach to tuck him in and shower him with kisses.

One last moment as a family of three and Kye was beyond loving. He cuddled us both together and was just very precious.

Our last picture before becoming a family of four!

After he was in bed, at 1:00, Zach got started on the things he needed to do.

It was all SO much less stressful than last time.

We still hadn’t timed any contractions and I was doing good during them.

I was texting with friends between contractions.

During them I couldn’t speak or move. I found that standing through them was sometimes more comfortable than laying down.

But soon they got to the point where laying down was my only option.

I stopped being able to help do things to prepare to leave and just had to focus on the contractions.

We timed them and they were 3-5 minutes apart, lasting between 40 and 60 seconds.

I would hurt during them but be fine inbetween.

I felt excited and not the least bit scared or worried.

I kept saying “can you believe this is happening?!?!”

We made an AWESOME team this time around when laboring at home.

Once they got too intense for me to accomplish anything I laid down on the floor with a pillow under my head and side and Zach coached me through relaxing.

My favorite things were when he would stroke me and softly say “relax, feel all the tension leave you, relax” and when he’d remind me to breathe deep in my tummy. Both helped a TON.

I couldn’t remember how long the time was supposed to be between contractions before we should go to the hospital so I texted both Robyn and Crissy and asked them and they both said 5 minutes.

I tried looking it up online but we all know how long that can take and I told Zach to get the Bradley book out so we could look it up.

For first timers it said 3 min apart, for “seasoned vets” it said 4 min apart.

Since they were 3-5 min apart, I said we needed to go.

Really I could have stayed at home longer but I wanted to get there b/c I knew we would have a LONG time of checking in and such once we arrived.

Zach called Jordan and told him to come on and he asked him about work!

I kinda snapped and said “who cares about work right now?!?!” I laid in the living room floor while we waited (and Zach loaded the car) and we actually went ahead and got in the car and left before he arrived.

We passed each other when we were leaving the neighborhood and Jordan gave us some fist pumps out his window 😉

I made sure to tell Autumn to leave too (she lives near us) so we could hopefully get there at the same time as I was worried that I’d get there, be too far along, and they wouldn’t let her in the delivery room with us.

Also on the way Stacy called (I had texted her and asked if she felt like delivering a baby that day haha) and she said I sounded too happy to be in labor!

I told her to give it another minute or so and I wouldn’t be sounding so cheerful.

She wished us luck and I had about 2 contractions on the way.

I looked at the clock and we were on our way to the hospital at 2:20.

When we pulled in I told Zach to park the car and we’d walk in together.

Last time I waited for them to bring a wheelchair and I knew it’d just be faster for me to walk.

I made it to the sidewalk when I had a bad one and had to lay down on the side walk!

Nurses later told me they saw me lay down, wait a minute, then just get right back up and keep walking. I’m a solider 😉

I did some moaning while everyone was around, I couldn’t really help it.

But this time I didn’t feel embarrassed.

I knew I HAD to be further in labor than I was when I went to the hospital with Kye b/c when I got there with him I was only 4 cm and this time I was 4 cm before labor even started!

The lady who checked us in was very nervous and tried to hurry.

Zach said it went WAY faster that time and I knew me being there helped it to go quick.

They didn’t even ask for my license and insurance and junk and I was contracting too much to really help answer most of the questions so Zach answered them all for me.

Someone behind the counter was talking about their supplemental insurance and if it would pay on something and Zach and I were BOTH thinking about telling them the answer to their question…but, duh, we didn’t need to slow down.

Zach said “I know all about that b/c that’s what I do for a living but sorry I can’t help now!”

The wheelchair was not comfortable for contractions and I was thankful when they got us out of that room.

We ran into Autumn in the hall which was great!

They weighed me (Zach said the scale said 7 lb higher than my home scale) but didn’t keep me in that tiny room this time. Score!

Last time it was HORRIBLE.

I remember being alone (Zach was still checking in) and feeling closed in b/c all the nurses in there and it’s tiny.

