Someone decided to come EARLY!!!

Hi Readers!! It's ME, THE MOM!!!!!!!

I cannot believe I'm getting to write this post, already! (Squeeeeeaaaallll!)

Well, I guess sometimes you just get what you wish for! I celebrated my birthday, on Thursday, October 8th and when I blew out my candles I said, "I want Bexleigh to come out for my birthday present!" My family said, "Oh, Jenn, she'll come out when she's ready." Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I could still wish, right? Well little did I know that she was going to be my present, just a little belated that's all. Brian surprised me with a 90 minute spa pedicure, which was heavenly, in hopes that it might get the ball rolling. At least that's what the word on the street is- pedicures can trigger labor to start. We were willing to try it :)

That weekend, my birthday weekend (who doesn't celebrate ALL week?!?), was pretty normal, we had dinner and movie plans with friends on Friday night, and Saturday night we had a surprise 50th birthday party to attend for Bobby. Saturday during the day we took a nice long walk, which included 2 giant hills that my big ol butt climbed up and down trying to let gravity take place. Like I said, we were willing to try anything. Saturday night was great but went home a little early because I felt like I was coming down with a sinus cold or something.....swell. Sunday we woke up and I was feeling back to normal (AMEN!) so we headed to church. After church, we had plans to head to canton to purchase a new Microwave. You see, I had this brilliant idea that if I got rid of our old microwave, the one Brian has had since his bachelor days, that it would push us to get new kitchen appliances sooner. Wellllll, that was 2 years ago. Still no new appliances, still no microwave. So we're at Best Buy, we pick out our microwave, and as we're wandering around the store we remembered that we needed to get a new DVD player since the one we've been using is mine from college and only shows the colors blue and yellow. We're looking at the different players, and decided to go with a Blue-Ray since, helloooo, DVD players are sooo 2008 and we want to be hip parents. lol Now that we got all that we needed to, we checked out and made our way to Value City Furniture to browse ottomans, and then to the mall to browse...whatever we could browse. After walking around the mall for about an hour, I decided I was now exhausted and we headed for home. I napped in the car the entire way home because I knew that once we got there it was "operation microwave install, blue ray player install, no-sitting-down-until-everything-is-done" was underway. The microwave was easy- set on counter top, plug in...Check! Blue ray player-not so much. Brian had to crawl up in the ceiling to fish the wires into our media closet because we HAD TO HAVE our tv hanging above the fireplace making it oh-so difficult to ever unplug or change any wires EVER. After several hours of 9 months pregnant ME climbing up and down the step ladder about 436 times, and Brian coming down out of the ceiling looking like he took an insulation bath, we got the job done and now can watch movies in their "normal" color schemes. Now that our two big tasks were complete, it was time to finally sit down on the couch and prop the feet up. We ate dinner and just relaxed the whole rest of the evening until we went to bed at 10pm, for what we thought was going to be just another normal night of sleep, or in my case, sleep, pee, sleep, pee, sleep, pee, sleep, pee....you get the point.

Somewhere around 11:30pm I got up for my first potty break, and then returned to bed. I must have fell back to sleep right away, because around 11:45pm I woke up out of a dead sleep, soaked. I was certain I had a dream that I was peeing and actually pee'd the bed. I woke up Brian telling him that I pee'd my pants and that he needed to get me a change of clothes. He was out of it and thoroughly confused. After changing, I climbed back into bed and laid there thinking how weird that was. While laying there thinking, it happened AGAIN! So off to the bathroom I ran. This time there was a little pink when I wiped, so AH HAH- could this really be that my water broke and I was not 5 years old, peeing the bed again?!? Brian grabbed the phone and I called my doctor. After explaining to him all the details he said it definitely sounded like my water broke and suggested we head to the hospital. I told Brian and he and I both couldn't believe that it was actually happening! YIKES! GRAB THE BAG, GET DRESSED, FEED THE CATS, OMG THE CATS! Those were just a few of the things that were flying out of our mouths. I called my mom and let her know that we were heading up to the hospital and for her to get ready and head up too, since she was going to be in the room with us. I sent out a text to my Dad and Brian's dad, and a few other family members, and we were on our way.

We arrived at the ER around 12:30am and when we walked in there was a line of sick people in front of me. All I wanted to do was hold my breath- it is a miracle that I've stayed healthy this whole time and was not about to screw it up now! LUCKILY, an ambulance guy was bringing someone in a wheelchair in, and noticed me and my belly standing in this check-in line and asked if I needed a wheelchair. Not knowing what I needed myself, he assured me that they were going to wheel me up anyways so he came to my rescue and pushed me away from all the sicklings to the other side of the room and checked me in! What a nice guy!

