Brylee's Tale Part I

So, many might have seen that I posted at the beginning of the month that November has started out slow. Well, from the last post, the middle part gave us a big surprise!

Week of November 16-21 (well the first part at least):

Monday--nothing big happened, except that Cary and I both had headaches.

Tuesday--I left work early because my throat was sore (Cary and I both had allergies apparently), and with working in a call center, taking phone calls didn't help soothe the throat any. I stopped by Kroger on the way home to pick up Allergy meds and hopefully surprised Cary with a box of Chocolate Turtles and a Crossword Puzzle. The rest of the afternoon was spent sleeping and cuddling with Chester.

Wednesday--I woke up at 5:00 a.m. thinking that I was really thirsty. I didn't want to get out of bed because it was not so easy to do so, but I knew I needed to satisfy that thirst. And go to the restroom.

But once I got out of bed, I knew things were not right. I walked to the bathroom to turn on the light to confirm: my water had broken!

I called to Cary who groggily asked me when I informed him, "Are you sure?". He got out of bed, and before you knew it, we were getting dressed, throwing together a bag (did I mention that was a task to do this week?), and walking Chester. By 5:15, we were in the car, driving to Medical Center of Lewisville.

Once we got to the hospital, we went in through the emergency doors, told the registration nurse what had happened, got into a wheelchair and was taken to the second floor where they put me into a delivery room. The nurse told us that we would definitely have to deliver because my water broke (not just a little either!).

Then I called mom.

She got very excited, and I tried to convince her that it was a long process and we had no other information yet. But she and dad were there in about 30 minutes. The IV catheter hadn't even been placed yet!

When Dr. came in to say hello (we are now closer to 8 o'clock-ish), she did an exam and noticed that I was only 1 cm dialated. At this time, I was feeling fine, my biggest complaint was that I was extremely thirsty and could only have ice chips. She told me that she would be back around lunch time to observe my situation, and we would go from there.

During the morning Cary's family joined us, including Brad, Faith, and Helen around lunchtime. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins had been notified, slowly the contractions were increasing, and I had been hooked up to several monitors. My favorite was the baby heart monitor. Whenever the baby had moved and the heartbeats were more feint, I felt like I was missing a very big part of myself.

Dr. came in to check on me, like she said, around lunch time. When she examined my progress, she informed me that I was...still 1 cm dialated. I hadn't progressed?!?! What about the pain? The contractions were getting sharper and longer. There were times I didn't even know they were coming upon me until Cary pointed it out on the monitor. So weird that he knew before I did!

So Dr. approved a little bit of medication for me, which, once was given to me, made me extremely tired. I started falling asleep while everyone chatted around me! However, only about 30 minutes later (all of this is estimated), I was visited by the anesthesiologist, who gave me an epidural.

This procedure was PAINFUL!!!! Mom was my support for this, as Cary had stepped out with his parents for lunch. I felt so bad for the pain and tears that I had, there was so much burning, and I was the happiest when everything started going numb. After that, everyone loved to watch the monitors and ask me, "Did you feel that contraction?" and say "Wow! That contraction was off the charts!"

The rest of the day was all entertainment between the Jarvis' and McFaddens, taking pictures, everyone stepping out to visit the nursery, and trying to make sure I was comfortable. I think I was the most comfortable of them all, because I had the comfy bed and numb body!

Dr. came back in mid-afternoon, where she did another exam. This time, I was dialated a whole whopping 3 cm....yeah. Not very far at all. Dr. said that she would have a nurse check again towards 6:30, and we would make the decision there. At this time we had a pool going at what time Brylee would be born, and Dr. said that my guess (6:00) would not win. Her guess was either a cessarian in the evening, or if I had progressed any further, a natural birth at 1:00-2:00 on Thursday morning...yikes!

Since we were now getting to the end of the day, several friends stopped by to visit. The Christenson's (Jeff, Regina, Melissa, and Jon) were wonderful and brought food to my parents, who took turns going downstairs and eating, while Cary and his family all went to their home to eat dinner.

Backtrack: Just after I had the epidural, my blood pressure had dropped really low, so the nurse set up the blood pressure machine to check me every 4 minutes instead of 10. This blood pressure cuff was my nemisis because every time it inflated, it would become incredibly tight and painful. But this also created the funniest moment of the evening.

While Jeff and dad were sitting with me and keeping me company, the cuff inflated again. And instead of defating and reading, it just inflated more and more. Fortunately the velcro started detaching, and dad ended up tearing it from my arm just in time to watch it deflate even more. We were all worried that the cuff would burst, but fortunately we were able to detach it from the machine, watch it deflate, and then inflate again. Finally the nurse came back in and fixed it.

When 6:30 came around, the nurse came in and checked my progress one more time. Again, no change. So Cary and I discussed doing a c-section with the nurse, and no more than 45 minutes later (and a visit from my uncle Bill and Ivan), I was prepped, numbed, and moved into the surgery room, with Cary in tow in his great surgical gown.

This procedure was not as painful as the epidural, but there was some of the oddest feeling of numbness and pressure (anyone who's had a c-section might be able to relate to this weirdness). At 7:36 p.m., Brylee Jarvis McFadden joined our world. She was checked out by NICU, and they confirmed her to be healthy. Cary got to watch them examine her and then joined them upstairs where all of our guests watched her get cleaned, measured and weighed (a tiny but healthy 5 lbs, 9 oz!)

Of course I had to be closed up on the operating table, where the very nice anesthesiologist gave me some pain meds, which knocked me out! I don't remember too much after this, but I know everyone came in to say their goodbyes and left for the evening and then Cary sitting in a chair quietly while I slept. Around 10:00 that evening, I was moved to the 3rd floor where Cary, Brylee and I would get to spend the next 3 nights.