Brooklyn Leigh Marchione - Birth Story

Brooklyn Leigh Marchione- Her birth story!

At around 12:00 Noon on Friday, August 28th, 2009 my water broke! I was having contractions but they were only about 10 minutes apart, so I decided to go to my moms until they started coming on closer. I would rather wait out as much of the labor as I can in a comfortable environment than in the hospital. Around 4:00-4:30pm my contractions became 5 minutes apart so off we went to Matsu Regional Hospital. I got there and told them my water broke and my contractions are 5 minutes apart and they admitted me around 4:30-5:00pm. They took me to my delivery room and checked me. I was dilated to a 5/6 and was 80% effaced. I wanted an epidural because things were getting extremely painful now. I had t have blood work and 1Liter of IV fluids before I could get one so they started to give me an IV. My nurse couldn't find a good vein to stick and called in another nurse to take a look at my veins. Then she left the room for a minute and the other nurse stuck me twice. Each time in each hole she blew through the vein and then started fishing through my arm with the needle in it looking for the vein. A week post pardum and both bruises are still extremely painful. My husband wasn't thrilled with that situation and with his training from the Army, probably could've done a better job. Well my nurse came back in the room and she wasn't too happy that I got stuck without them being 100% sure it was a good stick. She found a vein in the crook of my arm and even though she doesn't like putting IV's there it was a good vein and I needed to get my fluids in for my epidural. Time was crucial now. So she got my IV in and got my fluids in and its about 7:30pm now when the anesthesiologist arrives. He sets up all his stuff and is so very calming to me. He even waited for in between contractions to put the Epi in. My Epidural was in and I got my 1st dose at 8:00pm. The nurse decided to check me at about 8:15 and I was dilated to a 7 and abut 90% effaced and they pulled the fetal monitors off and decided to put an internal one on the baby and gave me a catheter. Around 8:55pm I felt the most excrutiating pain ever. My husband thinks my epi was ripped out a bit when another nurse started pulling at the fetal monitors and it was stuck on the Epi tubing taped to my back. Apparently I was feeling EVERYTHING. They looked and I was dilated to 10 now, her head was right there and I wasn't allowed to push. They paged my midwife and the Pediatrician. There was meconium in the placenta so they wanted to baby dr. to be there when I delievered. The baby dr. arrived immediately but the midwife took FOREVER. They were telling me not to push and im crying "Im trying not to push" but my body was naturally pushing her out and it hurt sooo bad. I just wanted to push her out, the pain was excrutiating. My midwife finally shows up at 9:00pm, gets her gloves on, gets some equipment and tells me I can push. 2 pushes and her head comes completely out, in the middle of my 3rd push the rest of her comes out. 9:06pm Brooklyn Leigh Marchione comes into this world! She is screaming her lungs out as she is coming out. Which is great because that means her airway was 100% clear and she didn't need to be suctioned like most babies. She came out as pink as can be. They gave her a 9.9 out of a 10 on the apghar score. As they were cleaning her up and wrapping her up and the Pediatrician was doing her exam I had to now deliver the placenta. It came out with all my other babies as they came out so this was a new experience for me. I was still having contractions because my body was trying to get the placenta out. It took about 5 min of the contractions and the midwife pushing down on my belly and me pushing and then it finally came out. That was the biggest relief ever. My pain stopped as soon as the placenta came out. I tore a little, but nothing major. She said it wasn't even worth giving stitches. They had to start me on some pitocin to keep me contracting a tad so I wouldn't hemmorhage from all the bleeding I was doing. After 2 bags of the pitocin I was free of all tubing..YAY, lol They weighed and measured Brooklyn. She weighed in at 7lb 5.2 oz and 19 in long. They bathed her and gave her to me and I started breastfeeding her. She latched on like a pro! :) She had far exceded their expectations of poopy and pee diapers in her first 24 hours of life. They expect like 1 for every day of life and she had 4 wets and 3 poops. :)

Isabelle and Joe just love her. They are always wanting to hold her. Anthony will kiss her when we tell him to and points and says "bebe or Bookyn" but for the most part pays her no attention. Joseph is absolutely in love with her. He is very concerned when other people want to hold her. We catch him by her just staring at her and smiling or holding her little hand. He tells everyone its his baby and they can't have her. It's the most stinkin cutest thing ever.

We got discharged on Sunday the 30th. We had to go to the Labor and Delivery on Elmendorf AFB on Tuesday the 1st for her 48 hour after discharge weight check. Her weight went down to 6lb 11oz which they knew was possibly because my milk hadn't came in yet so although it wasn't anyones fault and even though her poo and pee diapers are still exceding expectations they wanted us to bring her in the next day to make sure it doesn't go down even more. That night my milk came in, YAY, and so we had high hopes that she would gain some weight. The next day we brought her in and she weighed in at 6lb 12 oz. She only gained an ounce but it was still gaining. Her colors is pink as can be and her output is excellent. The dr. said that she was one of the most perfectly healthy babies he'd seen for her being so small and born 2 weeks early. I guess most babies have jaundice, trouble latching on for breastfeeding or little to no output. So YAY for my perfect baby girl! Her next appointment is her 2 week check up and as of now she is an excellent breastfeeder and still pink and pretty and she even has the most perfect round head. I couldn't have asked for a better baby, she is just an angel and we all love having her in our family!