I Am Thankful For Epidurals

Brenna Ani Stanley was born a little early. She still weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long. I can only imagine what things would have been like if she came closer to her due date.

She didn't come on Thanksgiving Day, thankfully, so we were able to enjoy the day with friends in LA. Here is the last family picture of us as a family of four. I did lose my mucus plug right before we left for our friend's house so I knew she'd be coming soon.
The next morning I awoke at 2 am with contractions. They were pretty strong and for the first two hours they were consistently about 5 to 7 minutes apart. The next two hours they were about 7 to 10 minutes apart. The strength of the contractions increased but they were irregular so I wasn't sure if I should go in to the hospital or not. I'd been having false labor for the past three nights already.

(24 hours old)

By 10 am I decided it was time to get checked out because the contractions weren't stopping. The minute we dropped off the kids they did stop. I went about 40 minutes without a single contraction. They began monitoring me at the hospital and at 11:40 they checked me. I was dilated 6 cm so they let me stay. My contractions were pretty hard but still really irregular. I walked a bit trying to get them more regular. That helped.

(Very happy big sister)

I didn't get an epidural because a part of me really wanted to see how far I could go before I needed pain relief and for some reason I kind of wanted to see what things were like for women before modern medicine. Boy am I ever grateful for modern medicine now. By 3:40 pm I was at 8 cm and had had just about enough of labor since I'd been doing it since 2 am. Plus I was also getting scared of the impending delivery. I asked for an epidural and they put in my IV. They were getting my epidural ready when my water broke at 4:10. Everything happened really fast at that point.

(Very excited big brother)

I was progressing too fast for an epidural so I got to push naturally. It was awful. The worst pain of my life and the only way to get rid of it was to make it worse by pushing. *shudder* Fortunately I only pushed for maybe 5 minutes, but it was the longest 5 minutes of my life. Brenna was born at 4:36 pm.

(2 days old)

If I had to do my next labor like this I honestly don't know if I'd have any more children. The thought of feeling that pain again just terrifies me. I am in awe of all the women who have had multiple babies naturally. They say you forget the pain. Let's hope so. Either way the next time I am going to request my epidural the minute I walk into the hospital.

(Proud and sleepy father)

The kids were so excited to see Brenna at the hospital. They were both really cute at home with Ben. Lauren thought I would be in the hospital for 3 weeks. Spencer really missed me the first night and kept trying to leave the house to go find me. I had a wonderful surprise when I came home from the hospital today. Ben and the kids had cleaned the whole house. They even vacuumed the carpets and everything. It was so nice to come home to an uncluttered, clean apartment. Thanks!