Birth Story: Rosealynn

Well we have had an exciting unexpected weekend! Let's start with a little back story:

Every year Braedon's family goes up camping over labor day to the same spot (located here). Well seeing as I was due September 13th, we decided it would be best to move the camping trip up so we could still go. Thus we moved the camping trip up to the weekend of August 18th - I would be only 2 days over 36 weeks so we felt pretty safe going up then.

Ha. I should have known my daughter better.

So we went up around 2:00 PM on Friday August 17th - Braedon made sure to have me keep it super easy (aka I sat on my butt eating goodies and reading while him and his little brother set up our tent and unpacked). The rest of Braedon's family (minus Brad who had to work until Saturday Morning) came up a few hours later - including their new foreign exchange student from Belgium Julie. We had a great evening playing games, eating food, and sitting by the camp fire. Saturday came, Brad joined us, and again we had a fun lazy day around the campsite.

Around 6:00 pm everyone decided to go on a bit of a hike - I of course stayed behind to relax and continue to take it easy. I sat by the Goudie Pond and read my book enjoying the quiet - my back started to ache a bit (which happens after I sit too long) so I went and layed down in the tent on our awesome air mattress. I apparently fell asleep as I was woken up around 8:30 when the family came back from their hike. I got up and immediately realized I wasn't feel good. I almost felt like I had food poisoning, but having eaten the same stuff everyone else did this didn't make sense. I ended up thinking maybe it was just the fact that I had eaten too many treats/junk food... either way my stomach was not happy. I layed back down and had Brad and Braedon give me a blessing. In the blessing Braedon stated that whatever was ailing my body would leave and I would be well again. This of course got my brain thinking in two different routes. Either A) I did have some type of food poisoning and I was going to throw it all up and thus feel better. Or B) this was some how baby related and Braedon just doomed me to having the baby in the woods. After the blessing I did feel calmer but still had this nagging in the back of my head of "Go home". I was talking it over with Braedon, deciding what we should do when he asked "Well, what does your gut feeling say?" I responded with a "Get me a pan" to which I got a "Yes ma'am!" as he darted out of the tent to fetch me a pan. I then proceeded to throw up everything I had in my stomach - I'm fairly sure I somehow threw up more then what was actually in my stomach as I have no idea how my stomach could contain so much.

After my fun little vomiting episode I felt immediately better - weak and tired, but so much better. Thinking that I had my answer and that I had just eaten something that didn't like me I calmed down and decided to stay and just go to bed. I snuggled up to our cute pup Spook and started to drift off when I felt what I can only call a 'leaking' sensation. Too tired to think much of if I continued to drift off when the leaking got a bit stronger. Annoyed at this point - thinking I was having some excess vaginal discharge I stood up to go take care of the mess, when all of the sudden the 'leaking' turned into a 'pouring'. Right then Braedon walks into the tent to see how I'm doing as I pull my pants down half way to my ankles and the pouring turned more into a 'gushing'. We stared at the ground, looked at each other with wide eyes, and stared at the ground again. I'm pretty sure I said something to the effect of "Unless I have horrible bladder control, I'm fairly positive my water just broke" and then I started laughing.

Braedon then calls to his mom who is in the next tent over just getting down for bed and she rushes over. Not ever having her water break for any of her four kids she couldn't be positive - but she was on the same line of though as Braedon and I.

My water had broken at 36 Weeks... in the woods.

We busted into action (or rather, Braedon and his mom busted into action). I tried to clean myself up a bit and started walking slowly to the car as Braedon grabbed clothes and other items, and handed poor Spook off to his brother Parker. We get in the car and start the nice 20 minute bumpy drive till we get to the main road - then we'd have a good 1.5 hours until we were even back to the Salt Lake Valley.

I was feeling fairly calm at this point - I felt fine, no contractions yet, baby was still kicking and moving around so I wasn't too worried. Once we got to Kamas and got some service we called Braedon's aunt Kelly who is a RN in the maternity ward - we told her that my water had broken and asked if she felt we were okay to continue driving for 45 minutes to get to my hospital or if she felt we should stop at the Kamas Hospital. She felt it was safe enough to continue the drive but told me to also call my doctor. I did so and they agreed so we just kept on driving.

We made it to Alpine Hospital a little before midnight. We got checked in and they took some vitals and asked me a bunch of questions. It was pretty fun to see people's reactions when we informed them my water broke up camping. I was only dilated to a 3.5 so before they got my hooked up for the IV I asked the nurse if it would be alright if I rinsed off in the shower so that I wasn't all sorts of smokey/dusty/buggy. Luckily she said that was just fine. Showering before hand was great. I still had some ash in my hair from the camp fire, but at least I didn't feel like I had rolled around on a dusty road. After that they hooked me up to the IV and monitors and decided to wait for a while to see what my body would do as I still wasn't having any major contractions. If things were still going slowly around 4:30 they'd give me some pitocin to speed things up.

4:30 AM comes around and I'm only to a 4.5, so they decide to start the pitocin. After being on the pitocin for 30 mins or so I could start feeling a difference, the contractions were coming a bit closer and they were getting a bit stronger (reminding me how much I hated cramps and periods). The next time the nurse came in I asked her when they normally give the epidural (I wanted to prepare my brain as I have an irrational fear of needles). She told me it was up to the patient. Being a bit surprised I then decided that while my contractions are easier and further between and it still being easy for me to hold still - let's get the epidural now so it's ready for when things get a bit more intense. So she decides to wait on upping the pitocin and goes and tells the anesthesiologist. After he finishes up with giving another womens epidural he got in around 6:30 to put mine in. I made Braedon hold my hand as I started to make the whole experience worse in my head. What a let down - it barely even pinched. All those nerves for nothing (not that I'm really complaining). A few minutes later my lower half starts to go tingly and while I could still tell when I was having a contraction that's about as far as it went. Aka: epidural = best idea ever. I was finally able to get a few good cat naps in and relax a bit more - knowing that when it came time for the real labor, I was ready (and niiiice and drugged up).

Braedon's mom at this point decided to take our car for a few hours and head home to get herself a few hours of sleep. I got checked again around 9:00 AM I had now made it to a 7 - I was starting to feel that all the waiting was going to come to an end soon.

Around 11 I got a text from Lori asking if I was at a 10 yet. I hadn't been checked super recently but I informed her that I wasn't and we were still waiting. I also made the statement to Braedon of "I'm fairly sure I would know if I was at a 10".  About 30 seconds later the nurse came in to check me and exclaimed "Oh! That's the head. You're at a ten. I'll call the doctor and we can start pushing".

Apparently I wouldn't know if I was at a 10. Again - thank you epidural. :)

So I started to push around 11:30. Everything was so clam and relaxed it felt a little surreal and sounded nothing like the room next to me did around 2 in the morning (don't worry, she quieted down when she succumbed to an epidural after 2 hours of screaming). I was still making conversation with Braedon and the nurse and joking around. After pushing through 4 contractions I was informed that I pushed like this was my third child (aka I'm a pro pusher - you've got to have skills somewhere, right?) and that I needed to stop until the doctor arrived. So we waited around for about 20 minutes until the doctor got there - I then pushed for 2 more contractions and next think I new this gorgeous tiny baby girl was placed on my chest.

Rosealynn Dawn was born at 12:24 PM, weighing in at 6 pounds 3 oz and measuring at 19 inches long.

She was healthy and perfect and ours.

It's still a little surreal to me that this baby girl is in our lives - 4 weeks early. I always had a feeling that she'd be early, just not quite that early. But apparently she was ready and wanted to come now!

All in all we are both still doing great. She's super healthy and the love of our lives. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. :)