Callie's delivery

June 7th was such a happy day for our little family!! It is a day I never want to forget, so before I forget too much about Callie's birth, I wanted to write it down.  

I scheduled my induction to be June 7th - which was exactly at my 39 week mark.  It is the same birthday as Nate's dad, Nate's brother Erik, our nephew Ike, and my great-grandma Brown which made it pretty special.  Even though I scheduled to be induced, I was convinced I would have Callie a few weeks early.  Brennan came early at 36 1/2 weeks and was born completely healthy so for some reason I was confident Callie would come early too. But she didn't so by the time June 7th rolled around I was more than ready to meet her!

The night before the induction I didn't sleep too good (I guess I was too excited and nervous for the next day).  So when the phone rang at 6am and the hospital told us they were ready for us, I popped right out of bed and we headed right over.  It seemed so weird to walk right into the hospital feeling no pain at all and knowing we would walk out of there with a baby.

The beginning of the induction process was quick and easy.  I got hooked up on a IV, the doc broke my water, and the nurse started me on a low dose of Pitocin. Before I knew it, I was feeling contractions every 3 or 4 minutes.  At first they were pretty doable but after about an hour and half of feeling contractions, they were making me uncomfortable enough to ask for the epidural.

Before this point everything seemed to go on just as planned and I figured our baby would be born in just a few hours.  But everything didn't run quite so smoothly after I got the epidural.  About five minutes after getting it, I felt I couldn't breath.  And then I felt my heart begin to race without being able to control it.  So the nurse checked my blood pressure and noticed it was super low.  I've never had heart or blood pressure problems so it was a really weird.  I am sure it was somehow related to the epidural but even the nurse and anesthesiologist were confused why I'd have such a big reaction to it.  At least it worked and my entire lower body felt completely numb so the contractions no longer bothered me.  The nurse gave me some medicine to help regulate my blood pressure and put my on oxygen and it helped pretty fast.  But just to make sure my heart was okay, the doctor ordered an EKG.  The EKG guy came in and laid me on my back.  Soon after I was on my back, Callie's heart rate plummeted.  Before I knew it, multiple nurses ran in, Dr. Ollerton was paged, and I heard that the doctor wanted us to meet him in the Operating Room.  By this point, people were all around me trying to figure out what was going on and the tension in the room was pretty high.  I was confused and tired and nervous thinking I might have to have an emergency C-section if we couldn't regulate Callie's heart.   At this point I was emotional about everything going on around me and not having control of anything.  And Nate later told me he was holding back tears too watching me and Callie go through this all and not being able to do anything about it.  Our main labor and delivery nurse, Michelle, was awesome through this entire process and remained really calm.  The other nurses were preparing to wheel me down to the OR but Michelle just suggested I roll to my left side to see if her heart rate would go back up and luckily it did!  Hearing her fast little heart rate beating on the monitor again was the best thing ever!  By the time Dr. Ollerton arrived in the delivery room, everything was finally under control again.  Even though that entire chain-of-events probably only lasted 20 or 30 minutes, I was a little shaken up.  I was happy when they decided to stop the induction process for an hour while I fully recovered.  And luckily the rest of the process was fast and smooth.

 Once the hour was up and they started the Pitocin again,  I dilated super fast from a 6 to a 10 and before I knew it I was ready to push! The doctor arrived, I pushed through part of a contraction (about 10 or 15 seconds) and Callie was born!  It all happened so fast but it was such an amazing experience to finally have her here! Those first few moments with her were the best!  Nate and I took turns holding our precious baby and we instantly fell in love! I am so grateful to have our sweet girl here now! 

 A few hours after had her, we got to introduce Callie to her big brothers!  Aiden and Brennan were so excited to meet their little sister!  It was so cute to see them hold her.  Aiden actually didn't want anyone to hold Callie but himself.   He just wanted to keep holding her the entire time, we almost had to pry her out of his arms.  It was such an awesome experience to be together for the first time as a family of five!  

We only stayed in the hospital for 24 hours and then we headed back home to get settled in.  I have to say a HUGE thank you to my parents for watching our boys for three days straight so we could focus on Callie 100%.  Our boys had SO much fun with my parents...especially because it was Cedar Hills days so the boys got to enjoy a movie in the park, a parade, a carnival, and fireworks.  It was so nice to know our kids were being well taken care while we spent time with Callie!