Brynlee Bracey Fife Arrival

Brynlee Bracey Fife was born December 7, 2017. What a whirlwind it has been!! A month has passed and I feel like it has only been days. We have been blessed to have our families come visit us and help us make this transition to parenthood.

Brynlee is such an angel! On December 5, I went into my doctor for my 40 week appointment. I was REALLY hoping that she would have come earlier. I know for first babies, it isn't likely to come eariler than your due date, but I could only hope. ;)

My blood pressure was higher than normal off and on throughout my pregnancy and I was READY to have this baby! So, when my doctor suggested, due to high blood pressure, to be induced, I instantly agreed!!

I was effacing, but because I wasn't dilated, the best option was to use a foley catheter to quicken up the dilation process. I went from less than a 1 cm dilation to a 4 cm in four hours....which was very painful! Jared and I walked around the mall (trying to quicken up the process even more) and bought me a new outfit and a few more pictures for our house (which I was hoping to help get my mind off the pain).

{ALSO, side note, when you are in a TON of pain and going to have a baby the next day, husbands are much more lenient to agree to buy decorations for the home....because homes can always use a few more pictures and cute decor signs, right?}

Thankfully, when we got home, the catheter was able to fall out on its own, but who can really sleep the night before you know you are going to have a baby the next day?!

Thankfully, we both got a few hours of sleep and the next morning we made the treck back to the hospital. (I say trek because our hospital is a little over an hour away from our house).

I was so worried my whole pregnancy that when it would be time to deliver, my water would break and I would have super painful contractions in the car driving over this windy mountain to our hospital at 3am.....and then I imagined the worst case scenario of not making it to the hospital in time, so Jared would have to pull over in the middle of nowhere and deliver our baby in the car.....haha...thankfully, we didn't have to actually see that worry pan out into reality. :)

Here is the SHORT version of the delivery. In fact, the whole delivery process feels like a complete blur to me. The first few hours were slow as we anticipated what was to come. Time began to speed up as contractions started again.

I went to a 6 and thought it was time for an epidural. I received one within 20 minutes, and instantly felt relief. WHEW! But, that only lasted for about 30 minutes.

The pain returned and I kept thinking, "Why am I in this much pain with an epidural??!"

The pain continued to get worse. My body couldn't stop shaking and I was starting to have contractions every 2 minutes. Jared then realized that the epidural somehow broke and became dislodged.

Another epidural was put into place and I felt relief again, bur for only about an hour. Then, my left side returned back to normal and 30 minutes later, I could feel my body again. The top of my stomach stayed numb, but my lower stomach and my legs returned back to normal.

The nurses kept raising and lowering my pitocin levels as my blood pressure was getting too high affecting the baby's heart rate. We also kept loosing the baby's heart beat on the monitor, so a device was internally inserted on the baby to track her it.

Contractions were now every minute and I kept thinking as I was doing deep breathing exercises that this pain was only temporary.

A sweet friend gave me advice before I was admitted to the hospital to remember to: "Have Faith, Not Fear."

I literally kept repeating that phrase in my head over and over and over again....

"faith, not fear.....faith, not fear.....faith, not fear.....faith, not fear."

Jared was the BEST support and advocate for me as well. I felt like all I could do was grit through the pain as I would squeeze Jared's hands.

I laid there all scrunched up praying and hoping that it would soon be over. Jared held me as my body wouldn't stop shaking and would press on pressure points on my back....which helped so much!

What felt like an eternity of waiting, our sweet baby girl was FINALLY born the next morning at 4:39am!

Side note, we were in the hospital for 3 days and these pictures were taken on our last day there. I look completely exhausted, but will never forget how much love and happiness we felt.