Brooklyn Kathleen is here!

We have all been enjoying the first few weeks of Brooklyn being home with us.  It seems like forever that we have been waiting for her and now we already can't imagine our family without here.  Brooklyn was born on Thursday, September 12th at 11:33 PM.  It was just 30 minutes before her actual due date and she seemed to be in quite a hurry to get out once she had made up her mind.  With both Ethan and Taylor I was induced but nowadays they don't do inductions, unless there is a medical reason, before 41 weeks so I was starting to wonder if she was going to come on her own or if I was going to have to wait until past 41 weeks for an induction.  At my 39 week appointment the doctor said she didn't think I would make it to my due date so that gave me the idea that she would come early and made for a long week of waiting and wondering.  I started to wonder if I would even know what going into labor felt like since I had always "gone into labor" in the hospital and there was no doubts.  On that Thursday night Abe had gone to a work function and I had warned him about not staying out too late just in case.  Thankfully he listened and came home around 8pm and around 8:40 I felt the first contraction and I was pretty sure this was the beginning of the end.  But they were probably 10 minutes apart so we didn't feel sure they were going to last.  Since the doctor had told us to wait at home until the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart for an hour we didn't feel in any hurry to head to the hospital.  We did start the process of getting ready to go and told my mom not to expect us to be there in the morning.  But still we were in no hurry.  I went to finish packing my bag and get a shower.  I started to realize that the contractions were coming closer and closer together but I hadn't looked at the clock.  Finally Abe came up and started counting them again and we realized they were only 2 minutes apart and then we realized we better get moving.  By the time we got to the hospital they were 1-2 minutes apart and it was around 10:20.  Thankfully the nursing staff decided quickly that I was really in labor and didn't make us wait in triage so we went straight to the delivery room.  They started the million questions that they have to ask and got me all hooked up to monitors and all.  There is nothing more annoying than people peppering you with questions during contractions at the final stage of labor.  I had finally made it through all the basic workup and the nurse finally told me that I could move around and find a more comfortable position.  I had sort of decided to not have an epidural again but I was really regretting that decision (like I always do) while laying there and had almost made up my mind (in my head) that if I didn't feel better once I moved around that I was getting the epidural.  But the nurse wanted to check me once more before I got up and quickly decided that I was not getting out of the bed and she was going to get the doctor to deliver this baby.  And when I say "the doctor" I really mean get the 12 people that they felt they needed to have around. Oh the joys of delivering at a teaching hospital.  There was the OB staff, the resident, the intern, and the medical student and then because of some issues that Brooklyn had they had a full pediatric team with the staff, resident, intern and medical student.  Even the nurse had her own trainee in there.  Oh and did I mention that there were some other people restocking the room during the whole process too.  Thankfully the delivery was just as quick as the labor and after a few pushes she was out.  Unfortunately we couldn't hold her immediately because they wanted her checked out completely but we could hear her loud screams and knew she was just fine.  No one could believe what a big baby she was.  The doctor had guessed earlier that week that she would be 7.5 or 8 pounds. So when a chubby 9 pound 4 ounce baby came out they were all shocked.  She looked so much like Taylor with her chubby cheeks and dark hair.  It felt like an eternity while they stitched me up and I waited to hold that sweet little girl.  It was a long night as we waited in recovery until 4a.m. and then we finally got to "sleep", if anyone really sleeps with all the monitors and nurses coming through. 

We have been trying to decide who Brooklyn looks most like.  I think in these early pictures she looks like Taylor's twin.  But as she has gotten a little bigger she looks more like Ethan. i guess we will have to wait and see.