At my 37 week appointment, Brecken's heartbeat was 166 bpm and I was 2 cm dilated. At my 38 week appointment, Brecken's heartbeat was 150 bpm and I was 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. My doctor said to be ready anytime. At my 39 week appointment, Brecken's heartbeat was 151 bpm and I was 2 1/2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Dr. Lowden asked if I wanted to be induced next week (on my due date). I was surprised that she was offering to induce me because that wasn't an option with Reese at 39 weeks. But, because this was my second one, the risk of a C-section was significantly less. So, we decided to go ahead and induce at 40 weeks if he didn't come first.
Fast forward to Saturday night (39 weeks, 3 days. Reese was born at 39 weeks, 4 days.). I must have had a feeling that something was going to happen soon. That day I insisted that we find our camera that had been missing for several weeks and made Elliott help me search for it several times that day before we finally found it! We also attended a wedding that day and I limited Elliott to one drink, just in case I went into labor (he thanked me later). At 1:30am, I woke up to some mild contractions at about 10 minutes apart. I was having contractions in the evenings for several weeks, so this wasn't too alarming at first. I usually drink water, walk around, and they go away. However, these didn't go away. They continued to get stronger until I was in a little bit of pain and by 2am, they were only 5-6 minutes apart. I woke Elliott up and he started to get things loaded into the car and I took a shower. I had several contractions in the shower, which made Elliott panic (and he doesn't panic). So, we hustled a little and Elliott called my parents to tell them we were on our way to drop off Reese. We dropped her off a little before 3am and got to the birth care center around 3:15am. When we arrived, I was dilated to 4 cm and was 100% effaced. The nurses noticed my contractions were coming pretty quickly, so they got the epidural scheduled right away. By 4:30am, the epidural was in and I was feeling much better. Sometime after that my water broke and by 5:30am, I was dilated to a 10. The nurse called my doctor and I remember them laughing on the phone about how quick that was. Dr. Lowden was on call that weekend, so she was in the hospital and at that point started to make her way to the birth care center. The baby was still pretty high and wasn't dropping, so she decided to have me "labor down" for an hour or so to see if he would drop down into the birth canal. He finally did start to come down around 7am, so they gave me the go ahead to start pushing at about 7:30am. After I had been pushing for about 30 minutes, Dr. Lowden noticed that he was "sunny-side up" or facing up instead of down. She was able to turn him in the birth canal and he was born just a few pushes later at 8:10am. The reason he wasn't coming down initially was probably because he was facing up. Also, I was having some back labor, which I can probably attribute to that as well. Reese was also face up and I had horrible back labor with her and pushed for 2 hours. Evidently that's the way I grow babies! However, since the whole birth from my first contraction at home took less than 7 hours, the nurse commented that for our next child, we need to come straight to the hospital because the next birth will probably be even faster! I guess I won't take a shower next time!
When Brecken arrived all of the nurses and doctors commented about how big he was. To us, he looked like just an average newborn, but they're around a lot more newborns that we are and they knew better. Brecken weighed in at 9 lbs, 9 oz and was 20 inches long. His Apgar test put him at 41 weeks gestation. Reese was 8 lbs, 2 oz. and we thought that was big! Needless to say, we squeezed him into his newborn clothes for about a week and then we had to move straight on to 0-3 month clothes. At four weeks old, he is wearing 0-3 month and 3 month clothes and I don't think he'll be in those for long!
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| Father and Son |
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| Aunt Courtney with Brecken |
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| Grandma Jo |
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| Grandpa Dave |
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| Grandma Tilda- I love how Reese has her arm around her. :-) |
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| Aunt Krista |
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| Aunt Alice |
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| Joe and Brecken |
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| Reese is excited! |
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| Our family of 4! |
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| Kisses for her brother! |
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| Such a cute little face. |
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| Silly sister! |
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| Marilee came to visit! |
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| Dr. Lowden with Brecken! Look at his chubby cheeks! |
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| Going home! |
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| Our TWO kids! |
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| Marissa meeting Brecken |
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| Uncle Patrick and Michelle with Brecken |
And here are a few more million pictures from the last four weeks.
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| Brecken has a love-hate relationship with the swaddle. |
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| Siblings! |
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| Such a sweet, sleepy boy. |
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| Comfy? |
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| My brother captioned this picture "laughing Buddha." |
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| Reese loves all these new chairs and swings. |
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| Holding hands |
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| These pajamas have rhino feet! Ugh- adorable! |
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| This is his sleeping hipster look. |
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| Checking out her brother... |
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| He's so cute! |
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| Coolest newborn award. |
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| Full from Thanksgiving dinner |
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| Definitely! |
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| Our two little elves |
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| I don't know about this |
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| Late night starring contest |
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| Tired mommy and baby |
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| Big yawn! |
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| Just hanging out on the blanket Grandma Jo made for me. |
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| Brecken found his ears! |
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| Double-decker bath |
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| Success! Brecken finally fell asleep in his swing- with a pacifier! Reese never took a pacifier and I'm not sure he will either. But he did it this one time. |
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| His other hipster look- waffle-tee hoodie, dark jeans, and "converse." Yeah, he's that cool. |
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| Adorable. |
Here are some of Brecken's newborn pictures, taken by Lindsey Caudle.
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