Little Brantley's arrival

This post is soooo late. I've discovered that having an infant is harder then I could have ever imagined.

Saturday, July 21st Chance and I attended a childbirth class. This next part is probably TMI but it happens to the best of us, I had been peeing a little when I coughed and sneezed for the past few days. It happened to me during the class and I thought nothing of it. The leaking continued and on Sunday night I woke up to go pee and the fluid drained down my leg. I still wasn't alarmed and chalked it up to laying down for so long. Chance left out to sea the next morning. This left us with a very small chance of having him home if something went wrong. On Monday I had a massive leaking again and finally began to contribute it to amniotic fluid. I didn't rush to the doctor because I had an appointment the next day anyways.

When I got to my appointment I mentioned my leaking to the doctor. She had a fit and tested me pee for fluid. She came back and told me I needed to go straight to the hospital. At this point I started freaking out. I couldn't think of anything other then the fact that my husband wasn't going to be there with me. I cried and cried while my mom attempted to calm me down. I called the Ombudsmen of the ship and tried to get a hold of Chance. She told me she would do what she could. This managed to upset me even more. I texted a friend of mine who's fiancè and she emailed everyone on the ship she knew hoping to get a hold of someone who could let Chance know. Finally when I arrived at the hospital he called. I still hadn't calmed down and was worried he wouldn't make it.

Needless to say the Red Cross let me down and failed to help us. However the captain of the USS Mahan DDg72 did everything he could to help. They tried to put Chance on a helo and the winds got to heavy. They then decided to come as close to shore as possible and but him in a small boat. This proved to be nearly impossible in the waves. I was so upset until I finally got a call saying the captain said screw it that he'd have Chance at the hospital for me. Thankfully Chance got there at 11:00 PM.

As all of this was happening I was chilling in the hospital waiting for labor to kick in. I ha pitocin in one arm and a million things hooked up to me. An hour and a half after the pitocin got out in I realize it was bubbling on my skin and wasn't even going in. They switched it to the other arm to actually start the process. At 4 CM I was done and I wanted my epidural. I was going through back labor and it was truly painful. They gave me pain meds and told me the anesthesiologist was with someone else and would be there soon. It took 3.5 hours for them to get there and they only came because my nurse finally pitched a fit. At this point I was at 7 CM and could barely breathe.

At 12 I was finally to the point where I could push. It took an hour to push Brantley out. My doctor was literally in the room for the last 15 minutes of pushing.

All 7 pounds and 6 oz of my baby finally emerged at 1:07AM. He was 20 inches long and had a head full of hair. I was so happy my husband made it and was thankful my mom was there.

I must say having an infant is so much harder then I could have ever imagined. Breast feeding is such a feat but we're getting the hang of everything. He refuses bottles and pacis and loves to swing :)

So glad to have him here with us.