The Chamberlains: Birth Story

****I've been working on this for a few weeks now and trying to get all the pictures organized and write all the details.. and it is still so crazy to me how it all happened. You carry a baby inside you for 9 loooooooong months and dream every night of how it all will happen, and here I am with my sweet baby girl in my arms writing all the details. It was all so perfect and incredible. Most of this post is just for me so I can look back and read and remember every detail. So if you don't want to read the story and the parts that might be TMI (again this is more for me) then just scroll through for pictures :)

FEBRUARY 12TH: I had my 39 week Dr. appointment! I left work early and made it to my appointment just in time. When Dr. Haskett came into the room and checked me and while he was doing that he asked if I wanted him to strip my membranes and see if that would start anything, I said of course! And I also told him he could just break my water while he was doing that anyways... but he just laughed even though I was being mostly serious :) Still only Dilated to 1.5 but before walking out of the room he said I think i'll be seeing you on Saturday! I definitely was excited but trying not to get my hopes up too much.

FEBRUARY 13TH: I went into work this day hoping it would start something since I walk around all day and hunch over people :) It definitely had A LOT of cramping and more contractions and shooting pains down there. That night we went to Thai Drift to celebrate our Valentines Day just in case I were to have the baby the next day. I got some spicy food and then we went to Cabelas and walked around for 2 hours. Hunter loved it because it was my idea to go and we stayed forever as a just lapped the store a million times and it definitely gave me painful contractions about every 6-8 minutes apart for a few hours.

FEBRUARY 14TH: I woke up and had lost my mucus plug (I definitely could have lived my life without seeing that.. haha :)) and started cramping really bad and having contractions every 10 minutes and got extremely nauseous and couldn't keep any food or water down or even hardly get out of bed without feeling so dizzy. So hunter called the Dr's office and they said I needed to go in. I really didn't want to because I knew I would just be sent home because the contractions weren't close enough, but they were concerned because I was so sick and the baby hadn't moved all morning. So Hunter came home from work and we went to the hospital and checked in and then they monitored the baby's heart rate and the contractions for an hour and then would check and see if I had progressed any. So the nurse came back an hour later and checked me again and was still a 1.5 so they sent me home and said don't come in again unless the contractions are 2-3 minutes apart and you can't walk or breath.

FEBRUARY 15TH: We woke up and went to the mall and walked around for an hour or two and I was having contractions every 10-20 minutes all day but they hadn't gotten painful until around 10 that night, so to try and keep my mind off of it I watched what to expect when your expecting and the episode of the office when Jim and Pam have their baby.

FEBRUARY 16TH: So right at midnight my contractions were still consistently every 6-8 minutes and once it hit 2am they were about every 2-4 minutes, Hunter was sleeping on the couch that night cause he thought he was starting to get a cold and didn't want me to catch it and thought I would sleep better. At about 2 am I got in the shower to see if that would help with the pain and it definitely did! Hunter came in after that and just held me and helped me through every contraction reminding me to breath and telling me that we needed to go in. I kept saying that weren't painful enough yet or close enough. Finally Hunter said he was just going to call Labor and Delivery and if they said to come in we were going in. At this point they were about every 2-3 minutes lasting 2 minutes long. Dr. Haskett called Hunter a few minutes later and said we definitely needed to come in and so we left at about 4am to the hospital and I kept saying the whole way I didn't want to go because I didn't want to be sent home. I started getting really nauseous with each contraction as well.

We arrived at the hospital around 4:30am and they were there waiting for us and took us into a room right away. They hooked me up to monitor the baby and the contractions and then the nurse and student came in to check me. I just kept thinking I'll still just be at a 1.5 but instead she said, "Looks like, you are at a 4.5... nope that's a 5 for sure!" I was shocked! At a 5 already and I just got to the hospital?! They went and talked with Dr. haskett who obviously said I was having this baby today!! I couldn't believe it. So It was now 5 am and They walked me to my room and we got settled in and they said they would start the IV first because before the epidural they like you to have fluids for an hour before and the next anesthesiologist would be in at 6am.

THIS was the WORST part of the whole thing for me. The IV. It was so painful. First they let the student try in my left hand and Hunter was holding my hand and I was not looking over there. But I just started shaking uncontrollably since needles aren't my thing. I just couldn't stop, and I had been shaking for hours before this and having contractions every 2-3 minutes doesn't help you relax much. Just when I thought they were done I looked and they had put a bandage on it and came over to my right and and the Nurse got it in first try and got it all hooked up.

Right after they hooked it up Dr. Haskett and my nurse came in (she was seriously the BEST nurse ever! And I loved that she was there the whole time and that there were no shift changes) and I thought he was just going to check me to see what I was at, But they said they were going to break my water. All I felt was a little pinch and then gush..... It was the craziest feeling and I'm so glad my water never broke when I was at home or anywhere! Because it doesn't stop, any time i'd move it would gush even more.

