Introducing..........

Little Miss

BRAYLEE ANN

Born on July 29 at 11:28 pm
6 lb. 12 oz. 18 1/2 in.

Once happy Dad!!!!

Her brothers were so excited to see her! As soon as they found out they had a sister Rayden said "I knew it!!!". Ryker said "YES!!!!"

After a long, long night of being sick and a long, long day of laying in a hospital bed, little Braylee Ann finally came! I couldn't more happy to finally have my little princess here to cuddle and love!

So here is the story of how this little bundle of joy came to our family. My story wouldn't be complete without starting off by telling about my girls night a few nights prior to her arrival.
It was late Tuesday night and me and my besties were doing pedi's, eating treats, and watching some great chic flicks! I was having a few contractions here and there, but nothing too alarming. A lot of my friends are very into doing the natural child birth and all the homeopathic herbs and such when it comes to health things. However, I am so not the type of person to even consider a natural birth (I'm such a wimp when it comes to pain, I would never last 2 seconds through a real contraction). Anyhow, since I was having contractions, they were suggesting all sorts of things they could have me try to get this labor going. Of the things mentioned, they suggested I eat fresh pineapple. Supposedly if you eat fresh pineapple and your body is ready for labor, it will get things going! It was a little late to be running out to the grocery store, so I stored that info in the back of my head and decided I'd try it out in a few days.
The next evening, I was leaving to go stay at my mom's house for a few weeks, to wait to have the baby. Since she lives an hour closer to the hospital I was going to deliver at, I wanted to be as close as possible. I got there late at night and just relaxed on the couch while they all unpacked from their recent trip to Bear Lake.
The next day, Thursday, I decided I better get together with my friend Nina, who is also pregnant, due a week before me. I realized that I hadn't taken any prego pictures with her and that it was a must before our babies were born! So.....I stopped at the grocery store before heading over to her house and picked up a fresh pineapple. A very pricy one I might add!! I don't think I've ever paid so much for a pineapple or piece of fruit in my life! Anyway, we got together and ate a bunch of pineapple and headed to the mall to walk around a bit! I kept getting hot flashes, and was feeling a little yucky and exhausted, but I figured when you're almost 38 weeks pregnant, that's just how you feel.
I headed back to my mom's afterwards and just relaxed on the couch for a few hours before starting dinner. After dinner, I starting having a few contractions (my usual nightly routine for a few weeks before I have my babies, so I didn't think anything of it). My mom needed to run a few errands so I decided to join her. As my contractions kept coming, about 4-6 min. apart, my mom thought it was so fun to write it all down and keep track. I was a little annoyed because I didn't feel well, and I didn't want to get my hopes up. I knew they would just stop once I went to bed later that night, because that is how it always goes with me. So we stopped at the grocery store to get some doughnuts and I was so excited because they had one left of my favorite kind - jelly filled! Unfortunately, I didn't get to eat it because I started to feel really sick. We got home and within about 10 minutes I was in the bathroom throwing up! My mom kept saying that she used to throw up when she was in labor. I still didn't want to get my hopes up that this baby was coming, and I felt so sick that I just went to bed.
The whole night, I kept waking up with contractions and I kept throwing up! Just before I left town to go to my mom's, i was talking to some ladies who were saying that the flu was going around. The whole night I was paranoid that I had the flu, and that I had shared water bottles with my kids all day, and been around my prego friend Nina. I was so worried that they were all going to get what I had too! Then I was worried that I wouldn't be able to drive to my Dr. appointment the next morning in American Fork.
When I finally had had enough of laying in bed and feeling sick, I got up and tried to eat a little bit. I had a nibble of bread and some juice. My contractions had slowed down a little but they were still there. My mom got up and told me she would run into work early and meet me in a few hours at my sister's house and drive me to my appointment. I felt a little bit better about that, but I was still so weak and sick. I threw up a few more times before heading out the door to the dr.
