Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Brielle

At the hospital, my friend Erin Householder came down and was so sweet to take some priceless precious pictures of Brielle. She was so right- I had no energy or desire to take any pictures myself so I was so glad she was able to capture this sweet time for me so I could enjoy it later. They are so sweet and they mean so much to me. Erin- I owe you more than you know. It means so much to me to know this moment is captured in time thanks to you and your amazing talent. Thanks again!!









Its a Girl!! Brielle Christine Allen-LONG

I cannot believe this little one is here already. Its been a crazy couple of weeks and this little has made it known that she will do things her way whether we want it or not :)

So here's her little birth story!!

So I have been stressed since finding out I was due May 16th, about making it to the end of my preschool for graduation. As the day neared closer and closer, I really started to freak out. I was a week early with Brecklynn so who knew what I would do this time round.

I went to my 38 week appt on Monday afternoon. Dr. Romero said that we needed to schedule an induction and was hoping to do it that week. I asked her if we could push it off till May 10th after my graduation. She agreed and scheduled me to go in at 4:30 am on the 10th to get induced. The reason for the induction was high blood pressure and I have a history of delivering fast and I am strep B positive so they wanted to make sure I got the meds in before delivering. I was already 4-5 cm dialated and 75% effaced so I could also go anytime.

With that information I started to really get things ready to go in case I couldn't make it to the Mother's Day Tea and Graduation. Tuesday was a day of getting stuff done. I still had no baby stuff done though.

That night about 1:00 am I woke up with contractions. I was kind of upset about it. I didn't want to go into labor yet. I was in definite denial. Curtis woke up about 4:00 and came out to see what was going on. I just told him it was nothing. He gave me a look like he didn't believe me. He went back to bed and I stayed up contracting 3-5 minutes apart until about 5:20 when it finally slowed down. I got about 45 minutes of sleep before Ridge woke up. I was determined to continue on with my day. I had preschool and did our graduation rehearsle while contracting the whole time. After preschool I asked my sister to watch Brecklynn for a bit so I could go the dr. just to put my mind at ease that I wasn't in labor.

Dr. Romero checked me and I was a 5 and 75% but asked me to sit on a monitor for a bit to see what I was doing contraction wise. I told her I thought I was going 1 every 10 minutes. After being monitored for 15 minutes she said that I needed to go straight to the hospital because I was contracting 3-5 minutes. I was kind of in shock. I asked if I could go home and get my kids squared away. She gave me an hour. I got in the car and just sat there for a bit. This couldn't be happening. I had to make it to the next week. I called Curtis to ask him where he was and if he was coming home for lunch. He told me he was super busy and wouldn't be home. I told him non-chalantly that I had to go to the hospital but he could just meet me later. He of course said absolutely not and that he would come home. I called my mom and she was suprised too.

I got home, told Tesia what was going on and she was of course more than happy to help with the kids. I got my hospital bag ready since I hadn't up til this point. We got to the hospital about 2:30 and they put me right on the meds. My contractions started to get really sparadic. I was bummed. This was going to be a long day. They needed to get the meds in me for 4 hours before they could do anything. So we waited. I was so tired from being up since 1 that morning and contracting all day. I was hoping I would go as fast as I had in the past and would have the baby by 8 that night.

Well things really progressed slowly. They put me on the pit and around 9:00 I wasn't really any further than a 6. She finally broke my water and she thinks that was part of the problem. I had so much fluid in there that I couldn't really progress more. So I still hoped I would deliver that day.

Around 11:00 she checked me again and I was a 7 but nothing more. I was getting so frustrated. It didn't help that my night nurse was driving me insane. She wouldn't leave me alone for more than 5 minutes and yet still kept saying-you should rest. It really became comical. I started to get really sick from my epidural too. I started to feel like I would fall right over and started to throw up. Not a fun feeling. I had no energy to do anything.

