I headed up to Montana on the 12th of October. Her due date was the 22nd but she was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced and wanted me in the delivery room so by golly I was NOT going to miss out on that! I had a really hard time leaving since Keaton turned 9 on the 13th but he understood and was a trooper about it. He really was hoping for her to be born on his birthday! Nana and Daddy were going to keep things running on the home front!
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| Me and a seriously full Jeep!!!!! I had to bring my newborn photography setup because there was NO way I was going to wait until I got home to do photos! I also had my sewing machines and lots of projects to help pass the time! |
On Tuesday the 13th I went to the OB with E (birthmother). It was so nice to hear the heartbeat! Nothing had progressed further and everything looked good. I am not going to lie, the rest of the day was really hard! This was the first time that I had been away from the kids without my hubby and it was Keaton's birthday at home. On top of all that Keaton got a tummy bug... not being able to be there and help was killing me. Turns out it was a good thing that I was in Montana because Wednesday morning E's water broke!!! I got the call right before lunch that they were admitted into the hospital! I called Daddy who had to finish up some work to be able to leave! The workers were at Larry and Anita's so we sat down for lunch together.... knowing that we had a while. Heather kept asking when I was leaving... in which I would respond that I would leave after we finished eating. One of my favorite memories from the entire time is Heather, quickly eating and as SOON as each one finished their last bite... she took the plate away and cleared the table. She then came up to be and pointed saying, "You leave, NOW!" :) She was so worried that I would miss the birth! Oh how we love Heather! I packed my bag, loaded up and headed to the hospital.
Never had even imagined how hard the next few hours would be. E was wonderful, she was in great spirits and laboring so well. Her sis-in-law Wendy was there to help her along the way. We didn't have our homestudy paperwork yet (we knew it was done and approved but we didn't have the official copy yet) so therefore birthmother counseling hadn't been done yet which means we had NO paperwork! The hospital was wonderful and said that all was good since they had talked to E. We were going to have our own room with baby! Whew! As the labor got more intense, I can't even begin to describe the feelings rushing through me. I never anticipated the emotions that it would take. To sit there and see someone you have come to love, in pain and turmoil for MY baby was so emotional. I would have given anything to be able to take her place, to take the physical pain... after all it was my baby so that is the least I could have done!! Instead I have to sit back and watch the pain of the experience, then I get to take the joy of the experience with me. My heart goes out to each and every girl that has the strength to adopt. I admire their wisdom to see beyond themselves, to love this baby SO much to want the very best for them. To have someone go through that for ME, for MY family... still humbles me to tears. As I sit here, holding my baby looking back at this experience, tears start flowing once again. How did we get so lucky to deserve the family we have? We are forever in debt to 3 wonderful, unselfish girls.
Briella Renee was born October 14th at 6:15pm! It had been set up that Briella would go directly to the nursery with me. She had the shortest umbilical cord that anyone in the room had seen. It wasn't even long enough for her to get set on E's chest, had that been what she wanted! As it was she was laid on the table and I cut her umbilical cord through tears streaming down!!
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| She had the longest finger and toe nails! They were so long that they were growing back into the skin! Cutting them was quite the process a few days later!!! |
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| Lots of dark hair! |
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| 7 pounds 13 oz and 19.5 inches long (she was measured at one week at 20.5 so I think this was a mis-measure at birth!) |
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| LONG finger nails! She did have a decent set of lungs but she RARELY ever cried! |
Right after we got into the nursery another mom in labor had a baby go into distress so all hands were on deck for an emergency c-section! So we were left to the two of us in the nursery for 45 min!!! Daddy was driving up so he got the text that she was born but the photo didn't come through before he left service so he had to wait a few hours until he got service back!!!
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| Keeping one eye on you mom! |
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| We passed the time waiting to go to our room by holding my finger and talking! |
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| DADDY made it around midnight!!! |
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| Right about 2am we took her to the nursery for a bath! |
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| Daddy got to help... this is when we really got to hear her cry! |
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| All clean! |
That night was quite short, resulting in very little sleep!
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| Grandma Anita came to visit!! |
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| Shauna came in and asked if she was the first worker!! She was excited to be the first worker to get a photo with her! |
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| Barb came too! She said that this was Briella's first companion photo! |
E had already picked out a name for her so that is what we were expecting... As we were soaking up our baby girl I got a text from E asking how to spell her first and middle name!! She named her Briella Renee. This was so touching to us and just showed how content she was with the decision that she had made!
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| She had quite the little birthmark on her lip when she was born! |
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| Such a beautiful baby! |
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| Eyelashes!!!!!!!!!! |
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| She was a really good sleeper and loved her arms thrown above her head! |
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| Little rolls!!! |
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| Aunt Wendy. So very thankful for all she did through this entire experience. |
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| Getting ready to go home... well to Larry and Anita's. We had to do paternity testing since there was a question of birthfather, so it would be a while before we could actually go home! |