Instead we went straight into a labor and delivery room! Great advantage to laboring at home as long as possible am I right?

Welcome to labor and delivery room!

Relaxing in-between contractions

I made sure when we left the house to grab the basket of hospital treats I’d made.

They were a HIT! Even in the pains of labor, I remembered to tell everyone that came in the room to get some of them and all 32 were taken before I got discharged from the hospital (but only 3 nurses who helped me didn’t get one, so it worked out pretty good!).

I HIGHLY recommend doing something like this if anyone every goes into the hospital…I think it helped everyone know early on that I’m a nice person 😉

It’s CRAZY the similarities between my labor with Kye and my labor this time around.

The day I had Kye I had a dr appt at 9. This time I had it at 8:45. With Kye my water broke at 10:30.

This time I felt labor contractions around 10:45.

Last time I got to the hospital around 1.

This time I got to the hospital after 2:30.

They do shift changes at 3:00 and with the timing when I got there again this time I was worried I’d have the mega mean nurse again who put in my IV with Kye.

The nurse who met us in the hall to check us in remembered me right away from last time and was the NICE nurse who was in the room with us.

Her name is Christine and she’s beyond sweet.

I was much more present this time during delivery than I remember being last time.

I even asked Autumn if the room looked the same…I seriously have NO memory of what my surroundings looked like when I was in labor before but this time I was looking around the room and talking to everyone between contractions without real issues.

I asked Christine about the mean nurse and she said she knew exactly who I was talking about and that she’d already left (whew!) Autumn said she saw her in the hall too!

For Bradley Method, it’s the best to lay on your left side to be able to relax through the contractions but I had to lay on my right quite a bit for them to get me all checked in and such.

Zach did an AWESOME job talking me through everything and I had a pretty good handle on it.

The annoying thing was them taking my blood pressure b/c it would tighten and loosen around my arm over and over again and it’s hard to fully relax when you feel that sensation. 

So sweet to hold my hand!

When Christine checked me I was 6 cm. She said that was awesome and that I must have done GREAT laboring at home. I felt SO good about being at 6 cm.

Originally, I wanted to be 8 when I got to the hospital but with the check in time and such I think I came at the perfect time.

I handled the pain SO much better this time around, the contractions still felt like intense cramping (could be confused with bad diarrhea pains or period cramps) that just lasts a long time.

I gave in very quickly to the idea that they were going to happen and I couldn’t stop them from happening. I mentally knew the best thing I could do for myself to help them not hurt was to relax and breathe deep in my stomach.

Bradley Method isn’t about avoiding pain, it’s about facing it head on and dealing with it.

I still did quite a bit of moaning but not nearly as much squirming around. I even semi-dosed off between many of the early contractions!

Since I was so in the moment, I was able to make sure the nursing staff got their hands on my signed birth plan.

Christine said it came up in my file too and that she remembered me from last time.

She said “You’re a rare one!”

She also said she really wished she could stay in there with me as no one ever keeps the sex a surprise and it makes it so fun.

I also had my little white sheet from the dr office (they write on it each week to say how far along I was at each appointment and it said to call Teresa on it) and they kept asking me if I had gone to the dr that morning because I had an appointment or because I thought I was in labor.

I think they had a hard time wrapping their heads around someone walking around that far dilated!

At 3:00 Christine left (so we barely got to see her) and I looked up into the eyes of my new nurse…and it was ELIZABETH! The SAME, awesome nurse we had with Kye.

I was overjoyed but my first thought to myself was “I’m getting too lucky here…something will for sure go wrong.”

Elizabeth also remembered me right away (I guess when you keep the baby’s sex a surprise and you go all natural people tend to remember you…) and seemed equally excited to get to be there for the big event.

Next time I plan to let her know when I’m pregnant so we can try to work it out where she can be there again. She really is THE best!

The moment I saw her 🙂

Elizabeth checked me again pretty quickly and I was at 7 cm.

Mom said from the waiting room it was like one text after another saying I had changed to more and more dilated.