I really didn't want to have a cinco de mayo baby so she checked me again at 11:45. There was no way it was going to happen. So they left me to see what I could do. Well about 12:30 I started to feel something weird and they checked me. I wasn't totally there but she kind of helped that along. Usually I don't have to push more than 2 times and the kid is here. This time I had to push for 8 minutes and push hard. I don't know how people do it for longer. I was so tired. But FINALLY she came out. When she came out the dr and the nurses gasped. She was HUGE. They were all guessing 9 lbs 14 oz. or 9 lbs. 6oz. It was making me really nervous. Then they weighed her and realized they were way off. She's just a little butter ball. She weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and only 18 inches long. She's my largest and shortest. Her head is huge!! The dr. also said that was probably another reason by the delivery was so different.

I immediately saw her and thought she looked like Ridge. I mean, they could be twins. In fact, unless they told me she was a girl, I would have been certain she was a boy. Its scary. We decided to call her Brielle Christine. We've since found out there are several others who have named or are naming their girls Brielle. Oh well. But Christine is after my Grandma McKnight.

After delivering I was so tired. My nurse said I had to sit and wait for 2 hours in that room before settling in my recovery room. I had never done that before. She then told me I had to get up and shower. Uh, my epidural was still fully in effect. There was no way. She was adament though. I told her there was no way I was getting up. She finally listened and started to get me to another room. Curtis went home to relieve Tesia for the night. He was so tired.

Well unfortunately I continued to suffer from after affects of the epidural. I was throwing up till about 3 in the morning until they finally gave me something for the nausea and then I had the itchies till about 5:30. I couldn't sleep. I was so miserable. I finally got up about 6:30 and found out I had a new nurse and she was a friend of the families and was AWESOME!! She helped me get up for the first time and I got a shower and felt like a new person.

Brielle was so loud all night. She makes these funny 'pug' noises all night and just squeaks. So cute. she's a champ at nursing. She's a natural :)

Well I continued to suffer from the epidural. I had so many other problems occur from it. I kept telling Curtis, she is really sealing the deal for me that this is it. I had never had a recovery like this before. I still couldn't sleep. We had all kinds of visitors. My parents came into town that morning to help with the kids. It was great to see them.

Cambree came down with Tesia and was a natural big sister. She instantly started loving up on her. SO cute. Ridge and Brecklynn came with Curtis. Ridge was great but Brecklynn wanted nothing to do with her. She acutally pushed her away. She didn't like her one bit.

So it was a long day. But I did get discharged on Friday and my nurse knew I had to get back for my preschool function so helped that along.

Its been a fun adjustment and a crazy weekend. Now to see what the next little bit brings.













Brecklynn finally agreed to holding her and loved that Brielle had a bow like hers. We'll see if this continues....

My mom gave her her first bath and she was great. This little girl doesn't cry at all. Its like she doesn't know how. Her cries are like loud grunts. Quite funny.




So now I can say I am a mom of 4 kids 4 and under, for at least a little bit. Now to adjusting to this new addition.

Mother's Day Tea!!

Last Friday was my preschool tea. I was able to go to it which was wonderful. I had a wonderful discharge nurse who helped push us out of the hospital so I could go. My wonderful sister and mom stepped up and made it all happen. The day was perfect. I was so worried that it would be so windy and be miserable but the day turned out perfect. So here are some fun pics taken by my sister-in-law Rachel, of the day.













Preschool Graduation!!


I cannot believe my preschool graduation has already come and gone. Its been such a crazy crazy weekend. Yesterday was my little preschool graduation and I think it went pretty good. We were able to fit everyone in my house which was a worry of mine. The kids did great and were so fun to watch. I'm so proud of this little group and going to miss this group of kids!! I don't know what I am going to do now that preschool is officially over. Its seriously been such a whirlwind these past couple of weeks and to go from that to absolutely nothing is just weird.


Cambree's last graduation and Ridge's first...


This is Cambree's 'boyfriend' Teagun. These two are so cute together. She makes me nervous though because at such an age she already worries about her hair looking ok for Teagun or checks what she's wearing to see if Teagun will like it :). I'm sad to say that these two won't be going to the same school next year but hopefully we'll see him over the summer. He's such a cute little boy.


So one more year of preschool down. I love what I get to do and every year seems to get more and more fun :)