Brooke's Birth Story

As a part of what I've deemed Brooke's birthday week, I decided to take a page from my friend Cary's blog and write down Brooke's birth story. This is more for me to remember (I've already forgotten so many details!) years down the road than anything, but if you're interested, feel free to keep reading.


Brooke was due on October 24, 2009. I had no misconceptions about going early until an appointment about 6 weeks before she was due, when the doctor (not my usual one) did an examination and said, "It's probably a good idea to have your bags packed soon." I don't think I would have been nearly as antsy as the due date approached had I not been given this very misleading advice. A week before she was due, we talked with the doctor about picking an induction date. My parents had the week the Brooke was due off work and I wanted them to have a few days with her (assuming things went according to plan) so we chose Tuesday, October 27. Matt was also pulling hard for early in the week so he'd be able to coach the first playoff game of the season that Friday.


Something about knowing when I was going to have her threw my emotions into a tailspin. I spent a fair amount of that Monday crying. Crying at work, crying at home, crying in the car. As excited as I was to meet Brooke, I had had a pretty amazing pregnancy. Sure, I had a little nausea, soreness and fatigue, but overall I LOVED being pregnant. I loved feeling her little arms and legs inside of me and knowing that that was something that only I would share with her. I wasn't sure that I was ready to share her with the world. Another part of me felt like it wasn't fair to force her out before she was ready. We also had trouble getting pregnant and I wasn't (still am not) sure if and when it would happen again. Oh, I also cried on my walk with Ozzie that Tuesday morning because I knew that his world was also about to change and there was really no way to explain to him or prepare him for it. I'd like to blame all these emotions on the hormones, but I'm crying as I type this, so I think that's just me - kind of crazy and neurotic.


Anyway...I didn't sleep well the night before, so I woke up really early (it was still dark) and took Ozzie for a nice, long walk. I came home and ate one dry piece of toast. I'd heard enough delivery room horror stories and wanted to do everything within my power to avoid having one of my own. We got into the hospital and checked in. It felt SO weird, knowing that the two of us were going in and that three of us (God-willing) would be coming out. I'd also NEVER been a patient at a hospital before - kind of a miracle considering how clumsy I am.


We went into the room and were chatting it up with the nurse who was also from St. Louis. My doctor came in to say hi and do an examination...oh, and BREAK MY WATER. WITHOUT WARNING. It was not a pleasant experience, but after the initial pain, it wasn't so bad. They started me on the pitocin pretty quickly after that. I asked for a portable heart monitor. We'd attended a birthing class in August that was run by a midwife. Pain medication was discussed in the last hour or so and the rest of the time was spent going over pain management techniques. I figured that I had a pretty high pain tolerance and while I wasn't planning to be a hero, I was going to wait it out as long as I could.

Looking back on it, I feel like they came in and cranked up the pitocin every 15 minutes or so (probably not the case). For a while, I was doing fine. I was feeling crampy occasionally, but I was still able to chat with my parents and mother-in-law. I'm not sure how long it took, but at one point, they all excused themselves. I guess I looked that bad. I remember getting more pissed than usual that Sportscenter kept showing the SAME highlights over and over. I asked the nurse to check my progress, thinking, "If I'm at 7 or 8, I think I'll go ahead to try this on my own"...turns out I was barely at 4. Bring on the anesthesiologist! Once I decided to go for the epidural, he couldn't get there soon enough. I don't remember feeling any pain from that needle. Funny how it's all relative.

Once the epidural set in (thank you, GOD!), I was all about having visitors again. I think it was around noon. By that point, my brother and his family, my cousin and her daughter, and our friend Plotke were all at the hospital. We had a great time visiting. The nurse came in and asked everyone to leave so she could check my progress. She said something to the effect of, "Oh wow. You're ready to go!" The next thing I knew, a few more nurses came in and seemed very busy getting everything ready. A doctor that I had seen once (I go to a large practice and my doctor was gone for the day. Let's be honest, the nurses do most of the work, anyway) came in and we started pushing around 3:30. I forgot to mention that throughout the day Matt was sending out (probably too) detailed texts to a group of friends and family, so quite a few people knew when I was about to start pushing. Kind of embarrassing now that I think about it.


Anyway, I didn't push that long and at 3:59, Brooke Elizabeth Alley was born. We weren't 100% sure of the name until she was born. It wasn't one of those, "We'll know when we see her" things - I was holding out for Claire or Caitlin and Matt was holding out for Bree and when we realized the other wasn't giving in, we went with the only name we both genuinely liked. She was 21 1/2 in and weighed 6 lb, 4 oz. I quickly got tired of hearing how tiny she was. To me, she was perfect. Plus, I didn't think she looked that small. In retrospect, I'd much prefer to have a little baby and fatten her up later. I think her stats have proven that Brooke was never meant to be a large baby, though. Her nose was kind of jacked up and I was a little nervous it was going to stay that way, but at some point in those first few weeks it straightened out.


So that's it. Most of it, at least. Part of me can't believe it was only a year ago and another part of me can't believe it was already a year ago. I've really enjoyed remembering that day and look forward to the day when I can share this with Brooke.