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 15th
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 :)
I am ready to do this thang!
Yup. Call me crazy but I labored through my transition phase on the toilet!
But hey I was still smiling at 9cm!
My amazing best friend, husband and labor coach!
Nearing the end!
Blessed.
Moments after she came into this world!
Proud parents!
An orange juice toast for Brenna!
Amazed.
A new chapter in our love story.
One day old beauty.
At last we have a name!
Those eyes still make me melt.
It's official!
All bundled up and ready to go home!
We love you Brenna Rose Bocan!
I'm so glad you were able to get the story written down! I'm so proud of you for getting through labor without any drugs! It's an amazing accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I LOVE the blog title photo! It turned out perfectly!! I love the flowers you made!
Lastly, Brenna is SO ADORABLE!