The whole way to the dr. office I was so nauseated and my contractions started to pick up again. I kept thinking, oh this is good! Maybe my doctor will just send me over to the hospital I will have this baby! Which is exactly what happened! (Sort of)
Of course I called Randy and told him to be ready and that he should probably wrap things up at work. I wanted to wait until they admitted me to the hospital before I told him to leave town and to come up. They monitored me a the hospital, and the contractions were coming very regularly and getting harder. I had dilated from a 3 to a 4 in the hour or so that I was there so they decided I was in fact in labor. Hurray!!!!! I was so excited to finally have this baby, but a little shocked because I still had so many things I was planning on doing and getting for the baby while staying at my mom's.
Well, this is when things start to get interesting. As soon as the nurse got me into a room and hooked up my IV, things started to slow down. Randy got there about the same time as the doctor around 2:45 pm. He checked me and told me he would let thing progress on their own for a little bit and he would be back around 5 pm to break my water. So, we sat around talking baby names and wondering if it was going to be a boy or girl, and making bets on how long I would last before I got an epidural. You know, the usual things you do when waiting for a baby to come! Of course I was STARVING since I threw up all night long and hadn't had a single thing to eat in almost 24 hours! They kept bringing me jello but it just wasn't doing the trick. I was also so exhausted from lack of sleep that I just couldn't function. I would try to fall asleep, but then a contraction would come and wake me up.
5 o'clock came and went, and so did my labor! It had almost completely stopped! I had maybe one contraction every 15-20 min. It was strong, but just not near frequent enough. Also, the doctor was stuck at another hospital delivering babies. It must have been a busy day in Heaven because there were tons of babies born that day!!!! As it was, I got the last room available when I checked in around 1:00 pm.
Around 8:00 or so, my nurse came in and said she was going to call the doctor to see what they should do about my slow labor. He gave the okay to start me on pitocin. Since this is how I have had my previous two babies, I knew I was going to be wanting the epidural ASAP.
Once settled in with my pit drip and my epidural, I was finally wanting to get some sleep. However, I was too nervous and nauseated to sleep. Unfortunately I threw up some more and still had to wait longer for the Dr. to show up.
At 9:30 the dr. finally was able to make it over to break my water!! I knew once that happened, it would all go pretty quick. After about an hour after, I was still only dilated to about a 5. They increased my pit drip and an hour later I was ready to push!
It only took about 2 pushes and she was out!!! Before she came out, they said it better be a girl because there was so much dark hair! Since all my kids have had quite a bit of hair I didn't think much of that statement, but I pretty much knew it would be a girl. It took Randy a minute to announce the gender (he was a little perplexed since her little girl parts were pretty swollen). I think he was also a little distracted from being splashed with amniotic fluid! Her head was so low and far down that most of the fluid was behind her. As soon as she came out there was a volcano of fluid that came gushing out all over, spraying Randy and my mom! Anyway, she was finally out and I got to hold her while Randy cut the cord!
It took us a while to decide on the name. I won't go into detail on all the different names we came up with it. I finally decided after calling her the wrong name a million times. Even after I decided I had to seriously think about what her name was every time I went to say it because we had discussed so many different names. Now, a week later, she is definitely my little Braylee!
So there you have it, a little longer than I had planned on originally, but I just couldn't leave anything out. Actually, I did leave out the part about my epidural causing the whole left side of my body to go numb. I was a little worried about that, but they turned it off for a little bit and it went away. I guess the doc gave me a little too much right off the bat. In the end, my left side ended up not being numb enough and I felt a lot of pain as on that side as I was pushing her out! I'm definitely glad that it is all over and now I'm on the recovery end of the deal. My little Braylee is such a sweet little thing, I just want to cuddle her all day long. I forgot how much newborns sleep! My Ryker never slept and was so fussy all the time. It has been 7 years since I had a quiet, calm baby! Who knows, maybe this little girl will convince me to have more children. I'm not going to think about that right now, I'm just going to enjoy my sweet angel!