Mariasha Rowland: Brennan Michael Rowland: Birth Story

Hello Everyone!!! It feels like so long since I last wrote a blog post, and I'm so excited to be back, even if it will only be every once in a while for the next few weeks! If you don't follow me on facebook or instagram, our sweet little Brennan is here! I was planning on waiting to write his birth story until his newborn pictures were edited, but I really wanted to get it all typed out before I forget all the little details. I'll try not to share anything TMI, but I also really want get in as much information as possible since I'm more writing this down for my sake and it will be kind of long, so bear with me! If you're just here for the pictures, scroll to the bottom!

I chose to have an early elective induction which was originally scheduled for August 30th, the day I would be 39 weeks. I had been shuffled around between doctors for a few weeks, because my original doctor, who I loved, decided to move just a month before I was due. I decided that since I had such little time left, I would just see whatever doctor was scheduled to be on call the 30th so I would know they would be for sure delivering my baby. Unfortunately, the doctor that was scheduled was a new one that wouldn't be starting until 5 days before my induction, which meant I would be seeing whatever doctor had an opening until then.

I went in for my last appointment, where I would meet my new doctor on Wednesday the 27th. She was so nice and everything was going well until I told her I was scheduled for my induction on the 30th. I could just tell by the look on her face that something was wrong and I wouldn't be able to be induced that day. She kindly explained that there had been some changes made to the schedule and that she was no longer on call that day, and the doctor that was on call was just filling in and could not do an induction. I started to get pretty concerned at that point and explained to her that I really needed to be induced that weekend because my husband had just been let go from his job the week before and had lost all of his vacation days that we had saved up over the last year just so he could be there for the birth. He had started working for a new contractor and was already taking off an unpaid day which is hard to get when you work for FedEx ground as a driver (they don't have backup drivers that can work for you) and since that weekend was Labor day weekend, that would give us an extra paid day for him to be with us. I was on the verge of tears as she said she would go talk to the other doctors and see what she could do. She came back in about 20 minutes later and said that the soonest they could induce me would be Labor Day evening, Monday September 1st. That meant Jared would have just Tuesday to spend with us before going back to work. I was totally devastated, but grateful that he would at least be able to be there at all so I agreed and we scheduled me to go in Monday at 8 pm. I called my mom after I left the doctor, and being the amazing woman that she is, she told me to have Jared take off another unpaid day on Wednesday and that she would cover his lost wages for that day!

On Monday, we all got up and spent the day getting things ready for that night, and then Quinn and I spent the afternoon at the park with some of my extended family. I called in at 6 to make sure the hospital had room for me at 8. They asked me to call in again at 7:30. I spent the next hour and a half picking up the house, then called again. This time they wanted me to call back at 8:30 when they were sure they would have room for me. We all ate dinner and then got Quinn ready for bed. I read him way more books than I normally would, since it was the last night just me and him, and then called back and they said they would be ready for me at 9. We packed up the car and made sure my MIL had everything she needed to watch Quinn, and then we headed to the hospital!

We got there right at 9, and they checked us into our room immediately. The nurse came in and started getting everything ready, then went to go call the doctor because there was a discrepancy in the instructions she had left them for me. The nurse came back in an hour later at 10, and explained that my doctor had thought she had scheduled me for Tuesday night and wasn't expecting me to be there till tomorrow. I almost had a mini heart attack thinking they were going to send me back home, but my doctor said since I was already there to go ahead and just get me started on pitocin. I was so relieved!

The nurse got my IV hooked up and started me on pitocin, and within minutes I was already having strong contractions. They gave me some Ambien to help me sleep and then said they would check on me periodically throughout the night, but that we had a long way to go because I was only at a 1 and 50% effaced. Over the next 4 hours my contractions got very strong and close together. At 2:07 am I decided I was ready for the epidural, because my contractions were so strong and painful that the ambien wasn't working and I wasn't getting any sleep. The anesthesiologist came in at 2:30 to give me my epidural, and I remember being very loopy and having a hard time talking because of the ambien. The epidural wasn't painful or uncomfortable at all just like I remembered, but my contractions were very painful when he had me sit up and hunch my back.

