Brynnen Clare Eskew
8 lbs 1 oz 20.5 inches 5.13.17, 7:51 AM Name means: Salvation from God, Clear/bright One week with our 2nd little girl and I need to get this story down before I forget the details. This will probably be TMI... you've been warned. 😜 Friday the 12th I had a doctor's appointment at 40w3d. As some of you know, I had been having contractions since 32w5d. I was even on modified bed rest until 37 weeks so we could make sure she didn't come too early. The fact that I went over my due date was a little 🙄. An important thing to note here is that we make GIANT head babies and I have a small pelvic structure. Hence, 4 hours of pushing with Calista, bone on bone. This coupled with being overdue made me nervous about my ability to deliver vaginally. Anyway, we decided that we would strip my membranes, which basically separates the cervix from the amniotic sac. The goal here is to release a hormone that can stimulate labor. Since I was already 4CM dilated and 70% effaced, we all felt like it was a good option. I'll also be transparent and say that I did not want to induce labor before 40 weeks. I also had a really hard time making this decision, but I did and that's that. Since the procedure is only 24% effective, we also scheduled my induction for 41w1d. Tim went to work around 4pm. At 9pm, as it had many weeks before, my contractions picked up. I tried the usual tricks... lay down on the left side, sit on the ball, take a hot shower. Instead of easing up as they usually did, these got worse. Around 11pm, Tim left work early to come home. At this point contractions were about 7-8 minutes apart. We decided to try and get some rest... it never happened for me. I started having rolling contractions which is what I had with Calista, where I would have a contraction, it would act like it was done but then come back with a vengeance, repeat. At 3AM I called my doctor. They originally told me to wait to come in until contractions were 5 minutes apart; I was still 6-7 minutes apart but in WOAH pain. For those of you who don't know, I ended up delivering naturally with Calista after the epidural wore off, so I know what these feel like. Dr said to come in, but we had to wait for my parents to wake up and drive to our house to stay with Calista. Fast forward through back labor that I couldn't sit or lay down through, we got to the hospital at 4:30AM. In triage, I immediately asked for an epidural. My contractions had me repeating "help"... my poor husband. My water broke and I was 6-7CM. They moved me to L&D, all which had me sitting on my booty, the worst possible position for me at the time. The anesthesiologist came in quickly, yay! By the time he was done I had been at the hospital about an hour. I have to say trying to sit through an epidural while contracting the ENTIRE time was incredibly hard. But blessed relief came and I was at 10 CM. Around 6AM, they had me push. Brynnen's HR dropped so we went into "recovery" which typically lasts an hour. This was my favorite part because after 30 minutes or so, I could feel my body working to labor B down. I really wanted my body to do the work and to trust that B and I knew what to do. At about 7:25AM, I felt like I could push, still no pain, yay! So we pushed about 4 times per contraction and in less than 30 minutes she was here! We were able to do immediate skin to skin and delay the cord clamping, just like we wanted. They then left us alone for an hour. I don't think it really hit me until she started to nurse for the first time. All of a sudden I realized that I get to love a new precious person and my heart already knew where she would fit. Just like with Calista, I feel like I've always known her and was just waiting for her to be mine. God always knows what He's doing and I can't help but be awed by His timing, His grace, and His forgiveness. We ended up going home from the hospital after just 34 hours, on Mother's Day, just like all those years ago when my parents brought me home. It was incredibly special.
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