The Bryant Family: January 2013

View from the Hospital Room

Admitted and Feeling So Relieved... We're having a baby! Yay!

At 3:30 am I woke up in the middle of the night having contractions about 15 or 20 minutes apart. They weren't close but were extremely strong. I called a friend to watch the boys and went to the hospital with Jonathan around 8. When we arrived they weren't going to admit me because I wasn't having regular contractions and they were too busy to just induce me then. Instead they offered me a scheduled induction the next day at 3 pm. I didn't know it at the time but Jonathan was a little bummed about the timing since the Cowboys were playing for the play-offs the next day. Just before we were about to go the midwife said she wanted to check to see if I had changed at all (as in dilation, baby position, etc.). She checked and surprise, surprise, I was almost 5 cm. So praise the Lord, they let me stay! This was around noon. The next few hours were pretty uneventful. Contractions every 15 minutes or so. We decided I would get a little bit of help getting them closer, so the midwife ordered a little Pitocin and I got an epidural. The nurse I had was amazing! I was able to go to sleep for a while during this time. Around 8 pm I woke up and started feeling strange all over. I can't describe the feeling. It was just an intense feeling over my entire body. No sooner did I start feeling this way and the midwife (who had gone home) and the nurse walked in and started turning things on and getting things ready. I said, "What's going on?" They said they thought I was ready. I was really confused because they hadn't even been in the room. I guess they were watching the monitor and whatever was going on with the baby indicated that I was probably fully dilated and ready to push. Well they were right. The midwife checked and I was fully dilated. She had me push once and then realized that it wasn't going to take much more so she told me not to push any more. They had me lay on my side through a few more contractions because Harper was facing my back and they wanted to see if they could get her to change positions. With each contractions her heart rate was slowing down quite a bit so they decided it would be best to just go ahead and get her out. I pushed for just under 10 minutes and delivered a beautiful, bright eyed baby girl. She came out with her eyes wide open staring at the ceiling. The midwife called her a star-gazer :)

12/29/12 at 8:53 pm

7 1bs 4 oz

19 inches

After delivering Harper on Saturday evening, Jonathan stayed with me and a wonderful friend of our's stayed with the boys at our house. In the morning Jonathan went home and picked up the boys so they could come and meet Harper. They were all so excited and instantly loved her :)