I am SO much better in tune with my body.

I was telling Elizabeth to check me and every time she did I was further along than before.

I could tell by the intensity of the contractions and the pressure I felt.

The more pressure means the more dilated you are because that baby is getting ready to have you push it out!

They hooked me up to both the annoying monitors again.

I didn’t pay much attention to them and didn’t ask too much about how the baby was doing either.

I know the heart rate was in the 130s and I think it stayed around that area the whole time.

We also didn’t use the contraction monitor nearly as much.

Once I was pushing they’d watch it some but typically they just relied on me and my body cues.

Teresa thought it was super funny in my written birth plan that we didn’t want to watch the birth in the mirror.

When we got there it was the first thing we noticed and had to do something about it.

Thankfully Elizabeth got a sheet and Zach covered it up as fast as he could!

Who wants to see something the size of a watermelon come out of a hole the barely the size of a lemon? NOT ME!

Since I was going so quickly, checking me in was taking a long time.

They were so sweet and patient to wait for a calm moment before asking me annoying questions or messing with me.

I was secretly hoping that I’d be too far along and they wouldn’t bother with the IV…but they did.

And honestly, I’m GLAD I had it. Since I was so much further along I didn’t have as many breaks in between contractions to stay hydrated with water and ice chips.

I felt dehydrated during labor and even after labor I kept the IV in because I knew I needed it.

At my 36 week pregnancy check up they had a hard time finding a vein for my blood work and I ended up having to go back again to get it done.

Well, it must be a “me issue” because Elizabeth had a mega hard time finding a spot for the IV.

How cruddy is that…a girl who hates needles has veins that make it even worse when I have to have them?!?!

She ended up having to put the IV in the crook of my elbow.

Not a very good spot as every time I folded my arm the iv couldn’t flow so I wasn’t getting the fluid I needed and the annoying machine would beep like crazy at me.

It just added one more thing to try to be conscious of and I didn’t need that – so I didn’t worry about it and just let the thing beep.

If I needed to fold my arm dangit I was gonna fold it (probably another reason, though, that I was dehydrated!)

This is one of my favorite pictures from the delivery process.

I am in hardcore labor and look happy as can be and relax! A model Bradley birth 🙂 Plus you can see my push present ring!

My coach is the BEST 😉

More relaxation

Last time around my favorite delivery room item was my I-Fan.

This time around they finally bought BIG revolving fans for each room so I could have constant airflow which was awesome.

I’d say that during this delivery I loved my Turvis Tumbler cup.

I have used it every single day since I got it for my birthday and it was wonderful to have water on hand. I’m glad I brought it fully filled as it took them awhile to refill it once it was gone.

Zach said it was easier to hand me water and ice than hold that i-fan the whole time…glad I made things easier on him haha

Very quickly I started to feel the urge to push.

It’s hard to describe that feeling but it’s kinda like having to take a huge dump and you know if  you don’t push it out right then that you’re totally going to go in your pants.

I’d say it was around 3:30ish when I had Elizabeth check me and she told me I was 8 cm.

My water still hadn’t broken and she said I also had a small piece of cervix that needed to get out of the way before push time.

Bradley Method discusses not letting the staff decide when you start pushing.

It’s all about doing what my body naturally tells me to do.

I have a friend who said her waters didn’t break either and that she let her body push when it told her to push and it made her water break on it’s own without the dr having to do it.

So that’s what I did.

I admitted it to Elizabeth (and the rest of the room) that I was “secretly” pushing.

I highly doubt it was much of a secret.

I kept feeling these HUGE gushes and thought I was breaking my water but every time it was more bloody show. Like a TON of bloody show.

I didn’t see it but she had to keep changing out the stuff I was laying on.

I assume all of that is normal but it didn’t feel comfortable and everyone said at the end of delivery what a miracle it was that my hospital gown wasn’t covered in junk!

At 8 cm you are officially in the transition phase.

It is the shortest, but most difficult, part of labor.

The contractions are the most intense but the most the phase ever lasts is about 30 min.

