Brynlee Lynn Hon

So here is the sad beginning to this post. I already had it COMPLETELY typed up and just needed to add pictures and when I came on to put in pictures, my post was completely gone. So now I am going to rewrite it and hope I don't forget anything.
*disclaimer: I was completely drugged up for my entire labor so I basically lost 4 days of my life...I don't really remember times or chronological order...I also can't separate one day from the next. I will try my best to make sense of those crazy 5 days in the hospital!

On Thursday July 25 I headed to the doctor for my weekly appointment. I dropped Spencer off at work, went to Chic-Fil-A to get my free breakfast entre (putting my makeup on in the drive through while waiting for my order...I know...classy), and went to the office. Everything is normal, I go in and they weigh me, they check my blood pressure and the nurse looked concerned. She kept pumping it up and then pumping it up again. She said my blood pressure was really high and she would let the doctor know. She listened for baby's heartbeat and everything sounded good so she said the doctor would be in in just a moment and she left. I was freaking out. I texted my mom and was asking her what it could mean and I also texted Spencer to let him know that something was up. When the doctor came in she said my blood pressure was really high and that I needed to go to the hospital. She didn't give me much more information than that and sent me on my way. I called Spencer as I left (he was really freaking out at this point) and told him I was going to come get him because I didn't want to go to the hospital alone (mom ended up coming too). We went strait to the hospital, checked in, and they took us up to triage. They hooked me up to the monitors and checked my blood pressure every 15 minutes or so. It was never as high as it was at the doctor's office (180/120) so they were saying that it was looking good and that they were probably going to send me home on bed rest. I was so mad! I did NOT want to go home. I had gotten my hopes up that I was going to have my baby!! They took about 6 vials of my blood to test and then I had to sit there and wait for the results. While the results were not good, they were amazing to me because when the doctor came in she said, "We are going to go ahead and get you checked into a room. You're going to have that baby". I was so excited!! I had moderate pre-ecclemsia so they were going to induce me. They took me up to my room and started the process.

Since I was hardly dilated, they had to start from scratch. I was having contractions that were too close together to take the oral pill to ripen my cervix so they had to give me these gel things...they were the worst thing ever. I literally cried the second time they did it. They had to give it to me 3 times. After the first gel I started having real contractions but they didn't really hurt. After the second gel they started getting pretty painful so they gave me some Stadol (I think that's what it's called). It made me really dizzy and tired but it made the contractions bearable. They still hurt, but I didn't care...it was weird. I ended up getting that two more times before I got my epidural so it made my labor fairly painless. After the gels the doctor came in and I was dilated to a 4. This is considered active labor and so they had to put me on Magnesium (or mag as every nurse called it).  Since I had such high blood pressure, there was a good chance I could have seizures during and after labor so they had to put me on the drug that stops labor to relax my muscles.
*side note: mag can make you feel really yucky and sick. I, luckily, didn't feel any different*
About 5 hours after I had been on the mag they came in and checked me and I was only at a 4 1/2. My contractions were still really far apart and not very intense. The mag was working. They decided to give me Pitocin to get me back moving (why they couldn't give me this 5 hours earlier?? Good question...). I don't remember how long it was after they gave me the pitocin but they came in and checked and I had made a lot of progress. I decided to get the epidural and I'm SO glad I did. I got so lucky that my contractions almost stopped while I was getting it. I was able to almost completely relax except for two contractions but those were before the needle even came close. Once I had the epidural things were a piece of cake. I think I got the epidural around midnight. I slept through most of the evening which I was really grateful for. My contractions started getting closer together and more intense. They actually had to come give me a re-dose of the epidural because I was still feeling a lot of the contractions and they weren't painless. When they came to check me later in the morning I was at a 10 and they said get ready to push. We did a few practice pushes and then they said ok here we go. I pushed for about 15 minutes and they saw her head moving down. Right at that moment the doctor came in and said she had an emergency in the room next door so I would need to stop pushing for a bit because there would be nobody to catch the baby. Let me tell you. Not pushing is probably one of the hardest things to do when your baby is already in the birth canal. 15 minutes later she came back in and said that she needed to go do an emergency c section so I could either wait for her (45 min) or she could have the midwife come in. As soon as I was assured that the midwife would do the exact same thing I said to get her in there. She came and I started pushing again.
*I am really grateful for that midwife. Her name is Belinda and she was from England. She was amazing and I'm really glad that she was a part of my sweet girl's birth*
I pushed for another 30 or so minutes (my contractions were 3 minutes apart because of the mag so I had to wait for them to push). Pushing was actually pretty easy. I know I was on drugs but I didn't even break a sweat! When she finally came, she came with a splash! Literally! She almost fell off the table, the midwife had to catch her, and she got some who knows what on her Grammy's shoes!! They put her on my belly and it was the coolest thing ever. Sad to say I didn't cry, I was too excited! I couldn't believe I was holding the baby that had been kicking my ribs for the past few months and that had been growing inside of me for almost a year!! I found her hand and I just held it and she held it back. I was so happy! And STARVING. I had been in labor for about 24 hours and hadn't eaten anything except a pretzel from Auntie Anne's that Grandma snuck me in. I asked for something to eat and they brought me some apple juice and some Motrin.
                                                             This is where the story turns sour.

