A Baby Story

Bryton surprised us all and came on January 29th, two weeks early!

She was 7 pounds 7 ounces, and 20.5 inches long.

Trent and I went to our doctor's appointment the day before, and the doctor told me he would check to see if anything was happening yet, but he doubted it. Sure enough, he says, "Wow! You are not going to be pregnant for much longer!" Apparently I was dilated to a 4 and fully effaced. This made me panic a little, because I was definitely not ready. Everyone kept telling me that I would get to the, "Get this baby out of me now!" point, but I had not yet reached it. In fact, I kept rubbing my belly and coaching Bryton to stay in there a little longer! The doctor sent us home with the disclaimer that I could still go full-term. As we were driving I said to Trent, "Do you realize she could come tonight?!" To which he replied, "She's not coming tonight!"

Sure enough, I woke up at 3:30 that morning with my stomach cramping every 5 minutes. I didn't really think anything of it because the doctor had told me that the exam might make me crampy, and that most first-time moms have a 12 hour labor. So this could not be it, right? Oh no. At 4:30 Trent woke up because of my groaning. He asked me how far apart, and I told him, but I insisted it wasn't time yet. Yes, I am dumb. Mostly I was just terrified and hoping to prolong the inevitable birthing part of this whole experience. Luckily, he jumped out of bed and said, "We have to go now!"

I was still in denial, so he left me laying in the bed while he went to pack his bag. About 3o seconds later I could no longer deny what was happening. The contractions started hurting so bad I got up and threw on a bright red shirt, with lime green pajama pants. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I would never leave the house like this. That is how much I was hurting. By the time we got to the car they were 3 minutes apart and I was terrified because we still had to drive to Salt Lake. Trent was driving about 95 MPH on I-80 when a Highway Patrolman pulled out and turned on his lights. Seriously?! These things are only supposed to happen in movies! The officer came right to our window and asked Trent, "Do you know how fast you were going?" Trent leaned over and yelled, "We are havin a baby!" The officer shined his flashlight on me and goes, "Oh!" He wanted to call me an ambulance, but I did not want to have this baby in Tooele, so he let us go since my water had not broken yet. Thank you SO much, whoever you are. I pretty much love you.

We made it to the hospital and rushed in, and found not one single person. Not one single wheelchair. Total ghost-town. So I proceed to walk to the elevator, with Trent holding me up. We rush to the Labor and Delivery floor, to find the doors locked. Trent pushed the button, and we waited and waited for someone to buzz us in, all the while I was hunched over trying to breathe and hoping that this baby didn't come shooting out of me.

Finally they got me in a bed and discovered I was at a 7.5. Once the anesthesiologist came and gave me an epidural (the best invention EVER!) I was totally fine. They would show me on the monitor when I was having contractions, but I couldn't feel anything. Whoever invented that is my hero.

My doctor was not on-call since it was a weekend. I was so sad but ended up LOVING the doctor who was. He came in and broke my water and I immediately went to a 10. I pushed for a few minutes, but then they discovered that the baby was upside down. So we decided to wait a little bit to see if she could turn on her own. This was my favorite part of the whole process because they left Trent and I alone for about an hour. We held hands and talked and speculated on what this little baby would be like and look like. When they came back in, she was down really far but still upside down. Luckily, the doctor who was there is one of the only doctors who can turn a baby with his hands (what the?! Again, SO grateful for the epidural!) It took less than 3 seconds and he had her turned over. I started pushing and 8 minutes later we had a beautiful baby girl! It was fast and much less terrifying than I had imagined. Thank goodness!!

Finally, after 9 months of anticipation, we were able to meet our baby girl...

Our first family photo

Big Brother!

Her first bath

One day old

The beautiful view from our room

Going home!

Words do not describe how much we love her!