Brilee's Birth Story

The day was March 29. I was being induced for my first pregnancy. My husband and I were more scared than ever—it was our first child, first pregnancy, our first everything! We didn't know what to expect.

So I went to the hospital at 4:30 PM. And about an hour later, I started to get really hungry, but being so close to giving birth, they didn't want me to eat anything just in case I needed a C-section. Well, I knew I wasn't going to need one, so as soon as the nurse left the room, I ate the rest of my sandwich and fries. haha.

They gave me an IV and then the processes started. At 10 PM that night, they started me on tablets. (They dissolve on your cervix to help dilate it.) By midnight, I was having small contractions mixed with Braxton-Hicks contractions. Then around 2 AM, the contractions started to kind of get stronger but not that bad. So I tried waking up my husband (he stayed the night at the hospital with me). And he just tells me I'll be OK haha (he was exhausted). So I called the nurse in and she sat with me for about an hour.

I didn't sleep at all that night—the pain wasn't bad but it kept me up. Then at 5 in the morning, I woke my husband up so we could go take showers and get ready for the rest of the day. I think the walking to the shower helped make my contractions get stronger because the pain got worse and worse while I was taking a shower and while I was getting dressed it hurt to much to even walk back to my room.

Then they started me on Pitocin around 6 in the morning and at about 7 AM, the pain hurt sooo bad I asked the nurse for an epidural and she said I couldn't yet because my mother wasn't there and she needed to sign off for it. So she gave me a little bit of pain medicine to help ease the contractions, which helped a little bit. So I fell asleep for a little while, then all of a sudden I felt this big kick. It woke me and scared me and it felt like I peed myself so I asked my husband to look and see what it was and he said my water broke. And that was at around 8:30 AM. And from then on was the worst pain I felt in my entire life! My mother didn't get there till after 10:30 AM so as soon as she got there (they had the epidural waiting for me), they gave it to me.

I didn't even feel the needle go in or anything he was telling me I would feel, because at that point I was having horrible contractions like every 15 seconds. As soon as they laid me down, the doctor came in and told the nurses to break the bed down and told everyone to get out of the room besides my husband. I was freaking out because I was so out of it from the pain and the lack of sleep so I was blacking out every 5 mins. The epidural hadn't kicked in yet and they had to put oxygen on me so I could breathe. I pushed for 15 mins, with no epidural or anything besides the numbing medicine the doctor gave me so I wouldn't feel when he would cut me.

And finally my beautiful daughter was born! I could not stop crying. She was sooo beautiful to me even when she was covered in the nasty coating. They put her on my chest and they hurried up and took her away so they could give her some oxygen because she swallowed some fluid coming out. Then they gave her a bath and did all the testing and about an hour later I finally got to hold her and kiss her. That was the best day of my entire life! And my wonderful husband was there by my side every second. I love those two more than anything else. My daughter is 7 months old now, and it's so hard to believe how much she has changed since then.

Brilee Nicole Ritchison was born on March 31, 2010 at 10:58 AM.

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