We are happy to announce the birth of our beautiful little girl: Brooklyn MacAulay York. She was born March 31st at 12:56 am weighing in at 6lbs, 6 oz and 20 in long. For those of you who haven't heard the crazy birth story.... here you go!
Wednesday the 30th I went to the doctor. The week before they had told me I was dilated to a 4. (just like with Sawyer). Since I had stayed that way with Sawyer for a week, I didn't worry but knew she probably wouldn't make it to her due date. At my appointment the doctor said I was still at a 4, but just getting back from his trip to Alaska to hunt wolves, I think he was anxious to deliver some babies! He said, "let's have this baby tonight" and told me he would strip my membranes to move things along a little. This is what happened with Sawyer also, and he was born that night, so I knew there was a good chance it could happen again. I felt some pains, cramping, and contractions throughout that day, but nothing regular. My awesome co-workers had planned a diaper shower for me that night at the start of my shift, so Tyler, Sawyer and I headed in to my work. We had the shower and then I stayed on for my shift. As the night went on, my contractions got much stronger and more painful, and somewhat regular, but not every 5 min. When I did the last x-ray of the night, the patient asked when I was due. I told her the 15th but that I thought I'd have the baby that night. Walking out the door, one of the doctors said to me, "Go home and have that baby". I told him I thought I might because my contractions hurt really bad at this point. After keeping track of the contractions on the drive home, I had REALLY strong ones about every 8 min. I got home, told Tyler I thought the baby was coming, but wasn't sure when to go to the hospital. He told me to call my doctor. The doctor said to wait until they were about 5 min apart. These contractions were so much stronger and painful than what I had experienced with Sawyer, but I listened to the doctor. I went and got in bed hoping they would either get regular or go away. They didn't really, but I kept feeling like I needed to go to the restroom. Every time I would stand up, I'd have a really strong contraction and then another and another. When I was laying down, they were more spread out. Eventually I thought to myself, "you know your body, you have been dilated to a 4 for a week, just go to the hospital, they won't send you home!" So I asked Tyler in tears if he would just take me. He said of course and started packing things up, feeding the dogs and the fish, taking his sweet time. As I sat on the couch with worse contractions each time, they were all the sudden coming about every 2 minutes. I told him we needed to hurry so he grabbed Sawyer and we headed on our way. Just walking to the car was excruciating and I told him to call my sister to meet us there. I didn't think we should go to her house and delay the trip an extra 20 min. By the time we were at the hospital I was screaming out in pain and thought my water had broke. I literally felt like I could have the baby in the car. Tyler grabbed me a wheelchair, yelled to the security guard to watch our truck because he locked Sawyer in it alone, and ran me upstairs to labor and delivery. The nurses came running and Tyler went back downstairs to give Sawyer to my sister. They rushed me into the room where they checked to see how far along I was. One nurse started to ask if I wanted an epidural when the other yelled out, "No, this baby is coming right now!" My doctor came running in and asked where my husband was. Tyler came in about a minute later and within minutes Brooklyn was born. We later looked at our phone records and noticed that the phone call Tyler had made to my sister was made at 12:48 am. Brooklyn was born at 12:56 am. That means in 8 minutes time, Tyler had gone downstairs, given Sawyer to my sister, strapped him into her car and ran back upstairs just in time to see her born. She was also born just short of two hours after I got off work- talk about quick!
I have to say doing it natural without any pain meds will not be my choice in the future if I have a say in it. My doctor made me feel a little better because he told me later that Brooklyn was born face up. For those of you who don't know, babies are supposed to come out face down. According to my doctor face up babies are much more painful and cause a lot of back labor. He told me I did an awesome job and that many times babies who are face up have to have a c-section because it's so hard for the mother to push them out. He also said that in my case it was probably good she was face up or she would have been born in the car. Thank goodness THAT didn't happen!
Despite the crazy way she entered this world, we love our little bundle of joy. She really is such a perfect little baby. She sleeps so well and never cries except when she first wakes up and wants to eat. She has only been getting up once a night, which I love! She's a tiny little peanut and so fun to have. Although Sawyer has had a million more tantrums than normal, he loves her and gives her hugs and kisses all day long. Tyler and I all the sudden feel like we have a real family, having two kids in the back seat of the car. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful addition to our family!
