We just had a baby. Hooray! It was for sure a roller-coaster ride for the last few months. Here is Dave's story of the event.
| Emily Lynn Shumway was born on Sunday May 26th at 4:59 PM. We awoke in the morning to find that Brienne's water was leaking and we knew that we were in for an eventful day. On friday we had been told that because of Brienne's gestational hypertension she would have to be induced on tuesday if she did not have the baby before then. Both of us were worried by this because we strongly believe in letting babies come when they are ready and with as little medical intervention as possible. But the choice was out of our hands. If we waited, Brienne's life could also be put at risk. So, we prayed a lot that our little girl would come on her own. So, when Brienne's water broke on Sunday morning we knew it was a blessing and we needed to go with it. So, we called our babysitter, Brienne's sister Krystyna, to come and watch the boys. But after repeated calls she didn't answer so we had to drive to American Fork to wake her up and hand off the boys. Then we went to the hospital. Unfortunately, upon our arrival we found that Brienne was still only dilated to a 1 and her cervix was still thick. They suggested we begin Pitocin right away. We decided to wait a couple of hours and see if things could get going on their own, which they didn't. So, we started Pitocin and over the next few hours as the doses were increased Brienne began having consistent and painful contractions. But the progress was still slow. As more hours went by and she had only reached a 5, Brienne decided she couldn't go another 5 hours like this and asked for an epidural. But then things got interesting. It took about 20-30 minutes for the epidural guy to get there. Brienne was the only mother having a baby that day in the hospital, so he had to be called in. When he did arrive there were questions to be asked and papers to be filled out and needles to be inserted, all the while Brienne was still having contractions. Once the epidural was in place but before any medicine had been given, Brienne was dilated to a 7 and was fully effaced. At this point, there were what seemed like 10 people in the room setting up equipment and putting on gloves and robes. I was a little confused by this thinking that we were still a good hour or more away from the baby arriving, but I figured there were no other mothers in labor, so maybe they were just getting things set up. Imagine my surprise then when before the epidural guy has even had time to finish Brienne has the urge to push, the midwife gets suited up, nurses are adjusting the bed and putting the bucket in place, and then the head is crowning. And no sooner is the head crowning then the head pops out and we have a baby girl. A beautiful, but tiny little girl. Only 5 lbs 9 oz and 18.5 inches tall. Nearly 2 pounds less than Luke and over 3 pounds less than Wesley. And shorter than them both by an inch or more. But unlike them, she had no problem breathing from the outset and was quickly cleared by the respiratory therapist to stay in the room with us. Everything look perfectly fine, but she was just so tiny that we could hardly believe it. And so it turned out that all of the jostling around in preparation for the epidural got Brienne over the last little hump and our tiny little girl squirted out. Brienne was grateful that she was able to finish up so that they could turn off the epidural before she got numb. We don’t really know how much of the medication took effect before they turned it off, but it doesn’t really matter. We have a baby girl and mom and baby are both doing well. We did have a little trouble deciding on a name, but at last we picked Emily Lynn Shumway. Lynn is Brienne’s mother’s middle name and we picked Emily because it felt good. We have already affectionately nicknamed her Emmy for short. She is a cute little bug. We look forward to you all meeting her. Phew! I feel like I just went through it again! Things have been so good. Recovery was great, but I can't even tell you how exhausted I am. It surprises me even. I have had so much help from family and friends. How grateful I am for everyone. Noe I just have to figure out the whole "having 3 kids" thing is supposed to go :) Love, Brienne P.S. I just have to add, because Dave couldn't, that the contractions were horrible! The nurse came in every 1/2 hour to increase the dosage of Pitocin up 2 notches and each time she did this I would instantly have a horrendously painful contraction. And I mean HORRENDOUS. I labored medication free with Wesley and those contractions seem like a breeze compared to the ones brought on by the Pitocin. I couldn't even think straight and couldn't catch up in between contractions. When I was at 8mL of Pitocin is when things got really bad. But she still had to increase it up to 12 before the craziness happened. It took me 20 minutes to go from 5cm dilated to 10cm. Fast. After I was hooked up to the epidural I was laying back in the bed and felt the urge to push. I said "uh-oh" and Dave is still mad at me. The midwife asked if I was ready to push. This is the same second that my mom walks in after driving all the way from Pocatello, ID. She BARELY made it. I pushed once and they all yelled "you can see her head" I pushed again and she was out. It makes me laugh to remember how surprised I was. The whole thing is still crazy. To plan a birth like that, on the morning of, is so strange to me. It never felt real until I was holding her in my arms. She s straight from heaven. Seriously. A little angel in my arms. And she sleeps like a champ which is really good too. |
