Today, September 24th, was Mayzee's original due date! And now she is almost three weeks old! I can't even imagine making it to this day and not having met my sweet Bloom yet. Due to a little thing called pre-eclampsia, our doctor decided it was best to induce us at 37 weeks. On September 2nd we went into the hospital in the evening to get the ball rolling! With this being my first pregnancy and also being induced early, it was very slow going. I was only dilated to a generous one when we started and that’s what I stayed at all night. I had a foreboding feeling that this labor was going to last for days. When I first started nursing I was a labor and delivery nurse for a short time. Getting to be a part of bringing a life into the world was amazing, but if you know me, you know I'm not an adrenaline seeker, I don't work well in pressure situations, and knowing everything that could go wrong in the labor process was making me super scared to have kids so I shifted and went to Med Surge. I say that to say, I hadn't quite forgotten what labor looked like, and a long labor was terrifying to me. I think knowing more of what to expect definitely made it worse for me, I felt like I would rather have been ignorant in what to expect then to see all of these possible scenerios. Did I tell you I'm a worrier? It's something I have to work on. 

Anyways, Labor day, September 3rd (get it? LABOR day!?), came around, I wasn't advancing at all. I was walking around the room, bouncing endlessly on the birthing ball, switching into all kinds of positions, finally, baby Mayzee moved down some, but I still wasn't really dilating much. Things started to get a little more intense when around 5:00pm that afternoon my water broke. At that point, it didn't really matter anymore how dilated I was, which was only a 2, we were now on a time clock to get this baby delivered. I went ahead and got an epidural because OUCH. Let me tell you, when it comes to contraction pain, an epidural made ALL of the difference. You beasts who tough it out, wow, I support whatever you choose in life, but epidurals are GOOD STUFF. 

After getting my epidural, I was still advancing, only VERY slowly. We tried some different positions again, which baby Bloom used as the opportunity to turn around. After being head down all day, she flipped and was now breech. This was around 11:30pm when we discovered this. Since my water had already broken and it would be too much of a risk to try to get her to turn around, our doctor called in the surgery crew in the middle of the night for a C section. We called our families and they headed up to the hospital. I will mention that during all of this Mayzee was doing perfectly on the monitor. Even though I had an epidural, I wasn't completely numb, just more relaxed. I could still move my legs without much difficulty and I could still feel quite a bit of pressure. It was about thirty minutes from the time that the decision was made to have a C section that the surgery team had arrived. Again, I have seen several C sections and was pretty terrified to think that they would be doing to me. Ignorance can certainly be bliss, my friends. 

I'll add in here that I was nervous to have a baby in the hospital that I worked in, not because I didn't trust people I worked with, but because, hello, I work with all of these people, and I'm going to be all kinds of exposed. BUT, I could not have been more wrong. Having a previous relationship with all of the OB nurses and then the surgery nurses really helped ease my worries, especially when I was mentally freaking out about having my insides ripped out. Having so many familiar faces around me was very reassuring, even if I was all kinds of exposed. Everyone was so wonderful and it reaffirms that I work at an awesome place with wonderful people. Truly, I loved having so many friends beside me.

Our Mayzee Bloom Brooks was born at 1:07am. Josh was with me, holding my hand, and when they got Mayzee all situated, he was able to cut the umbilical cord and be there with her. While they were finishing up the surgery, I was able to have Mayzee on my chest and see her sweet little face. Besides getting to see this beautiful miracle that had been growing in my tummy for the first time, it was a great distraction from what was still going on behind the curtain. Both Josh and I were filled with happy tears! 

Mayzee has Daddy Josh pretty well wrapped around her fingers, toes, all of the things. He's definitely changed more diapers then me! 

Some tired new parents! By the time we got back to our room after Mayzee's arrival in the wee hours of the morning, Josh and I were so exhausted and kept nodding off while holding her (the first of many times to come!). In our sleepy state we kept wondering when someone was going to come take her for fear we would drop her! 

These past (almost) 3 weeks have been some of the best of my life. My Mayzee, even when she cries and poops on me and keeps me up all night, is just the best and most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I simultaneously want her to stay so tiny for forever (except maybe sleep for longer), but am so excited to see her grow. I cannot wait to hear her laugh, see her recognize me, and to watch her play. She is just the biggest blessing and I feel so lucky to be her momma! Thank you for all of you that have prayed for us, checked on us (although we know you just wanted to see the baby 😉), brought us food, let us borrow your baby things, and so much more! We are truly grateful and we love you! 

In His hug, 

Molly 

Photo credit goes to my sister with Sarah Kamolz Photography.