Parley: Birth Story

I think we need to start this birth story at my 38 week appointment. I had an ultrasound to check baby's breathing, movement and fluid. Everything was looking great! Except he was measuring 9 lbs 5 oz!! That was 2.5 lbs more than my ultrasound 2 weeks before.. The doctor scheduled me for a non-stress test on Monday to make sure everything was okay with me and baby. We also decided to get an induction scheduled for the 13th at 4 pm so baby didn't get bigger, I definitely didn't want a 10 lb baby..

Everything went well at the non-stress test and the doctor decided to strip my membranes to help me get going. (He had to leave Thursday night for a family emergency so I think he wanted to make sure I had my baby before he left!)

I was pretty sore after he stripped my membranes so we kinda just lounged the rest of Monday and went swimming Monday night. Tuesday we decided to go to the mall and just walk around a whole lot. I started having contractions pretty consistently after my appointment on Monday but they were still really far apart. After walking around the mall forever my contractions were about 15-20 minutes apart. We went home and were just relaxing and hanging out. My contractions kept getting closer and closer. My doctor told me to go to the hospital when my contractions were 10 minutes apart but I decided to wait it out longer and spend some more time with Brooklyn, my mom and Curtis. We made dinner and I kept timing my contractions. At around 8:30 they were about 5-6 minutes apart and they had been lasting over a minute for a few hours by then. We decided we would just head in to the hospital and get checked out.

We got to the hospital at 9 and they took me to an exam room and hooked me up to the monitors. They left me for about 30 minutes and then checked my cervix. I was at a 4 and they were admitting me! I was so happy that I went in to labor on my own and didn't have to be induced. I have nothing against being induced, I was with Brooklyn, but it is really nice just having your body go in to labor on it's own!

I think we were in the room for a couple hours before I got an epidural. I ended up having to wait over 2 hours for my epidural with Brooklyn so I wanted to make sure I asked for it before I was in terrible pain. Epidural's are amazing but it's really annoying laying in a bed for hours and not being able to move your legs ha! After I got the epidural my blood pressure dropped like crazy! The nurse was so good though and calmly told the anesthesiologist and he stayed in the room until my blood pressure went back up. They put somemedicine in my IV and within 10 minutes I was back to normal, thank goodness. 

The epidural made me feel super itchy for some reason so I could not sleep at all. I tried and tried and just could not fall asleep. They kept checking me throughout the night and I was progressing well. Dr. Lorenzo came in around 7 to check on me. He had to go do a C-section and his rounds then he was coming back to check on me. He decided to have them start me on Pitocin because we were expecting the baby to be big. He wanted my uterus to contract a lot and bring the baby down as low as it could so it would be less pushing I had to do. Because we were expecting a pretty big baby the nurse told me they would have extra nurses in the room during delivery and NICU on standby. That totally freaked me out!

When my doctor came back he checked me and broke my water, I was at an 8. I wasn't very happy to hear I was only at an 8 because I was already starting to feel pressure, and I knew how long it took me to go from a 4 to an 8 so I didn't want to wait a lot longer.. After he broke my water I'm pretty sure he went back to his office to work. I started feeling very intense pain! The nurse checked me and I was still at an 8 so she called the anesthesiologist to add some more to my epidural and it didn't help at all. It was just very very intense pressure. I all of the sudden felt the urge to push, another nurse came in to check me and and said "There's the baby's head, we're ready! Call the doctor!" And of course, they couldn't get a hole of him.. By this point I was crying because the pain was so bad. Both nurses and the anesthesiologist were calling and texting the doctor. They finally got a hold of him and he asked if the nurses could have me labor down some before he got there and the nurse said no, the baby's head is here and ready to go! At the time it felt like it took him forever to get there but he actually got there pretty fast!

When they sat me up and got me ready I only had to push through 3 contractions and baby was here! Everyone was so surprised how fast he came! After expecting such a big baby and the delivery to be difficult and long I think everybody was surprised and happy that it went so quickly and smooth!

Parley Manning Evans was born on December 13, 2017 at 9:37 am. He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. A big boy, but not as big as we were expecting!

I thought my labor and delivery with Brooklyn went pretty well, but I would take Parley's 100x before doing Brooklyn's again!

We love this sweet boy and I am so glad I was able to go into labor on my own and bring this sweet spirit in the world!