After that my nurse checked and I was dilated to a 3 and about 70% effaced. Again she said that I had a long way to go, and that they would come back in at 7:30 to check me and see if I was ready to have my water broken. I was able to fall asleep once the epidural started working and I got in a good 2 hours of sleep. Around 4 am I started feeling very light headed and dizzy, and there was a lot of pressure in my chest. The nurse checked my heart rate, and seemed very concerned so she called the anesthesiologist back in. He took a look and explained that my heart rate was plummeting and skyrocketing very rapidly and that he had never seen anything to this extent before. He said he wanted them to do an EKG on me and I could tell that Jared was very concerned. They ran some tests and everyone was stumped. They had never seen anything like it. When my heart rate finally went back to normal, and I was feeling better because I had thrown up, the anesthesiologist said that he would call a cardiologist in the morning to see what he thought. Jared was still really worried, but I was feeling a lot better so we went back to sleep.

Around 6:30 I woke up again because I was starting to feel some pain during my contractions. I paged the nurse and she came in and had me push the button to up my epidural. I tried to go back to sleep but the contractions continued to get more painful. At 7:15 I called my nurse back in again and she had me push the button a second time and then decided she would just check me now to see if I was ready to have my water broken. All the sudden she got a big look of surprise on her face and said that I had completely dilated and this baby was ready to come now! She ran to call the doctor to head to the hospital since they hadn't expected this for at least another 6 hours and then rushed to get everything ready.

At this point I was finally awake enough that I could tell these contractions I had been feeling for an hour were pushing contractions and that's why it had been hurting so much. I kept telling the nurse that I really felt like I needed to push and she kept telling me NOT to do that. My doctor finally showed up around 7:45 and started prepping for delivery. At 7:49 she broke my water, and at 7:50 I started having my next contraction and she told me we would start with 3, 10 second pushes during each contraction. I did the first 10 second push and she said he had lots of dark hair and then started my second 10 second push and he was out! After just 17 seconds of pushing, our perfect little 7lb 10oz, 19 in long baby boy was born at 7:51 am! It all went so fast and was such a blur! Next thing I knew they were laying him on my chest and he was so calm, only crying for a few seconds. They checked him out to make sure everything was ok (he got a 9 on the apgar test!) and then they left us to rest until our recovery room was ready. My MIL showed up with Quinn to meet the new baby and he was so excited! He knew right away that the baby was his baby Brennan and he said he was so excited he was here now. We ended up having to stay in the delivery room for 2 more hours because my nurse was concerned that my uterus was not contracting enough. She gave me several different medications trying to get everything under control and then we were finally able to move to our new room.

When they got me up to put me in my wheelchair I started feeling dizzy again, but it wasn't anything too bad. After an hour or two in our recovery room, I was really starting to feel sick and the nurse gave me some zofran to help with the nausea. When she gave it to me, she said just don't throw it back up jokingly. 5 minutes later I threw up. After that I just had a headache and they decided it was probably a combination of all the different medications they had given me.

After that it was smooth sailing! Brennan passed every test with flying colors, and we were able to go home Wednesday morning after just 24 hours! He was born tongue tied just like Quinn and me so he will need to have it clipped at some point, but since I'm not breastfeeding we can wait a little bit to do it.

We are all enjoying being home as a family of 4 now, and my mom is here visiting to help out. The transition to 2 kids has been much easier than I expected! Quinn absolutely adores Brennan and constantly wants to hold him and look at him, and he likes to help feed him and get him dressed. It's so sweet how much he loves his brother, and I love seeing Quinn's nurturing personality come out on a daily basis! Brennan is a little angel and sleeps great at night only waking up twice to eat. He almost never cries, and his stomach is a bottomless pit! He's already eating 2 or more oz at each feeding!

I'm hoping to get his newborn pictures edited and up on the blog sometime this week, but until then, here are some photos from my phone!