Last time it was easy for me to make it through transition b/c with each painful contraction I knew I was that much closer to pushing out my baby.

At 8 cm the dr/midwife will break your water if it didn’t break on your own and you’re officially too far along to receive any medication.

I wasn’t able to be very excited about all of this because one crucial thing was missing. My midwife.

When we checked in the FIRST thing I told them was to call Teresa.

When we got back to delivery I told them to call Teresa.

I knew I was far along. I knew it was going quickly.

When I got to 7 cm Elizabeth called her.

She was working that day (since I saw her that morning) and Southern OB is only a 10 min drive.

When I got to 8 cm I could believe she wasn’t there.

I didn’t understand why someone else couldn’t break my water and we couldn’t just do it without her but the nursing staff isn’t allowed to do it.

I tried pushing to break it on my own and it didn’t work either. Time kept passing and no Teresa in sight.

At this point I had a much more difficult time.

To me, this time frame was worse than pushing Kye out for 3 hours.

Pushing feels good. It feels natural and it’s allowing your body to do what it’s meant to do in labor.

Me laying there in agony trying to stop my body from pushing was not natural.

It was IMPOSSIBLE for me to full relax the way I knew I needed to because my body was screaming “push push push!”

I had my ankles crossed (which creates tension which is the opposite of relaxation) and tried to relax the best I could.

Zach and Elizabeth were both so sweet in trying to remind me to breathe deep and stay on top of it.

When I’d hit the peak of a contraction though I’d push. I had to.

I announced at one point that I was pretty sure I pooped..and I had.

I’m not ashamed to say that because pooping on the table is actually a good thing.

To push a baby out you have to push the same way you push when pooping so the fact that I did poop was proof that I was pushing the correct way.

I was very, very upset that Teresa wasn’t there.

I still don’t know what took her so long but I could tell that both Zach and Elizabeth were mad too.

Zach kept telling me it had only been such-and-such time and when you are in labor you can’t really judge time so I believed him but I later found out that I was in the transition phase for over an HOUR. She took that long to arrive.

They called her over and over again and even stopped telling me not to push or to wait.

I think everyone was just hoping she’d hurry up.

I lost control some during this time and said “see – that’s why I want Stacy, SHE would be here!!!”

Zach tried to remind me that I had to have a good attitude so then I started to say “please hurry Teresa please hurry!”

I also called out “Daddy” during a contraction. How random is that?!?

I just felt the need to say something that ended in a “y” sound and that’s the word I came up with.

I felt kinda dumb and even laughed about it after the contraction ended!

I was not as goofy and funny this time around as I was last time.

I think it’s because everything was so much faster, I was better focused on what I needed to do, and it got tough there for awhile to even do that.

My good mood got less and less pleasant the longer she took to arrive.

I guess Zach was so mad that he left the room at one point to talk to some nurses away from me so he could express his frustration.

I was proud of us though, as when she did finally show up we were nice to her and didn’t say anything about the whole thing.

I tried to be light-hearted and asked her if she scraped me that morning and told her that I didn’t want to be induced 😉

She broke my water right away and checked me and said I was 9 1/2 cm. 

I mean seriously?!?!

I still can’t believe that I was in that much pain for that long only because she wasn’t there.

We would have had a BABY much sooner than we did if she’d arrived right when she should have.

Part of me really wants to know what took her so dang long but I’ll probably never bring it up.

It was just disappointing and frustrating (um and PAINFUL).

She put an internal monitor on the baby so I could remove one of the straps around my belly.

It’s actually a more accurate way to monitor the baby and I wish I’d known about it with Kye.

It goes up inside of you and attaches to the baby’s head!

When she did the check I still had a small little bit of cervix and she said that the baby was sunny side up and I’d need to do some stuff to turn it.

At that point what little control I had left over myself went out the window.

When my mom gave birth to me I was sunny side up.

She was in labor for something crazy like 16 hours or something and tried all the moves to make me turn and I wouldn’t.

