Introducing Robert Steven Brooks: Part 2

While this post will likely be as long as the last one, this one will actually have pictures of a cute baby!

My mom wasn't due to arrive in CA until two days before my due date.  The Sunday before her arrival, my contractions started coming pretty regularly...about every 8-10 minutes.  My midwife had told me to let her know when they were every 4 minutes apart for an hour.  By Monday, my contractions were coming every 4-6 minutes, and I was pretty stoked, even though my mom wouldn't be there to help with my other kids at this point.  However, by evening, I was getting stressed out and tired...and my contractions stopped all together.  I tried to not get discouraged over the next few days and took the time to finish up some random projects around the house.  I had never gone past my due date before, but I had also been induced with all but one of my kids.  Still, I was convinced that once my mom arrived, I would go into labor...except I didn't.  It seemed like every other day I would have contractions all day long, only to have them stop at night and the whole next day.

Two weeks before Robert was born.

I was due on Friday, May 20th.  When I woke up on the 21st without any contractions, I was determined to not be discouraged.  We made plans for our family to go to a fun town in the mountains nearby called Oak Glen.  They have a kitschy village area there with a petting zoo, lots of shops, and other miscellaneous activities.  We discovered an area where the kids could feed some peacocks, but I felt like I wanted to keep walking, so my mom and I walked a short distance away from the peacocks where it looked like you could feed some goats.  As we got closer, however, we realized that there were two fawns in with the goats.  Now, I have a fairly persistent fear of deer, but since they were babies, I joked with my mom that feeding the deer corn through the fence might cure me of my fear.  It took me a few tries (my hand was shaking pretty badly!), but I finally succeeded in feeding a baby deer by hand!  I was actually enjoying myself until out of the corner of my eye, I saw another deer and a goat charging us from a different corner of the pen!  I shrieked and doubled over, hyperventilating a bit.  My mom was likewise doubled over...only she was in tears with laughter!  After my encounter with the deer, I started having contractions every minute and a half to 3 minutes for well over an hour.  They weren't exactly painful contractions, but with Seth (the only child I hadn't been induced with), I only had a handful of painful contractions before he was born.  So, I texted Tammy and she told me that she was already at the birthing center and to come in.  When I arrived, however, she checked me out and said that I was really only at 2 cm and that he still hadn't dropped much.  She suggested I keep up with the activities we had planned for the day, so we went home.

Feeding the deer at Oak Glen

While we'd been in the birthing center, my mom told me that she'd overheard Renae tearfully praying in the back seat of the van that if the baby was about to be born, that it would somehow turn out to be a girl instead of a boy, despite the convincing ultrasound photos and blood work that told us otherwise.  I sensed that she needed some girl times, so I convinced Brandon to let her get her ears pierced a few months early (we had previously agreed she could get them pierced when she turned 8).  Renae was thrilled!  My mom and I took her to the mall to get them done, as well as to walk around some more.  What made that experience even more fun was running into our bishop's family at Claire's because they were there for one of their daughter's to get her ears pierced, too!  After we watched their daughter get hers done, their family cheered on Renae while she had hers done.  Renae loved the attention! 

Ears finally pierced!

When we got home, I rested a bit and then our family went outside to play and walk around the neighborhood.  During this time, my contractions never let up, and actually intensified quite a bit.  However, as the evening wore on, they once again stopped around bedtime.  I was so worn out because these contractions had actually become quite painful, so I went to bed around 9:00...and I was NOT in a great mood.

The next day was a Sunday, and I was still just so tired and achy from everything my body had been through the day before.  At this point, I was not in a good place mentally, physically, spiritually, or emotionally.  I stayed home from church to rest, which was probably a good thing because a lot of people had been asking if the baby had come and then there had been a lesson in Relief Society that talked, in part, about birth and motherhood.  When my family got home, I shut myself up in my room and was just sobbing.  Both Brandon and my mom came in to talk to me, and I hated telling them how I was feeling.  I felt like I'd lost any sense of maternal bonding with my baby.  I was feeling like when he was born, I'd just want them to hand him off to Brandon because I couldn't handle it any more.  I felt like my prayers were just going to keep going unanswered, and I felt very alone.  My mom suggested that I come downstairs before my depression surrounding my continued pregnancy got worse and interact with the kids while she made dinner and then we could all go for a drive after dinner.  I reluctantly agreed, but still had a hard time not spontaneously bursting into tears for the rest of the day.

Monday was a better day, perfect for running some errands and cleaning up around the house.  Once again, my contractions started up and drained my energy quite a bit, so I rested up for most of the afternoon.  Renae was supposed to be teaching our FHE lesson that night, but I asked her if it would be okay if we went on an easy hike instead.  While Seth spent most of the hike freaked out about rattlesnakes and other wildlife, the rest of us enjoyed our evening.  I was determined to sleep well that night and to remain positive.