Brooklyn: 2 years 1 month

Brooklyn makes us sing "Popcorn Popping" AND "The Wise Man and The Foolish Man" to her every night before she will go to sleep, and every day before she will take a nap! I wish she would ask for some new songs haha! And you can't just sing one of them, you have to sing both.

Brooklyn is being a rockstar at potty training! I am so proud of her and so excited to not have to do diapers with her anymore. I do not want to be buying diapers for two kids..

Brooklyn thinks that EVERYTHING is hers. She puts "my" in front of almost every word she says. It's so funny. We have had to hide baby brothers toys so she doesn't think they're hers and then get upset when he gets here and she realizes that they aren't hers ha!

Brooklyn is a big helper. She loves emptying the dishwasher, it's probably one of her favorite past times haha

Every time we ask Brooklyn lately if she's ready for baby brother she says no.. Well he's coming any day now sister, ya better get used to it!

36 Weeks

This baby moves nonstop. It is so foreign to me because Brooklyn was so lazy when I was pregnant with her. (We actually ended up going in to the hospital one night because I hadn't felt her move for over 24 hours.) He is also very high in my ribs which makes sitting very uncomfortable!

I guess the good thing about being 36 weeks pregnant over Thanksgiving is maybe I won't eat so much! Or it will make me eat more ha! I'm just glad my doctor appointment is the day before and not the day after Thanksgiving :)

I still have been feeling so good. This pregnancy has been amazing and I really don't have much to complain about! I was telling Curtis a few weeks ago that I don't feel like I am as far along in my pregnancy as I am because I feel so great! I was so miserable with Brooklyn's pregnancy! Ha.

We are getting pretty dang excited for baby brother to get here and we are totally okay with him coming any time starting the week after Thanksgiving!

I had my 36 week appointment today. The baby's head was REALLY low so the ultrasound tech had a hard time getting measurements. Hopefully that means he will come soon ;) He was measuring 6 lbs 14 oz, so he's measuring pretty big! The doctor said I am a little bit dilated and just waiting for contractions to dilate more. My blood pressure was high so they are going to keep an eye on it. The doctor told me to relax, I laughed and said "Relax with a 2 year old??" Haha! We are still planning on inducing a week early, if my blood pressure stays high it may be earlier than that. So within the next 3 weeks baby boy will be here!

It's getting a lot harder to roll over in bed, but I guess that's to be expected!

I have only gained 12 lbs and I am hoping to keep it under 15 lbs gained this pregnancy! Hopefully it will help me lose the baby weight that I never lost with Brooklyn's pregnancy..

Belly is sticking out there pretty far! 36 week bump.

 

Brooklyn: 2 years

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet girl! 

Brooklyn is strong-willed, stubborn, polite, lovable, playful, sweet, rambunctious and about a million other things! We love her so much and can't even believe she's 2! 

Brooklyn is at such a fun age. We took her to the trampoline park on her birthday and she absolutley loved it! Every time we've taken her before she's hesitant and it takes her a while to get used to it and start playing. This time she ran up the stairs and jumped right on the trampoline. She was even jumping in the foam pit all on her own and I was so surprised! She also has been loving the pool so much more lately and its so fun! 

Brooklyn loves to ask, "What you doing?!" about a million times a day. If we leave the room, if we pick something up, if we stand up.. haha pretty much whenever we move! She's very observant!

Brooklyn's favorite word the past few months has been "mine"! She thinks absolutely everything in our house is hers and if you take it from her she can throw a nice 2 year old tantrum! In fact, on her birthday she showed us some true 2 year old colors. She threw FIVE tantrums in one day! Like on the floor kicking and screaming and crying tantrums. Man, we're in for it with this one! But she can also be the absolute sweetest girl too! 

We have started potty training. Sleep training, weening from nursing, taking the pacifier away and taking the bottle away were a PIECE OF CAKE compared to potty training. It doesn't help that Brooklyn is a lot more stubborn than me ha! But we're working on it and she is getting better each day! Now I just have to work up the courage to actually leave the house with her in underwear and not a diaper ;) 

I just love my sweet girl so much and can't wait to see her as a big sister in a few weeks. She is going to just LOVE her baby brother to pieces! (Hopefully not literally ha!)

"Brooklyn are you excited for baby brother?"
"Nooooo."
"Why not?"
"Mmmmm, I don't know."

Brooklyn loves to play with my hair! I will sit on the floor and she will sit behind me on the couch and play with it forever, I love it as much as she does!

Brooklyn can say her name when you ask her and how old she is! It's the cutest thing!