A nurse came down to fetch me and took me up to triage. Now, at this point I was feeling pretty good. I could tell I was still leaking, but I wasn't feeling any contractions just yet. When we got up to triage, they put us in our temporary room so they could monitor me and the baby. As soon as I got into the bed, I started having some mild cramps. The doctor came in to "check" me and I told him of these cramps and he said, "Oh, those are contractions." Well, don't I feel stupid. I wasn't sure what they were actually going to feel like. Turns out, they really do feel like "period cramps." So he checked me out and I was at 1-2cm dilated and my contractions were not really regular yet. I got hooked up to an IV, which was the WORST part of the whole process, and off to my delivery/stay room we went. I had the sweetest nurse ever, even though she was tiny and crashed my bed into just about every corner and wall all the way up to my room- LOL. Once we were in my room, it was on. My contractions were starting to get a little more uncomfortable, but I was still doing good just breathing through them. I decided to wait a little longer before asking for the BIG E. A little bit of time passed by and when my nurse came back in she said "Oh, honey, You don't look like you did when you came in. Why don't you just get your epidural now so you're not soooo miserable. It's not like you get a Crown or anything at the end?" She was hilarious and exactly what I needed at that point. She confirmed that I was about 3 cm and I said go ahead with the epidural. My contractions were happening right on top of one another so I couldn't really get a resting break. I received my epidural around 4:45am and after about 20 minutes I fell asleep for a little snoozing siesta. When I woke up, I had told Brian and my mom that I was having crazy dreams that people were throwing soccer balls at my head, the way they do in Wii Fit. LOL Not sure on the time frame exactly, but when I woke up sometime around 5-6am the nurse checked me again and I was at 8cm already! We couldn't believe it was going so fast and smooth. The nurse asked me how my big contractions were feeling, and I couldn't feel anything! Whoo haa! A short time after that, somewhere around 6:30ish am, I was checked one more time by my favorite nurse before she was off the clock at 7am. I was fully dilated and she was just in shock that it was my first baby and I was going so fast. Apparently, there was a girl next door to me, also having her first baby due October 31st, who was going just as fast as me...it must be rare for first timers to go this way. So after checking me, she said she was done for the day, and my new nurse would be coming to help me start pushing. WHAT!?! It's time for that already?

My new nurse came in, and she said that the doctor had given her the Okay to have me start pushing. I didn't see my doctor, so I was a little nervous about pushing. What if Bexleigh popped out on the floor because my doctor wasn't in there yet? (Found out later, they're literally only in there for like 5 seconds to catch the baby and THATS IT!) So, I start to learn how to push. My nurse had to tell me when I was having a contraction because I couldn't feel anything. Let the games begin. I pushed for about an hour and a half when they finally said that the next push should get her out! Wow. What an overwhelming feeling that was. I couldn't believe that I found out I was pregnant, blinked twice, and now we were about to meet our baby girl for the first time. So exciting, yet scary at the same time. In walked my doctor and she could tell I was ready to go. I started pushing my last series of pushes and there she was at 9:33am on October 12; the most beautiful little girl in the whole wide world. Her eyes were open and she was just so confused at what just happened to her snugly warm, dark home. She let out a cry and they put her on my chest and I was instantly in love. Brian cut the umbilical cord and they whisked her to the bin next to me to start assessing her. It was like a dream, a really really good dream. She was finally here, out, and safe. Everything turned out wonderful for her and we were just so thankful to be blessed with the most perfect child for us. We couldn't believe that we got to keep her!! After putting me back together, they handed her to me and it was the beginning of me never letting her go. We had several family and friends come to visit us in the hospital for our 2 1/2 day stay and that made us feel so special.

To sum everything up, my labor and delivery experience was the most amazing process ever. It was nothing like I had thought it was going to be. I was envisioning a very scary, painful, head-spinning, curse words flying, horrible experience, and thankfully I didn't go through any of that.

Brian was the absolute best support person in the world for me and I would have never been able to do it without him there by my side. My mom was our videographer and she captured some really cool memories for us.

Our first week home, Bexleigh had a little bit of jaundice so we had to have her in a Wallaby blanket for an entire weekend, which seemed like forever. She was a trooper, but I felt so sorry for her in that thing. However, it helped and she was able to get off of it this past Monday- hooray! She is the most precious child and is honestly really good for us. She is a good eater and pooper and we just can't get enough kisses in. She has her days and nights mixed up right now, but we're not stressing about it too much. I mean, she's supposed to still be cooking anyways, so we're just babying her for the time being :)

I'm looking forward to keeping you all updated with our new little family that we love so much. We appreciate everyones love, prayers, & support through the whole pregnancy and birth!!

Stay tuned for the journey of Miss Bexleigh & the joys of parenthood.

Love, Brian, Jenn & Bexleigh