They prepped her for c-section and then ended up using forceps to turn and pull me out.

When they did that we think they must have slipped because I was born with a pretty blackish eye and now have a permanent indention in the side of my face.

It is also why we, and the dr I recently saw about it, think I can’t smell (you can read more about that here).

There is no way that Teresa or Elizabeth could have been expected to know all of that so they were shocked by my reaction.

I even said “it’s why I can’t smell!” and Teresa kinda laughed, thinking I was talking crazy talk.

I just kept thinking that everything Mom went through was about to happen to me and my baby.

I was scared. I was worried.

I felt like I should tell them to just do a c-section because I didn’t want to risk my baby not being able to smell too (I mean, they don’t even use forceps anymore but in the moment it was a legit concern I had and I think it’s understandable).

Zach says during this time I straight up lost it. I felt embarrassed by how I was acting and like I was disappointing everyone.

She had me get up on all fours and push my stomach up then down in a stretch type motion, similar to the pelvic rock exercises I do with Bradley each night, but instead of just tucking the stomach, I pushed it all the way to the bed then back up.

Up until that point I literally hadn’t broken a sweat during labor.

I was pretty pumped that I’d be looking good but then I stopped caring when I was worried about the sunny side up situation.

Being in that position was killing my arms and I remembered from last time that my arms were like jelly after pushing so I wanted to conserve that arm strength.

She had me lay down on the back of the bed and put my arms over it but I’m too short for that to really work.

During these different positions I was, duh, having mega strong contractions.

It was impossible to relax and I think I even told Zach to stop trying.

I mean I was too emotional and in too strange of positions to allow my body to relax.

Think of all the tension in my body when I was on all fours!

Zach said all of that only last under 20 min but it was horrible.

I was one of those typical ladies in labor that you see on tv – I screamed out in my pain!

I apologized to Autumn and she was so sweet and said “we’re all just here for you to support you!”

She later told me that watching me in labor made her want to have more babies because I did such a wonderful job and she said she had a hard time holding back tears.

I’m SO thankful that I do natural child birth.

Having to do those positions would have probably been impossible with medication and who knows what would have ended up happening if I hadn’t been able to do those exercises when I did! 

I quickly told them I just couldn’t do it anymore.

I HAD to push and I couldn’t keep up the craziness of everything going on.

I probably only did the all fours thing for two contractions, and the hanging over the bed for two but I was done.

I was surprised they didn’t fight me on it at all and instead got me ready for push time!

I can’t tell you the position I was in for pushing Kye…but this time they had my legs in stirrups and at some point also brought out these handle things for me to hold onto.

I know all of you probably think I’m mega ticked at Teresa for taking so long to get there, and I am/was hurt by it (both emotionally and physically!) but the way she stepped up afterwards really made me glad she was there.

Nothing against Debbie (who delivered Kye) but Teresa rocked it.

Debbie would ask me “can you push again? do you have one more in you?” and that’s not what I need.

Teresa didn’t give me any options.

She was very bossy and direct and I did SO much better because of her leadership style.

I also appreciate how wonderful she was about the birth plan.

How wonderful everyone was about it.

Not one single person even mentioned drugs, or a catheter or anything.

It probably has something to do with the fact that it was my second time doing it and that both nurses knew me last time but I’m appreciative of all the support!!!

It exceeded my expectations which is such a blessing.

All of your prayers were answered for sure, so thank you for praying on our behalf during that time.

Zach was much more involved with the pushing process this time than he was last time.

He helped hold my legs and even my head and he was able to see thing going on “down there.”

He never planned to see…didn’t want to see…but we’re both glad he did as the stuff he was telling me REALLY helped motivate me to push my hardest.

He was able to see the head and kept telling me that.

We really went off my body cues as to when to push.

I’d feel the urge and tell them then we’d go for it.

We did four pushes each contraction and it wasn’t easy.

I did WAY better about not clinching up my butt this time.

I tried to keep it relaxed and focus on pushing like I had to take a dump (sorry I keep saying that, but seriously that’s exactly how you need to push).

