The Urban Farmhouse Saskatoon: Welcome To Our World Brielle Rain

So as most of you already know, we welcomed our daughter Brielle Rain, into our family on Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 7:56 pm weighing 5 lbs 3.5 oz and measuring 17 inches long. She was a surprise, and a very welcome one at that.

So the story goes....on Friday the 15th, Rhonda & I headed out for the evening and stopped off at Wok Box (yah, classy...I know). While there, these were the fortunes out of our cookies. How could we know one would come true! And surprisingly enough, Rhonda's was the "pack your bags" fortune.

After supper we went for a drive and then stopped off at the Ford dealership parking lot, which is where the magic all began. Rhonda's water broke. Nothing dramatic like you see in the movies or anything, which is why we didn't make a big deal out of it and went home to watch a movie before heading to bed. During that time, a lot of potty breaks were made and by midnight, Rhonda knew it wasn't just "pee." So, off to the hospital we went, never once assuming we'd actually be on our way to motherhood 5 weeks early.

After confirming that her water did indeed break, yet there were 0 contractions, they finally kicked me out and sent me home around 2:30. I called up Dean to give him the good news and ask for a ride home. (haha) You can imagine how exhausted I was, yet I couldn't sleep, thinking of the million little things that had to be done. So after washing a couple of loads of baby clothes and mommies soiled clothes, packing the hospital bags, and running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I did manage to get an hour and a half of sleep. Meanwhile in the hospital, Rhonda still had 0 contractions and managed to sleep much better than I did. She was immediately hooked to an IV and antibiotics (given every 4 hours up until birth) to protect baby just in case she is a carrier of streptococci (10-30% of mothers are carriers and around 36-37 weeks, they receive a shot so they don't pass it along to baby during delivery).

Dean picked me up in the morning and we headed back to the hospital to see if any further action was taking place. It wasn't. Still no contractions or any signs of them. They figured by noon Rhonda would be induced but that didn't happen until around 3:00 in the afternoon. What a long boring day of waiting. Rhonda's parents, Janis & Laurent, and her brother Christopher & sister-in-law Mindy all came from Lloydminster to offer support and share in our excitement. That day was also Janis' birthday! What a great day for Brielle to be born!!

After induction, nothing much happened so they upped the dosage a little, and then a little more. All of a sudden contractions started to happen and they strengthened very quickly. Rhonda was ready for her epidural as the pain increased but the nurses seemed to be taking their time, thinking she was likely only dilated 3 cm. Rhonda persisted, they finally called a couple of residents in to check and the first one said "I can't find her cervix." The second one checked and said "it's because she's fully dilated." No time for an epidural, she was ready to push, doctors, nurses & NICU were all called in and at 7:56, our daughter was born.

What an amazing experience for me! I had the pleasures and excitement of seeing and participating in the entire thing by holding Rhonda's leg and watching baby girl come into this world. It was hard to contain all of my emotions while it was happening but I managed to keep myself together. As for Rhonda, she did amazing...awesome...unbelievable!! No pain meds. Just all natural. Baby had a hard time getting her head out so they did have to use the vacuum but other than that, Rhonda did a fantastic job!

As soon as Brielle came out, she was whisked away by the NICU staff to ensure her lungs were cleared and that nothing was seriously wrong with her. She wouldn't cry initially so they bugged her a bit to get her angry enough to cry....and she did. Once they knew she was fine, they wrapped her up tightly in a giant stack of blankets and handed her over to me. From there, I took her to meet her mommy from the outside, for the first time. Her head was swollen on the top and her little face was puffy but she was absolutely amazing! I carried her around for as long as they'd let me and then they took her down to NICU to weigh & measure her and set her up for a life of success.

Meeting mommy from the outside.

As Rhonda was being tended to by the nurses I went out to the waiting room to let Dean know that she was born, and just at that time, they were going by with her in the hallway so he got to see her for the first time as well. The entire even was a rush! Dean & I went in to see Rhonda and she was happily eating toast with peanut butter. LOL She then took a much appreciated shower and we moved from the birthing room into a shared room on the maternity floor.

After we settled, it was time to meet our daughter once again. It was a lot more scary since she had an IV in her head and was hooked up to a scary-to-us looking machine. But, considering her age, she was already doing awesome. All around us were other babies either smaller than her and hooked up to a ton of machines or bigger than her and hooked up to a ton of machines. Only having an IV meant that she was relatively healthy and just needed some extra help with her start in life.