Brooklyn Kate is Here!

Things have finally settled down a bit so I thought I'd write about our newest addition & her arrival into our family.

The biggest surprise of all was finding out that "it's a girl!" I honestly was convinced that I was having a boy but was pleasantly surprised that I'm just as thrilled to have another sweet baby girl to add to our family.

Wednesday morning I woke up with a few contractions. Since I've never gone into labor on my own, I was unsure whether or not it was real labor or just cramps. I called up to our birth center & was told that I could come in to be checked if I wanted...of course, I just wanted to know what was up. We dropped the kids off with my mom & headed up to get things checked out. Turned out to be "false" or "early" labor. My contractions were super irregular & would stop & start based on what I was doing (ie: walking, lying in bed). They sent me home. HUGE bummer.

Chris went back to work & I continued my day as normal. The contractions continued to be random but seemed to get worse as the day went on. Around 7pm, my pain level was around a 9 but the contractions were still about 20 minutes apart, some more like 30. I called up to the birth center & was told that there was NO WAY that contractions that far apart were doing anything to cause me to dilate but that I could come get checked again if I wanted to. I felt pretty stupid after talking to the nurse because she made me feel like I was an idiot for being nervous about contractions that she claimed were "doing nothing".

Around 9:45, I called my mom to come watch the kids. The pain was unbearable & I had started shaking. By the time she arrived at 10:20, the contractions had jumped to approx. 3 minutes apart. We raced to the hospital...running every red light & avoiding a train. Chris ran me down the hall in a wheelchair & they quickly brought me back to triage. The nursed checked me out & I was 5cm, progressed from 3cm that morning. She quickly transferred me to my own room & in the 5 minutes that passed, I had progressed to 7cm. She quickly called for my epidural but in the next 5-7 minutes, I had progressed to 9cm & it was too late. The doctor came & broke my water & that was it. I pushed for the most painful 8 minutes of my life & our precious baby girl was born!

Brooklyn Kate was born Feb. 8th at 11:39pm & weighed 8 pounds 6 oz. & was 20"

The other kiddos have adjusted quickly to life with a new sibling. Mackenzie seems to be the one having the hardest time with it so we've been trying to give her a little extra one on one time. They all love to hold & kiss her...Alyssa is always asking "where's my sister?" when I'm not holding or feeding her. The first week has gone by SO quickly, as it always does. She's been such a wonderful baby & we are truly blessed!