They told me that moaning would waste energy and air so I did good at not moaning and instead focusing on getting BIG breaths and pushing with all my might.

They got out the oxygen mask once but it annoyed me and they didn’t make me use it.

I felt a lot of pain down there and wasn’t quite sure what Teresa was doing but Zach later told me that she was using her finger to help open me up to help the baby fit.

Mom said that’s a sign of an awesome midwife b/c most would just cut me.

She did even up giving me a very small and minor cut and Zach even told me I needed to do it because he could see that the hole just wasn’t big enough for the head to fit.

I’m not really sure the exact time I started to push but it was close to 5:00.

I pushed pretty solid the whole time.

I remember having one contraction where I didn’t push as good as I needed to and I had one contraction where I didn’t push at all.

I didn’t have a strong urge during it and needed the rest.

I felt like it was literally take big breath, push, big breath, push, over and over again with very little breaks but the time seemed to fly by.

I probably had less than 10 pushing contractions? Zach may remember better than I do though so we’ll see when he writes his story!

Everything ready!

With Kye, he came out in one big push.

This time it took longer than that.

I pushed and they said they saw the baby then they told me to STOP pushing.

I was confused by that but after the baby was born Teresa told me that it was a good thing I went into labor when I did.

The umbilical cord was wrapped around the neck…twice.

Zach said he could see it tighten when I pushed.

When I stopped pushing Teresa was untangling it.

She said that it happens often and that the baby may have moved before I delivered and it may have been fine but that she was still glad it happened when it did just in case.

She handled that great too as she didn’t tell me until after from my end I couldn’t even tell anything was mildly wrong.

She also told me later that her head was in the correct position when she was delivered, which meant my hard work at getting her to turn had been well worthwhile!!!

I felt the umbilical cord and the rest of the baby all come out and heard the healthy baby cry right away which was awesome.

Teresa didn’t tell us what it was…she simply showed Zach the baby and he got to say “it’s a girl!”

I thought that was really special that she let him have that moment.

I was zero percent surprised that it was a girl but was, of course, thrilled!

Zach was crying and even though I thought I’d cry this time I didn’t. Not one bit!

Welcome to the world!

I still want to get to experience Stacy delivering me…but Teresa was truly God-sent for us this time around!

I’m so thankful for her willingness to do things as much “my way” as possible and how tough love she was when it came to the pushing. I think we made a great team in there!!!

Part of my birth plan was to let the umbilical cord stay attached until it completely stopped pulsing.

This is a new trend but I’ve heard it’s got a ton of health benefits for the baby and I’m all about doing anything I can to help my babies be their healthiest!

Teresa laid her on my stomach and I was able to touch her.

I guess they kinda wiped her off when she came out b/c I don’t remember her looking, or feeling, super icky or anything.

I didn’t even have to remind them to let the cord finish pulsing, I guess Teresa just remembered.

It was a neat feeling to feel her on top of my belly rather than inside it.

Everyone kept commenting on how much hair she had but I didn’t get the least bit excited about that…Kye had a decent bit too and lost every strand!

Almost as soon as I had pushed her out my thoughts went to Kye and I told Zach to call Jordan to make sure they knew to head our way.

It was important to me for Kye to get to meet her first and Jordan can be a bit on the slower side so I wanted them to have plenty of time.

We had meant to call them when I was pushing but with all the craziness we forgot.

I feel bad for all of you who were following everything on facebook…we also failed to update anyone in the waiting room.

They were so worried that they called into the room to ask how things were going.

The last update they had said I was at 8 and that’d been like two hours before I gave birth!!!

I remember thinking how skinny her little arms were and feeling excited to get to hold her.

Zach cutting the cord.

There she is!

7 lb 13 oz, 20 1/2 inches long born at 5:20 PM on Dec 6th, 2011

While they were doing their thing on her, Teresa was doing her thing on me…and dang was she ever!

I knew before delivery day that I’d totally end up telling her how rough she is when she does her check ups…and I did end up telling her!

