Enjoying the Journey: Brystol's Baby Story

Working 32 hours a week and chasing a two year old really made me tired of being large and pregnant. I loved feeling the little movements but I was running out of room and was anxious to meet my little girl. I had my OB appointment on February 3 where Dr. Housley stripped my membranes. I thought for sure I would have my little girl that day because when I had my membranes stripped with Porter, I had him later that night. I was uncomfortable all day and would sometimes think that I was having contractions but could hardly tell. They would be regular then they would go away. I felt as though I had no idea what was going on with my body. Obviously each pregnancy is different and wandering thoughts left me doubting. The next day as I was concentrating on contractions, bouncing on a ball, and walking on mom's elliptical I thought I was in early labor and missed work thinking I would be in shortly to have my baby. I was surely disappointed, I even went in later that night to see if I was just imagining my contractions for they were 5 minutes apart; I was just not in pain. I was reassured by Tammie Hoff RN that I was having contractions about every 5-7 minutes apart but they were weak and signs of early labor. I went home feeling a little better. The same thing went on all the next day till later that night (February 5th). They were happening regularly as before, but they were getting stronger. When they were strong enough that I would have to stop and breath till they relaxed, I called Spencer off of his midnight shift and told him that I thought that it was going to be tonight. I got ready to go the hospital and called my parents. By the time they got to my house it was about 1 AM. Spencer and I went in with the idea that I would call mom when I knew we were closer to having our baby and dad would stay at the house with Porter.
We got into the hospital and Pam Shuler, RN was my nurse. She got me in my gown and put me on the monitors. It showed that I was having very strong contractions and I was dilated to a 6. I was still feeling pretty good and was up and walking. She called the Dr. to inform him of my progress. My mom came in stating that she could not sleep because she was too excited and wanted to be there. I got my epidural at about 6:30 which really made me feel weird. My blood pressure was going down due to the anesthesia and I had be given meds to keep it up which made my heart race. I could no longer feel that contractions till about 9 AM and I was hurting in one spot in my back with every contraction. It continued to get worse and I was getting closer to having my baby. I was having to breath through contractions and when finally dilated to a 10, I was having some really bad back labor. I only had to push for 15 minutes and my baby girl was born at 10:37.
It is amazing how beautiful it is to bring a little one into the world. I treasure the moment when I got to see her for the first time and seeing the proud look on Spencer's face and the tears running down my mom's face. She was perfect in every way.
After all the clean up, Porter came in and to see his baby sister. He immediately began to call her baby sis and wanted to hold her. Although his attention was short and moved on to other things, I could tell he loved her. When on of the nurses came in to check her vital signs, Porter was yelling at her, "BABY TO MOM! MOM, BABY!" He didn't want her to take the baby from me. He knew she belonged to us. So cute!
Spencer and I had a moment to ourselves to decide what her name should be. She was born on her Grandma Rosy's birthday, so we named her Brystol Rose. It was not a name that was on our list but it just fit. Brystol was so beautiful and we were happy!