Catch Us If you Can: June 2012

Dear Brenna,

The day we brought you into the world will forever remain one of the best days of our lives. We love you so very much!

Brenna Rose Bocan: A Bradley Birth Story

April 15th-16th

I woke up at almost exactly midnight on April 15^th to a slightly uncomfortable feeling in my lower front abdomen. It wasn’t painful, but it was enough to cause me to get out of bed and pace in our bedroom. The uncomfortable feeling in my abdomen would come around about every 10-15 minutes. I used an app on my phone to track the contractions. It tracked start time and end time and how frequent the contractions were coming. It also let me track the intensity of each contraction. At this point I was tracking them all as “mild”.

Our Bradley Method classes had prepared us well and we knew we wanted to labor at home as much as possible, but figured we should be prepared to go to the hospital just in case things progressed quickly. Around 4:15am we showered, ate and made sure our hospital bags were ready to go. After a few hours of no change in progress, Matt decided to get a few more hours of sleep. I continued to labor by walking through my contractions. Walking helped me take my mind off the pain, which thankfully at this point was still mild.

After calling Brandi, our amazing Bradley instructor and assistant coach, we continued our day in a pretty normal way. Brandi was confident we were in labor and kept asking when we wanted her to come. At this point the contractions were very manageable and we were perfectly content being at home for awhile longer. I checked in with Brandi throughout the day to keep her posted on our progress. Since it was a Sunday Matt didn’t have to worry about work and could be home with me. We watched tv and every time a contraction would come I’d simply walk across the room practicing the deep breathing we had learned in our Bradley class. I also did pelvic rocks in between contractions which felt good.

Around 2pm my contractions went from “mild” to “medium”. Matt let the puppies out for some playtime knowing the time was nearing that we’d have to leave them and head to the hospital. By 4pm I needed Matt’s assistance to get me through contractions. He would do hip squeezes behind me and it was great for relieving some of the pressure. I was fortunate to not have any back labor but I did feel a decent amount of pressure in my front lower abdomen. At this point I was quite pleased with my ability to manage each contraction. I give all the credit to our 12 week Bradley course which prepared us physically, mentally and emotionally for labor/delivery.

6:30pm rolled around and I said to Matt, “I think we need to go to the hospital.” At this point I was bracing myself against walls and Matt was doing hip squeezes. The pain was still under control but I worried if we waited too long we might be delivering our baby in the car! We gathered our things, said goodbye to our sweet puppies and told them we would be back with their baby sister!

The ride to the hospital was actually quite easy. Of course now that we were on our way to the hospital it’s almost as if my body knew and my contractions went back to “mild”. When we arrived at the hospital there was no parking and since it was a Sunday the valet service was closed. Matt dropped me off and I made my way slowly up to the second floor of Lafayette General Hospital. It was 7pm now.

I walked up to the nurse’s station and calmly said, “Hi, I’m Lisa Bocan and I’m in labor.” She handed me some paperwork and told me to follow her. Matt met up with us in what would be our laboring room. The next thing I knew there were a bunch of nurses shouting out questions at me. One nurse said, “Tell me how you would like things to go.” To which I responded, “Oh, here is a copy of our birth plan.” She didn’t want to see the birth plan; she wanted me to just tell her what I wanted. I immediately grew anxious and thought to myself, “We wrote a detailed birth plan for a reason!” Thankfully, that nurse did not end up being our labor nurse. Instead we had sweet Gennie. She was completely supportive of our desire to have a natural birth and was wonderful in showing Brandi all of the hospital supplies we might need (exercise ball, washcloths, etc).

We were told that our doctor was unavailable so we’d be working with the on-call doctor. I was a little nervous but figured everything would be fine. Dr. Bourque came to our room, introduced himself and then checked me (who knew that part would be so painful) and I was dilated to a 3! Since my water was leaking he said, “You aren’t going anywhere tonight!” I was thrilled. The last thing I wanted was to be sent home.

I walked the hallways of the hospital wearing my princess slippers and a hospital gown. Matt videotaped a few contractions and things were going exactly as we had hoped. I was on cloud nine knowing soon we would get to meet our baby girl!

A fun part of our labor was finding out that our fellow Bradley classmates were also in the hospital! They had delivered a beautiful baby boy the night before. We walked to their room and met Thomas. How funny it was to stand in their hospital room, while in labor, casually talking to them. I would excuse myself behind a curtain every time a contraction would come.

After two more hours of laboring, I began to really feel the pain with every contraction. Walking became more difficult and I started to breath through each contraction while Brandi massaged my shoulders and Matt did hip squeezes. My birthing team was amazing! Dr. Bourque checked me again around 9pm and I was dilated to an 8! I went from a 3 to an 8 in less than 2 hours! We all rejoiced! I had progressed very quickly which is why my contractions went from “mild” to “strong” in that two hour period.

Now was time for the real work. Brandi suggested I get in the bed. They raised the back of the bed; I climbed in, got on my knees and faced the back of the bed. I dealt with each contraction by practicing deep breathing and burying my face in the soft pillow. Brandi reminded me to stay calm and Matt continued hip squeezes.

By 11pm the contractions were very close together and very strong. Brandi suggested we move to the bathroom where I could sit backwards on the toilet hopefully allowing more room for baby to continue moving down the birth canal. I was nervous to do this because I had liked the comfort of the bed. But I was glad we made the move- I went through the transition phase on the toilet. Brandi reminded me this was the hardest part and I kept it together!

We transitioned to the bed to make sure I was settled before I had the urge to push. I tried a few different positions and ended up in the traditional position. After a few pushes Dr. Bourque requested the bed be put in an almost fully reclined position. Brandi questioned this and after Dr. Bourque’s explanation that it would allow baby to come out easier we all agreed it was best.

So there I was, flat on my back and trying to push a baby out! I pushed for about 30 minutes and on the final push I yelled, “Please, just get her out!” At that point a minor episiotomy was done and within seconds our baby girl entered the world! She only cried for a minute. As they dried her off they lifted her tiny little body up to me. She was placed skin to skin under the blanket and as I stared at her I realized she was crawling up my chest. Her big brown eyes stared deep into mine and her tiny little arm reached up and around my neck as if to give me a hug. It was a moment I will never forget. We had our baby girl in our arms. Matt and I stared at this precious bundle amazed at God’s goodness. We celebrated with a toast of orange juice. After over an hour of holding Brenna and nursing her (just minutes after she was born she nursed) the nurses took her across the room to check her. She received a 9 out of a possible 10 on the Apgar scale (this measures a baby’s condition right after birth). She would have received a 10 but her little feet were still a bit purple.

Brenna Rose, who actually was nameless until day 2, weighed in at 6lb 9oz. She was 20.5” with big beautiful eyes and a button nose. She was perfect. After her checkup and measurements they bundled her up and handed her back to us. We were moved to our recovery room and spent the next 24 hours loving on our newest addition.

Mission accomplished! We completed our birth free of drugs and delivered a healthy and beautiful baby girl! God is amazing and we are so very blessed to have Brenna Rose as a part of our family. We pray for you sweet Brenna Rose, that you would love the Lord and be a light for Him. We are blessed to have you and raise you. Excited to see what the future brings!

We love you,

Mama and Papa xoxoxo

Gennie is the nursed pictured below with the sheet. She was amazing and we are so thankful we got her and not the old school nurse! No offense :)