She was pretty rough fixing me up down there too.

My placenta delivered on it’s own in one piece this time which made things a little quicker but even though she didn’t cut me (and I didn’t rip either) nearly as much as last time around…the stitching me up hurt worse.

She ended up asking me if I wanted her to numb it down there…um YEAH! I think maybe she assumed I didn’t want it to be numb b/c the whole no drugs thing?!?!

Zach tended to the baby while I was getting worked on and I’m SO thankful that it wasn’t nearly as long of a time period as it was before.

I was eager to hold her and Teresa told me I could while she worked on me but it was so painful that I was fearful I’d hurt her or something.

Also while Teresa worked, Elizabeth pushed a lot on my stomach to get my uterus to contract and that was extremely painful.

The after birth junk was probably more painful than the during birth!

Her apgar score was an 8.9.

I asked a nurse later why they gave her that score and she said typically it’s due to coloring.

Her hands took awhile to get color in them so that’s probably why.

They were still bluish purple when they took her to get her first bath!

Sweet, sweet Daddy

Zach called his Mom in the waiting room while I was getting fixed up to see if Kye had gotten there yet and let her know that everyone was healthy.

The baby was crying in the background and we all told Zach to hang up!

When Kye was born we didn’t even say “he” until after we told the family, but with her we couldn’t help but say “her” and “she” a bunch and didn’t want anyone to screw up and say it while he was on the phone!

Hair!

My labor lasted from 10:45-5:20, which is a total of 6 hours and 35 min.

With Kye labor started at 10:30 and he was born at 6:55. So labor was 8 hours total.

I thought my labor the second time would be much quicker than my first, especially since 3 of the 8 hours of my first delivery I was pushing.

I think my labor this time wasn’t as fast as I expected because my water didn’t break.

It broke the first time around and it mega speeds up the labor process.

Things were slower to develop this time for sure! Plus I would have been done an hour earlier had Teresa gotten there quicker!

Waiting for Mommy to nurse her

Establishing a solid nursing relationship was mega important to me.

I had wanted to nurse before delivering the placenta but everything happened so fast that I didn’t think about it until after.

She took a few min to latch on then she did amazing.

Her first feeding session lasted about 40 min and she ate from both sides!!!

During that time Zach was so sweet to help make sure she had a good latch and everything.

He also got out my brush and brushed my hair.

I didn’t bother with any other fixing up because she had nursed for so long that Elizabeth said we kinda had to hurry with the introductions and all b/c they would have to get her to the nursery.

I know (those of you that actually read this far) you are probably surprised at this delivery story…it wasn’t as smooth sailing and easy as the pictures may have made it look huh?

I’m thankful Autumn did not capture those tougher moments, but I do feel that I handled myself, overall, very well.

I had more relaxing contractions than non-relaxing ones and had a better grip on reality, the pain, and the end goal.

I leaned on Zach much more this time and he was truly able to shine as my coach (and did AWESOME!).

I labored at home beautifully and I did it all without any drugs!

I am very proud of myself for delivering two beautiful, healthy babies 100% natural and am so blessed that God watched over us during this delivery.

Many things could have gone much worse than they did and I’d rather endure all the pain in the world than have something be wrong with my baby!

I am so thankful to God for our sweet blessings and I’m especially thankful to Him for my amazing husband.

He supports me through everything and helped me to achieve my delivery goals.

I felt a lot of pressure this time around because I did so great the first time and I’m quite possibly even more proud of myself for doing it again!

We have a perfect son and now a perfect sweet baby girl. What more could you ask for?!?

If you would like to read about my first experience with natural childbirth, you can read Kye’s birth story here.

You can also read Zach’s version of Brittlynn’s birth story here!

Thank you to ALL of you for your thoughts and prayers during this special time. It made my heart so happy to read all your sweet comments and facebook messages wishing us well. I’m very confident that it’s thanks to all of your prayers that our girl was able to be born so perfect and healthy!!!

Up next…Kye meeting his baby sister!