I drank that apple juice and took the motrin and within 30 seconds I was throwing it aaaalllllll up. I got really dizzy and light headed and felt like I was going to die. They took the baby to clean her up and I honestly don't remember anything after that point. I don't remember how long it was, who came in, or what was happening during all of that time. I couldn't even open my eyes. They kept telling me I needed to feed her and I just kept shaking my head no. I couldn't. I was dying. They came in and brought me some nausea medicine and when that kicked in I felt much better. I was able to hold my baby.

Me sleeping through contractions

When Spencer gets stressed he gets really tired...

Brynlee Lynn Hon

This is when we first discovered her birth mark!

Spencer got to cut the chord

I'm so glad I got to have my mommy there with me. I thought it might be weird but honestly, I couldn't have done it without her. Her and Spencer were the best support team a girl could have and I am so grateful for both of them!!!

6 lbs 11 oz

Oh my cute. I love my little family.

That blue thing by my arm? A puke bag...

Look at that RED HAIR!!

Daddy lovin' on his girl

Our sweet princess Brynlee Lynn Hon was born on July 26, 2013 at 1:16 pm. She weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. She is the most beautiful thing we have ever seen! We love her so much and I can't believe that my baby girl is finally here in my arms!

The rest of our hospital stay was not that fun. I had to stay on the mag for 24 hours after delivery to make sure that I didn't have a seizure. This time it really hit me. I felt awful. I couldn't get out of bed for those 24 hours and I just hated it. We had some visitors come and it was fun to see them but I was actually glad we didn't have a ton of people because I really was not up for it. Once they took me off the mag I started feeling SO much better! Every hour got better and better and I started to feel more like myself. They had to watch me for a while after I got off of it to make sure my blood pressure didn't jump. Sunday comes along and we are thinking that we are going to get to go home. Brynlee was doing great, I was doing great, but they had to take her billiruben test (sp?). Her levels came back high so they told me that she was going to have to stay overnight under the UV lights in the nursery. They were going to discharge me but keep her. They said I could stay in my room and "nest" so that I could feed her when she got hungry. They came in and they took her from me. I was so so so so sad. I literally just started bawling. I couldn't imagine having her not right by my side. Spencer and I walked down to the nursery with her and saw where she was and who was going to be taking care of her. They called me through the night every time she would get hungry and I would walk down, feed her, give her back, and go sit in the hospital room. Spencer was sleeping so he wasn't too much help emotionally but I was glad he was finally getting some sleep. They checked her levels again at 6 am and they said it had gone down but they wanted to keep her there a little bit longer and check again at noon just to make sure they were still going down. Spencer went to work and came back around 1:00. Since I was sitting there in that room all alone, Mom came and hung out with me. She brought me In N Out and we just hung out waiting for the results of the test. I heard a baby cry outside and I heard my door open and the nurse said the best words I had ever heard, "She gets to go home!" I was so thrilled! I signed the papers, they took off our bracelets, and said we were free to go!! We packed up our room, mom got Brynlee dressed and we headed home.

It was so awesome walking into our apartment with our sweet little angel. Grandma had decorated Brynlee's window and bedroom and wrote us a sweet note on the chalk board. We came into our bedroom, laid down on the bed, and me and Brynlee both slept for a full two hours on the most comfortable bed ever. (I'm not kidding, it was heaven)

We love our little princess and have had so much fun being parents so far. We have had our fair share of struggles, our sleepless nights, our emotional moments, and our confusion filled days, but I honestly love her more than anything in the entire world. She is tied with Spencer which I didn't think anyone ever could be! She is the love of our lives and I am so excited to start this journey of our family with her in it. <3

We had her laying by the window the whole day Sunday trying to get her Jaundice under control. She just hung out in her diaper and still looked so cute :)

My two loves taking a nap :)

GOING HOME!!! <3

One of my all time favorite pictures of her :)

At her first Dr. Appointment! She is so stinking cute! :)

She LOVES sleeping on her side. If we lay her on her back, she pushes herself onto her side...

Brynlee's first Sunday at church.  She got to go to baby Lucy's blessing. She slept through the ENTIRE sacrament meeting even though she should have woken up hungry right when it started! It's a miracle!

The lighting makes her look orange but she is still so cute and I love when she holds my finger :)

those lips... :)

Brynlee loves cuddling with Daddy. Somehow he always gets her to fall asleep!

My favorite sight these days. Spencer just loves his baby girl more than anything. He can't keep his lips off of her and just wants to hold her the second he gets home.