Happy Birthday Braylin!!!!!

Braylin Paige Langham
born January 28, 2008
8:07 pm
8 lb 3 oz
20 inches long

The day came exactly 1 week earlier than planned! Originally scheduled for a Feb 4th induction, Braylin decided to make an earlier appearance. And thank goodness she did, considering she wasn't exactly a feather weight.

I worked Mon and Tues, so I ran by Dr. Gayle's office Tues afternoon for my 38 week appointment. I was dilated 1cm, Braylin had come down a good bit more, and my cervix was 90% effaced. I was so excited! Then came Wednesday morning around 2:30am.... I woke up with horrible cramping in my lower back. It was bearable, so I figured I would lay there and wait for them to go away. The cramping was only happening with a contraction, but my contractions were irregular. I assumed I would go by the office in the morning and get some pain meds to hold over the cramping. From what I could tell, I was only in early labor (which can last days) so I wasn't too concerned.

Then at 3:30 when I was having contractions about every 7 minutes or so, I decided to call the labor unit to get another opinion. Angela agreed that a warm bath, two Tylenol, laying back down on my side for a little while, and kick counts would be a good start. Long story short... I was still having cramping at 8:00 so I called the doctor's office and they said to come on in. After the monitor read contractions every 1-2 minutes and my cervix had changed to 2cm, Dr. Gayle said "today's the day!" So across the hall we walked to the Labor Unit!

It felt so weird being the patient! But I have to say that it was so much fun having "my girls" take care of me!!! At 11:00, Dr. Gayle broke my water and they started the Pitocin. By 11:30 I had my epidural and was ready for an exciting day. At 3:00, I was 10cm! I couldn't believe how fast everything had happened! But then the story changes a little.... :)

Dr. Gayle wanted me to labor for another hour or so to see if Braylin would open up my pelvis a little more. He gave the go-ahead to start pushing around 4:30.... I was in stirrups and pushing at 5:00... took a break at 6:45 because the little squirt wouldn't make her way under my pelvic bone..... Dr. Gayle started the fist-in-my-stomach fundal pressure at 7:30 (still feeling that).... and at 8:07pm Braylin was born! There were several times throughout the event I just knew Dr. Gayle was going to call a c-section, but he stuck with it and sure enough she eventually made her appearance. Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED but it was all so worth it.