Ultimate Blog Post: Baby Tolsma has arrived!

That's right! Baby Tolsma has made her grand entrance into the world, and we couldn't be happier!  Here are all the details you'd ever want to know about the baby, the birth and the sleepy parents.  

I've spent many years reading girls' labor stories and blog posts, fascinated by each one and how different they all are.  Some of you may be interested in the details...others may not be.  So here's the Long and the Short of our little miracle's arrival: 

SHORT VERSION: 

Before:

 After:

Name:  Brielle Lori Tolsma

Time: Born at 2:38AM

Date: Friday, September 14, 2012
Weight: 7 Pounds exactly

Length: 19 Inches

LONG VERSION: 

I woke up at 2:30am Thursday morning with mild contractions.  They weren't too painful, but were coming 3 minutes apart. I was already dilated to a 4 for a few weeks, so I wasn't sure how soon I should go into the hospital. In the mean time I showered, called my parents, called the hospital and timed contractions. I was able to handle the pain fine, and we ended up arriving at the hospital at 8am. 

They monitored me, I walked the halls, and got monitored some more. At 10am, the nurses were satisfied I was officially in labor and I was admitted to a birthing suite. My blood pressure was all over the place, so they did a blood test for pre-eclampsia which came back negative, thankfully.  This was the first of many needle-pokes to come!

I labored and contracted all day.  Because I was only 38 weeks along, they didn't want to do anything to augment my labor and speed it up yet. They wanted to see how my body would do it naturally until I was in more pain.  I was fine with this, and was perfectly happy hanging out at the hospital.  Some people are more comfortable at home, but I was more comfortable knowing I was being monitored and could get regular checkups to see how I was progressing. I handled the pain by moving around a lot and doing breathing exercises.  My parents drove up from Olympia and hung around in the hospital lobby all day and night. It was so fun having them there to support and pop in every few hours to give me a pep talk!

 

 Finally at about 7pm I was dilated to a 6, almost 7 and decided I was ready to get an epidural and the doctor decided to break my water. I had to get IV fluids before the epidural, and I had 3 different nurses try to get the IV started in my arms. My veins "blew" each time...all in all I had the procedure done 6 times before it worked. This was incredibly painful, and I still have sore arms 2 weeks later! I then got the epidural which wasn't comfortable, but I was so grateful to have it! 

Because my veins blew so many times and I had some bleeding when I got the epidural, the doctor wanted to get some blood tests done on me in preparation for labor.  I was poked again 3 more times before and after labor. They were concerned that I would hemorrhage...and I have to admit I was worried when I heard the doctor request a "hemorrhage kit" in the room before I delivered. Yikes. Thankfully, I didn't need it.

Jeff was a great support and help to me, he was funny and distracting and loving....a perfect labor coach.  The day went by super fast for me, before I knew it I had a baby girl.  But I know it was long for him and my parents, and I'm grateful they were so supportive throughout. 

She was facing the wrong side up, so the nurses had me lay in different positions to turn her. Later the doctor was able to manually turn her. They gave me a little dose of pitocin to get the contractions more forceful. At 1:00am I started pushing, and at 2:38am Friday morning she was born! She came out with the cord wrapped so tight around her neck, the doctor couldn't pull it off, so they had to cut and clamp it right there.  Because of that, she was limp and not breathing steadily or moving around.  The nurses whisked her away and worked on her for 30 minutes.  I was scared, but kept hearing she'd be ok. They got her stabilized and Jeff and I enjoyed our time staring at our new little baby.

Some things were easier and some things were harder during labor than I expected.  All in all, I was very grateful for how things turned out, for the wonderful care I received and the miracle of childbirth. I was incredibly anxious about the whole process, and I can safely say that if I can handle labor and childbirth, anyone can! :)

We spent 3 days in the hospital. The doctor had categorized her birth as "traumatic", and so we needed extra monitoring before we were released. She was pin pricked like a pin cushion for a number of tests, thankfully all came back normal.  

I like this picture of her...I can't resist a baby with chubby cheeks and fat rolls. :) 

 We spent our time in the hospital bonding and learning how to care for a newborn. Jeff has already been a caring, conscious father.

 We were glad we weren't discharged early, because we were able to watch the BYU football game on TV! We already have her trained....

 Our hospital stay was very draining for me.  I never had longer than 30 minutes go by without a nurse or someone coming in the room to do tests or checkups. I was already exhausted from labor and a middle-of-the-night delivery, so it was a rough few days for me. I couldn't make a conscious decision about what to name her, so I decided to wait till we got home and comfortable. I know this was annoying to many friends and family who were anxious to know her name! Until then, she was our cute Baby Girl.

 And then the time came to get discharged! It didn't feel real until this moment when we took her home.  I didn't comprehend that she was really ours until we left with her! What a surreal, wonderful feeling.

 Here we are, squished in our 2-door car.  It makes it inconvenient to take the car seat in and out, so we just leave it in most of the time.  But it's working out fine so far.

She's had no shortage of visitors.  There's nothing like holding a newborn! We've been happy to share her with our friends and family.  

Here's the proud Grandpa:

 Aunt Claire & Uncle Mike. I like how Mike is impersonating Brielle's hand placement. :)

 

 Aunt Kate came to visit us in the hospital!

 Uncle Jeff looks like a natural holding a baby....

 Our days consist of sleeping, changing diapers and eating...repeat. It has been exhausting, but we get our naps in when we can:

 

Of course I've been playing dress up with my real live doll! Little babies are so cute no matter what you put them in. But I think she looks like a poofy girly princess in this outfit: 

And now to conclude this long post with every baby detail you can imagine....this is how we chose her name....

We had a long list of names that we liked that we took to the hospital.  I figured I'd see her and instantly know which name fit her best.  Well, it turned out that none of the names "felt right", and I didn't feel awake enough to pick a name anyway.  Jeff brought up the name "Brielle", along with a few other names on our list for consideration. The more we thought about it, the more it "felt right." The name comes from the Angel Gabriel and means "God is my strength", which I thought was beautiful.  Her middle name is Lori after Jeff's mom.  We hope she will emulate her lovely namesake, and we are thrilled to honor Jeff's mom in this way. 

And now we start the next chapter in our lives as parents of a beautiful baby girl.  We feel so lucky to have this opportunity.  I have a favorite quote that I've hung up on the wall that explains how we feel: 

"Everywhere in nature we learn the lesson of patience and waiting.  We want things a long time before we get them and the fact that we wanted them a long time makes them all the more precious when they come." - Joseph F. Smith

She is truly precious to us!