It all began on Thursday, September 25th. I had a routine doctor's appointment to make sure the baby and I were both doing well and progressing. At this point, I was 39 weeks and 1 day along. During the part when I was getting my vital signs checked, I noticed that my blood pressure was a bit higher at 129/90. According to my doctor, your diastolic pressure (bottom number) shouldn't be over 90 as that could indicate preeclampsia or high blood pressure in pregnancy. I was told that this could mean a placental disease that, if serious enough and not treated, could result in the placenta trying to eject itself and causing distress to the baby. I mentioned this to my doctor and he decided to send me to get some blood work done just to be sure that all was fine. I headed to the lab immediately after to get it out of the way for the rest of the day. At this point, I wasn't concerned. I was just on the cusp of my blood pressure being too high and I felt fine.
The following morning, the 26th, I got a phone call from my doctor's office asking me to go to the Labour & Delivery Unit at the Peter Lougheed Centre where I had planned to deliver. They were a little concerned about some of my lab values, nothing emergent, but also not within the normal values that they should have been. Jared and I took our time getting ready and then headed to the hospital. Luckily, we already had my hospital bag and diaper bag in the back of the car so we didn't have to stress about that.
We arrived at the hospital around 11:30am and got ourselves checked in. They sent us to a stretcher that was separated from the others by a curtain. They attached me to a fetal monitor and monitored me for a while to make sure the baby was doing fine. She was a champ and had a nice strong heartbeat for us with no abnormalities. I had some repeat blood work done so we waited as that was completed. When that was finished, a doctor came in to talk to us about the results. She stated that the values had increased since the day before and that, it still was not emergent, but had jumped a considerable amount. She sent us for one last ultrasound downstairs and then advised us that it was probably a good idea to induce labour so as not to risk anything happening to myself or the baby. We were on board since, really, I was only 5 days away from my due date at this point. She gave me a medication called Cervadil to help induce labour. This medication required me to be monitored so they sent us to an antepartum unit (the place before Labour & Delivery when you would usually be at home labouring). They started my medication at 4:30pm and then sent us to the antepartum unit.
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| When we first arrived on the L&D Unit. |
At about 02:30am, I woke up as I was starting to get regular contractions that were getting increasingly painful. I tried to for an hour or so to go back to sleep but was unsuccessful. Around 04:00, Jared and I started to walk around the unit as I definitely was not going to get back to sleep at this point. After a while, we noticed the contractions were getting to about 4 minutes apart, so we went back to our room and called the nurse. A doctor checked me at about 04:30 and sent us to Labour & Delivery! We texted my mom to let her know our status and she said she would come as fast as she could.
While in Labour & Delivery, they asked me if I would like an epidural. I wasn't in excruciating pain at the time but knew that the pain certainly wasn't going to get better so I requested one. Best decision ever! After that, I was basically pain free and actually able to sleep for a few hours which was heavenly. At about 06:30 my mom showed up and she spent some time with us in our room while we tried to get some sleep. When I woke up, they broke my water to get things going which seemed to help.
At 10:00, I was fully dilated and ready to go but we were all really relaxed. Jared and my mom hadn't had breakfast so they were able to go downstairs to the cafeteria and grab a quick muffin and some juice while I continued eating my ice chips. Yummy!
At 10:30, I started pushing. They had some difficulty so they had to use a vacuum once. All was well though and our baby girl was born at 11:42!
Brynn May Rasmussen
Born Saturday, September 27th, 2014
11:42am
7lbs 6oz
20 inches long
Jared's parents visited later in the day as well. They were SO excited to meet their first grandchild! You could tell how happy they were, they glowed with pride.
After visits from the grandparents, they decided it was time to go home and let us get some rest. We took the rest of the evening pretty easy. I tried to get some rest from time to time which wasn't always easy as I was either feeding Brynn or having a nurse check on me. It was nice having some time to snuggle our new baby girl. Brynn was also able to have her first bath which Jared attended with the nurse responsible for bathing the newborns.
That night, I sent Jared home to get some sleep in our comfortable bed at home while the baby and I spent the night. It was HARD! In total I think I got about 2 hours of sleep since Brynn just wouldn't settle when I'd put her down to go to sleep. Not that I blame her, she was experiencing a whole new, traumatizing world.
After a while, Brynn started developing a rash from the hospital linens and the harsh chemicals they use so we wrapped her up in the receiving blankets my mom gave us. Brynn was able to open her eyes for little bits of time and see what was happening. She seemed to be very curious about all the new, strange surroundings she was seeing!
The next morning, I was very grateful when Jared came back. I was very tired so I had him take Brynn for a while so I could nap. When I woke up from my nap, which unfortunately wasn't very long, we had quite a bit of paperwork to do including choosing the middle name. It took some debate as we wanted to use a family name, but not one that had already been used by my siblings...one of the hard things about being the baby of the family. Eventually we agreed on the middle name "May" as it is my mom's maiden name and also the middle name of Jared's maternal grandmother. I liked the way Brynn May Rasmussen sounded!
Basically as soon as we were able to get the paperwork done and pack up our stuff, we were able to be discharged. Brynn had a little bit of jaundice but not enough that she needed to stay in the hospital. We were told we would get a call from a Community Health Nurse where we would go in to see them for a check-up. We dressed up Brynn in a cute little bunny sleeper that Jared's mom had given us for Brynn. It was a little big on her at the time, but she was adorable. We also had a princess crown hat for her to wear and some mittens to keep her hands warm. She sure looked small in her big carseat.
