Brielle Sue
Born January 16, 2017
1:48am
Weight: 7#15.5oz
Height: 20.5in
As I have with my three older daughters I plan to write out my labor and delivery story. Every delivery of course has been different than the rest and has its own little details this one is no exception. I plan to start back a little farther with this story. I had been fighting a pretty nasty cough and cold for several weeks when January 9th hit and I developed a fever as well. I knew I wasn't in labor but became worried about the baby due to my fever. (Sometimes working in that field is a downside. Ha) We decided to head to the hospital just to get checked out. We checked into labor and delivery where they confirmed that I was not in labor and really wasn't dilated at all. After monitoring the baby for a bit they decided to do an influenza A swab. While we were waiting for the results to come back my fever continued to go up and the baby wasn't tolerating it well. Once the results came back they diagnosed me influenza A and decided to keep me inpatient so I could get the Medications I needed and so they could continue to monitor the baby. I stayed in the hospital from January 9-12 before being discharged. Baby continued to stay strong despite everything we were going through. I got amazing sleep while in the hospital and was ready to tackle life at home until baby came. They checked my cervix before I left and I was 2cm.
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| Right before we left for the hospital on Jan 15. |
On Sat morning I woke up to a contraction that was a little more uncomfortable than the Braxton hicks I had been having and I was excited because it meant something was different. But then I didn't have any more for several more hours. That went on during the day on Sat and Sun. Every few hours I would have an uncomfortable contraction but not painful. Which was a little frustrating. We played games with my family on Sunday until late in the evening then headed home. I started to have a few more contractions here and there that were becoming a little more intense. Just after 10pm I decided to start keeping track of my contractions and to my surprise they were about 4-5 min apart and getting stronger. I paced the room for a little bit as Joe got ready for bed and into bed when I decided we needed to probably at least go get checked out at the hospital. I called my friend Katie who came over to stay with the girls and called my mom to meet us at the hospital. I was still convinced my contractions were probably going to just stop before we got to the hospital but we took out stuff with us. By the time Katie got to our house and we got in the car is about 1045pm. Contractions were still about 5 min apart and tolerable but painful.
We got to hospital and into our room about 1115pm where they hooked me up to monitors and then checked my cervix. I was a good 6-7cm and contractions were coming about every 2 min. I was soooo relieved to be dilated so far and to officially be admitted to have our baby! As my awesome labor nurse started the admission process and got antibiotics up and running (I was gbs+) contractions continued to get a bit stronger. I decided at that point I better ask for my epidural or I wasn't going to get one. They came in pretty quick and I got the epidural. A few min after the epidural was in place I coughed (which I had been doing for weeks because of my stupid cold before the flu hit) and my water broke. At this time she checked me and I was about 7cm and the nurse could feel the baby's hair. Even though we didn't know the gender at that point I changed my mind from thinking it was possibly a boy to knowing it was a girl. My nurse told me she was going to let me just labor at this point and they weren't going to check me or do much for the next few hours because they wanted to get a second dose of antibiotics on board before baby came. Well right after the nurse walked out I stared throwing up and got a horrific pain in my right hip. The pain was not going away and seemed to be getting stronger and stronger. I remember at one point turning around to look at the screen and I was VERY annoyed that my contraction didn't seem to be letting up at all. All the while I was still throwing up. The nurse came in and said she would get the anesthesiologist to up my epidural since I was still having so much pain, but then decided to go ahead and check me quick first.
She said you are complete, I'm getting Dr. Le, DO NOT PUSH THE BABY OUT while I step out of the room for a min. I didn't feel like I needed to push. I felt like the baby was trying to come out my right hip. Everything from there happened very fast and within minutes it was time to push. I pushed once and out SHE CAME at 1:48am just about 2.5 hours after getting to the hospital!!! Joe was going to announce the baby's gender but I happened to look down right as she came out and I yelled out, It's A GIRL! We were both so excited and happy to have another sweet baby girl. The Dr then told me she would deliver my babies any day! Ha
Aside from the flu and the sickness I had the week before delivery it was a wonderful experience. Poor baby girl Struska didn't have a name though since we couldn't decide on one ahead of time. We discussed a few names and then decided we should get some sleep first and not try and name our daughter at 4am after not sleeping at all. Of course I couldn't sleep and names were swimming through my mind. I think it was about 6am when I got up and wrote Brielle on the board to look at and compare with the other names we had discussed. Joe decided he loved it and so did I and we had already discussed using Sue his mom's first name as the baby's middle name so that was an easy decision. There will be no more babies from this Struska family but we are loving having our 4 girls!!!
We got to hospital and into our room about 1115pm where they hooked me up to monitors and then checked my cervix. I was a good 6-7cm and contractions were coming about every 2 min. I was soooo relieved to be dilated so far and to officially be admitted to have our baby! As my awesome labor nurse started the admission process and got antibiotics up and running (I was gbs+) contractions continued to get a bit stronger. I decided at that point I better ask for my epidural or I wasn't going to get one. They came in pretty quick and I got the epidural. A few min after the epidural was in place I coughed (which I had been doing for weeks because of my stupid cold before the flu hit) and my water broke. At this time she checked me and I was about 7cm and the nurse could feel the baby's hair. Even though we didn't know the gender at that point I changed my mind from thinking it was possibly a boy to knowing it was a girl. My nurse told me she was going to let me just labor at this point and they weren't going to check me or do much for the next few hours because they wanted to get a second dose of antibiotics on board before baby came. Well right after the nurse walked out I stared throwing up and got a horrific pain in my right hip. The pain was not going away and seemed to be getting stronger and stronger. I remember at one point turning around to look at the screen and I was VERY annoyed that my contraction didn't seem to be letting up at all. All the while I was still throwing up. The nurse came in and said she would get the anesthesiologist to up my epidural since I was still having so much pain, but then decided to go ahead and check me quick first.
Aside from the flu and the sickness I had the week before delivery it was a wonderful experience. Poor baby girl Struska didn't have a name though since we couldn't decide on one ahead of time. We discussed a few names and then decided we should get some sleep first and not try and name our daughter at 4am after not sleeping at all. Of course I couldn't sleep and names were swimming through my mind. I think it was about 6am when I got up and wrote Brielle on the board to look at and compare with the other names we had discussed. Joe decided he loved it and so did I and we had already discussed using Sue his mom's first name as the baby's middle name so that was an easy decision. There will be no more babies from this Struska family but we are loving having our 4 girls!!!