After they broke my water, between every contraction we went over all the paperwork and signed all the forms and then just as we were finishing up the Anesthesiologist walked in the room right at 6am and went over the form and had me sign it. This part I was really nervous for, but it didn't even hurt. Seriously, the IV was 100 times worse. This was just a sting and then numb and I love that they numb it before doing the actual epidural needle and then you just feel extreme pressure. They had me sit up and lean over and they waited between contractions to do everything which was so nice! The Anesthesiologist was amazing too! He was so funny and nice. He said how impressed he was cause most people are really rude with him and don't smile or laugh but he said how nice I was even through all the contractions. He also asked if I was a cheerleader cause I apparently have a really strong back. He told me how nice I was and how most of the time people are just really mad and rude with him during the epidural because they are in so much pain... but even though I was in all that pain I was still nice and laughed at all his jokes :) Right after that the nurse put the catheter in and the epidural had definitely already started working cause I couldn't feel any contractions or anything at all, but I was still able to move around and move my feet at least.

After the epidural Hunter called and told all our family that we were in the hospital having the baby. They were all so excited and it was nice because it was a sunday so everyone already didn't work and had a good excuse to miss church :) For a little while it was just Hunter and I and we just relaxed and I tried to get some sleep which I kind of did on and off with the epidural and IV. All of a sudden I got really nauseous and Hunter had to get the nurse because I couldn't stop throwing up, the nurse checked my blood pressure which had dropped and so they gave me more fluids, which they had to do multiple times because it kept dropping and I'd get really sick.

Around 6:30-7 everyone showed up and just took some pictures and visited for awhile. They were all so excited and couldn't believe I was at a 5 already!

At 10:30 the nurse came back in and checked me and I was at a 7! I couldn't believe it was all happening so fast, I was hoping it would take 12 hours so we could just relax and visit, but i was already almost ready to have this baby girl and we had only been at the hospital for 5 hours. After this everyone was in the room and we were all just talking and visiting. It was so fun and it was making me so excited for Braelin to get here. Then I got really sick again because my blood pressure dropped and I got nauseous and started throwing up again and the nurse came in and gave me more IV fluids. I started to feel a lot of pressure but didn't want to say anything and once I did Hunter went and got the nurse around 11:30 and she came back in and I was at a 9. And kept feeling the pressure even stronger, so she came in and checked me again and I was 9.5 and then 10.

After this everyone left the room and the nurse said that we would probably be pushing for at least an hour or two since it was my first one. So they raised the bed and I pushed one time and she said, "Look Hunter, you can see her head! Look at all her hair!" And the nurse pulled on her hair and they told me it was brown. After this we pushed three times with a each contraction, and she said I actually wouldn't have to push much because I was doing great with pushing and then she went to get Dr. Haskett and tell him we were ready.

Listening for her cry :)

He came right in and said that I would have a little tearing and he would have to do an episiotomy but would only have to cut a little... I was worried it would hurt really bad since the epidural was wearing off a little but it was just a little pinch and I pushed three times and out she came! But I did forget to stop pushing after her head came out and then Dr. Haskett and the nurse both were saying, "Stop stop stop!!" and that made me tear A LOT more than most people because I was pushing her shoulders out... Ouch. The moment I saw her I just felt relieved that she was finally here.. and that she was healthy. She had SO much hair and it was very curly. And her long legs and arms, even her feet are big and she has long fingers too! Must take after her daddy :) They immediately put her on me and let Hunter cut the chord. And Dr. Haskett started stitching me up which I could feel since the epidural had started to wear off, luckily it was just more like stinging. So he gave me more lidocaine a few times and then I couldn't feel it at all. She had the sweetest little cry and when she was laying on my chest she was just staring at me and her little hand was over my heart. I couldn't believe how fast our lives changed the moment she was born and how much we loved her already.

Braelin Nicole Chamberlain

February 16th, 2014 at 12:38 pm

6 pounds 10 ounces and 19 inches long

My face when Braelin came out, SO relieved. I always thought I would be extremely emotional and cry because I usually cry in movies when people have babies, but I didn't. I was just excited and relieved that she was so healthy!

She looked like a giant when she would stretch out her arms and legs like that... but she was only 19 inches long :)

I couldn't believe how curly her hair is when its wet!!

I love this picture! My Sister and sisters in law all go to Dr. Haskett! He is seriously the BEST!

I was so glad that they let us have the baby in the room with us for almost two hours just doing skin to skin and breast feeding for the first time (which she did great!!) Around 2 they took Braelin to the nursery to get her first bath and to take me to my new room.They said she LOVED her bath and just had her legs out straight the whole time. Which she still does all the time.. unfortunately Hunter didn't record her first bath. I told him to just take pictures cause I didn't want to risk the camera not recording for some reason.. and what happened? Exactly that. He thought he pressed record but it was already recording.. so it stopped right as they started her bath and we get her at the end after she's all washed. Oh well. :)

Stretching out her long skinny legs :)

The next two days we had lots of visitors and sleeping and spending time snuggling our baby girl and recovering. The first night they did have to take her because her temperature was low and they tested her and her blood sugar was low as well so she had to sit under the lights for a few hours. Then they brought her back, had me feed her a bottle (since my milk hadn't come in yet) and do skin to skin and 30 minutes later they had to test her blood sugar again and if it was still low, they were going to insert a feeding tube, but thank goodness she was fine! Then she did have some jaundice as well and had to be tested 2 days after we got home, but it went away on its own.

It has definitely been quite the process recovering for me since they said I had a small episiotomy and A LOT of tearing after the episiotomy since I didn't stop pushing when I was suppose to. We sure love our little family :)

Our first few weeks at home :)