Brennan Daniel. The birth story.

We are so excited to announce our newest little love.....Brennan Daniel Slack! Brennan was born a little over one week early, on a sunday morning at 7:21. Weighing in at 5 pounds, 13 ounces (exactly one pound bigger than Taya), and 19.5 inches long. We are so incredibly in love with him, he is amazing. He looks just like Taya, only the boy version haha. We are all adjusting well, Tay has become the best and cutest big sister i could have ever hoped for. She cries when we have to take him from her, and her favorite thing to do is snuggle with him on the couch and fall asleep. It is funny how i was worried about loving a second baby as much as i loved my first, and as soon as i saw him it was like my heart just expanded and i wondered why i was ever worried. I am so happy and amazed at the miracle that is my little family, I'm so blessed.

(warning, i'll try not to be gross but the story is kind of graphic...and since my blog is my own personal record as well i want to remember everything, sorry its kind of long!)

So the first thing i want to say is that I've decided that having a birth plan pretty much guarantees that you will not get the birth you want. We ended up having a pretty scary delivery after discovering that i had an abrupted placenta (meaning that my placenta had torn from my uterine wall) and when when Brennan's heartbeat kept dropping dangerously low and we almost had to have an emergency c-section. It moved way too fast for any birth plan, but all that matters is that we got our baby and both Brennan and I came out of it safe and healthy :).

So i had been really anxious for baby boy to come, and having carried him a whole week longer than i carried Taya, i decided to try and take matters into my own hands. I started being aggressively active....sprinting on the treadmills, jumping on the tramp (see previous post), jumping-jacks, walking and running every day. Saturday i did the usual, woke up and took Taya on a stroller walk and alternated walking and running with the stroller, and had a busy day. About 12:30 i started having light contractions with back pain and i immediately knew it was time. I tried to sleep, figuring that I'd wake up when the contractions became more painful, but after a few minutes they were already there, about 2 minutes apart, and my back pain was getting really intense. I woke up Dan to inform him, and i went to get ready for the hospital while he fell back asleep. When i turned on the light in the bathroom i was completely shocked to find that i was absolutely gushing blood, with no end in sight. After silently freaking out, i woke Dan up again and calmly told him that we needed to hurry. Our awesome neighbor came to sleep on our couch while Taya slept. We made it to the hospital, i was a dialated to a 3 1/2, and about 90% effaced. I told my nurse that i was really worried about my bleeding, but since i was laying down it didnt seem like i was bleeding as much as i was, and my nurse wrote it off to just be normal cervical changes. So after an hour i was checked again, but i hadnt progressed at all even though i was in alot of pain and didnt know why i wouldnt be progressing for the amount of pain i was in and how close together my contractions were. (Placental abruption causes contractions to be harder and closer together and extreme back pain from the rip). So then my nurse says that they were going to send me home because i wasnt progressing and they wanted me to come back later! I about died right there, i was feeling like i was in complete, painful, active labor. And she kept writting off how concerned i was about my bleeding, even though i knew it wasn't normal. She agreed to let us stay another hour and walk around the halls before she'd check me again, and if i made it to a 4 she'd let me stay. So after about 45 minutes of walking i went back to the room and after walking around i had started hemorrhaging again which finally got my nurses attention. She left right away to call my midwife, and came back in to tell me not to worry, but that they wanted to deliver me immediately. We officially were admitted to the hospital to deliver at about 5:30. I had been set on trying to have a medication-free labor, but from the amount of back pain i was having from the abruption i knew i needed an epidural to go on. (unfortunately for me it was the middle of the night, and the anesthesiologist didn't quite make it in time.) I was so scared, i had no idea what was going on, i just knew that something wasn't right. The next part went really fast, i don't really remember time passing, i just tried to get through each contraction, which at that point were coming right on top of each other. The back pain with each contraction was excruciating. I breathed through each contraction while Dan pushed on my knees and the nurse held pressure points on my back which helped a lot but still did nothing at all. The nurse kept wanting to check me but i was in so much pain i told her i couldn't handle it. I told her she could check me after i had the epidural. I kept hearing the nurses asking each other if the anesthesiologist was here yet, and they kept saying no, that he was still on his way. I didn't know how i could stand another second. I wasn't aware of much, except that the bed was soaked with blood and i was really worried, i just breathed. The anesthesiologist finally got there and hooked me up. They checked me as soon as i was hooked up but before it had taken any effect, and i was already complete and ready to push! The epidural still hadn't done much yet, i felt my back pain numbing a little but that was it, when i felt such an overwhelming need to push it was indescribable. I felt like he was already coming out but my midwife still wasn't there yet. They had me breath through the urges for a sec, the nurses really didn't know what to do. Brennan's heartbeat was dropping so low, and they kept losing it completely. They needed to get Brennan out fast, but they didint want me to deliver without my midwife. They decided they needed to have me start pushing, and as soon as they did my midwife arrived. She broke my water and i started to push, at this point (which was only a few minutes after epidural) my back pain had numbed but i still felt everything else and it hurt! The saying 'ring of fire' rightly fits lol. I didn't think i could keep pushing, but i knew that i had to. Brennan's heartbeat had dropped below 60, which is the point they would have started doing CPR if he weren't still in me. My contractions were so hard from the abruption they were pounding him, poor little guy. If i couldnt get him out in the next couple of pushes they would have to do an emergency c section. I pushed with all I had and a few more pushes and he was out. I felt everything! They immediately wisked him away from me and i didnt know what was going on. Because of the abruption he had breathed in a lot of blood, and they aspirated 4 mill. of blood from his stomach! It was scary, but we both came out of it alright. And i still mostly feel like i had a natural birth because i didn't get the epidural until i was complete, and was able to feel mostly everything during the pushing. I am just so blessed that it all turned out and that Brennan and i were both okay!





We just love him so much! I cant say it enough, that i just feel so incredibly blessed to have such a healthy, beautiful little family! :)