My pregnant shadow on our FHE hike

On Tuesday the 24th, I woke up in a rotten mood, though.  Brandon kept asking me how I was feeling, and my curt response each time was, "well, I'm still pregnant."  Even though he'd worked from home the day before, I told him to just go into work because I wasn't having any contractions and there was nothing he could do.  However, I also didn't want to stay home, so we dropped Brandon off at work, and then my mom and I took the little boys to Target and Hobby Lobby for a little retail therapy.  That seemed to help my mood a bit, but my body was pretty achy, and I didn't want to keep walking.  I did, however, really want a diet Coke.  I had been pretty good about staying away from it with my anemia issues, but I thought I deserved one at this point!  So we went to a McDonald's with a play area to get a drink and some cookies while the little boys played.  After pulling into the parking lot, my mom got the boys out of their seats, and I got out of the van, but before we even had the van doors shut, my water broke.  I looked at my mom and said, "maybe I should run inside to make sure?"  She looked at me like I was crazy and told me to hand over the keys and get back in the van.  Seth and Andrew were not terribly happy about not getting a treat at McDonald's, but I was suddenly in a pretty good mood!  That was at 10:15 am.

I called the midwife, but she was at her other office an hour away.  She wanted me to verify that I didn't have a prolapsed cord and that the amniotic fluid was clear (indicating that he hadn't passed any meconium yet).  Since we were about 15 minutes away from home, I couldn't do that, but I told her I'd call as soon as I got home.  Then I called Brandon.  I had to tell him several times that my water broke before he actually heard me.  Then he rushed out of his building and started walking in our general direction so that we could pick him up on our way home.

It wasn't until around 10:45 that we were able to get home.  While the cord had not prolapsed when my water broke (or in other words, the cord had not been delivered before the baby...a very dangerous situation), our little guy had passed some meconium, so I was a bit worried that he'd inhaled some.  I relayed that info to my midwife, and she told me to just go to the birthing center because her assistant was already on her way there.  We arrived at the birthing center by 11:15.  Janine, the assistant, checked me out, and breathed a sigh of relief that I was only at 3 cm.  She jokingly said that she needed to let Tammy know how fast she needed to drive, but that since I was only at a 3, she probably didn't need to risk getting a ticket.  Tammy and Brittany (Tammy's daughter and other assistant) arrived by around 11:45.  After setting up the IV line in my arm in case of a hemorrhage post-delivery, my labor and delivery team left Brandon and me alone for a few minutes to relax while they went across the hall to the kitchen to make some coffee.  

My midwife team: Janine, Tammy the midwife, and Brittany

At this point, I just wanted Brandon to rub my feet because the contractions were starting to get pretty painful.  Moments later painful turned into the need to push!  I had only delivered one of my children without an epidural, and I thought I remembered the pain being manageable.  This time around, however, I'm pretty sure I could have ripped a pillow to shreds with my bare hands!  Fortunately, baby Robert didn't make me wait too long and was born at 12:28 pm without relatively any problems.  He was pretty blue when he was born, but he pinked up pretty quickly after his lungs were immediately suctioned.  My midwife team joked that he didn't even give them the opportunity to finish making their coffee and change into scrubs.  For about an hour after he was born, Brandon and I were able to just sit side by side on the bed in a dimly lit room just enjoying our little guy.  It was pretty perfect.

When it was time for the birthing team to come back in, we were all pretty excited to see just how big Robert was.  My "little" guy weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs even and was 21 inches long!  His big ol' noggin was also 15 1/4 inches in circumference.  All of those stats put him in about the 98th percentile in each category.  So, while he was huge, at least he was proportionate, right?

One of my favorite things about having Robert at a birthing center was that 3 hours after he was born, we were released to go home.  My mom had met Nick and Renae at the school to pick them up with the exciting news that they had a new brother.  By the time we got home, everyone was pretty excited to meet Robert, and I was just thrilled that I would be able to sleep in my own bed that night and not be interrupted every hour to be poked and prodded.

About to head home!  I think it's pretty funny that my hair looks awful here because after making sure my hair was done every day for about two weeks (just in case Robert were to come, I wanted to have decent hair for any pictures), I finally gave up on the day he was actually born because I was so annoyed to still be pregnant!

So, while the months leading up to Robert's arrival were pretty awful, his entry into the world was pretty smooth.  He has also been extremely healthy since he was born and hasn't had any issues with jaundice or low blood sugar, both common issues with big babies and both issues are ones that Seth dealt with when he was born.  Robert eats very well, is learning to sleep better at night, and is generally a pretty content little guy.  He loves to be snuggled by Mom, but puts up with Dad if he has to.  He hates being swaddled, but tolerates a pacifier.  We also like to joke that when he looks into your eyes, he can see deep into your soul.  We are so grateful that our baby Robert is finally here!

Just after arriving home from the birth center.

Grandpa Robert meeting Baby Robert via Facetime

I've also been humbled that those trials I went through before his arrival actually turned out to be blessings.  I hated being diagnosed with high amniotic fluid levels because my abdomen was always tight and uncomfortable.  In fact, those high fluid levels are what caused my contractions to keep starting and stopping because my muscles would just get super tired from trying to squeeze down on all of that extra stuff.  However, it helped him to move ever so slowly into place so that the cord wouldn't prolapse, and the extra volume also helped to dilute the meconium so that even though he did inhale a bit of it, he wasn't in any great respiratory distress.  So, even though I had felt pretty depressed and alone, thinking that God didn't really care about the pain I was in, I am so glad that Robert's birth was delayed until the conditions were just right for him to be born safely.