No, I'm not 56 weeks pregnant....

I promise! Here's my last belly pic at 39w6d

Our beautiful Brynnlee Elaine was born on September 9th at 4:46 in the afternoon! She was 9.5 lbs and 20 inches!!!

It all started Saturday night around 10:30 and my contractions were 10 minutes apart for a good hour or so. They picked up a bit and then tapered off to about 14 minutes apart. Like my labor with Jordan, I let Bobby sleep and kept practicing what I was going to say to him the next morning when he woke up. Ha! I was able to get a decent amount of sleep in between contractions and was getting so annoyed and having to unlock my phone to use my contraction app every time I felt another one coming. I stopped timing them for a good portion of the night, as I felt I was wasting more energy analyzing them than was necessary. 

The next morning when Bobby woke up, the most clever comment I could come up with was, "Today's the day!" I guess all of my prep work and practice from the night before didn't pay off. I then sent a text to La Shel and Jamin giving them a heads up that I was pretty certain Brynnlee was on her way and then texted my mom to see if she was able to come down and take care of Jordan during the bith. She was on her way shortly after getting the news. 

Bobby, Jordan and I all got up and came downstairs like every other weekend morning. Bobby made me an egg over easy on a piece of toast and I just labored in the family room; sitting on my birthing ball, standing up and swaying, or leaning against the kitchen table. Jordan wanted "uppies", wanted to play and do normal playful things, and we just kept telling her that mama's tummy hurt and she needed to leave me alone. 

My mom arrived only a few hours after texting her and was a huge help in keeping Jordan occupied. I continued to labor as I had been, but started to get discouraged when I was noticing that my contractions were 4 to 5 minutes apart, lasting 60 to 90 seconds while I was standing, but would slow down to 7 or 8 minutes apart, lasting 60 seconds max if I sat down.  I was also falling asleep in between contractions while I was sitting, so I guess I hadn't gotten as much sleep as I had thought! I had been losing bits of my mucous plug for a solid two weeks prior, but also started to have a little bloody show here and there throughout the morning.

Earlier in the morning, La Shel had written me asking if she was ok to go to yoga at 10:30. I saw no problem with it since things hadn't really picked up. Around 11:30, I figured she would be out of class and I decided to update her and see what insight she may have for me.  She called me right back and recommend I try to take a nap and get some rest and that my be just what my body needs in order for labor to pick up. So that's just what I did. When I got upstairs, Bobby had already prepped the room with all the plastic on the floor and under the fitted sheet on the bed. I curled right up on the bed and was able to get some rest after I decided to stop timing contractions again. I stayed there for a couple hours and La Shel checked in on me around 2:15. Contractions were about 6 minutes apart at that point and I was definitely not able to talk through them any more. She told me to let her know when I was ready for them and they would be over. 

With Jordan, my water broke, contractions started and progressed steadily, and everything happened so fast. Mentally, I feel like I was holding on to the fact that my water hadn't broken, so I wasn't going to progress. I expressed my concern to her, to which she told me that my water may not break until I start pushing...duh...I knew that, but for some reason, I just expected everything to be more similar to Jordan's birth. Bobby then came in to check on me and I decided to go to the bathroom to make sure a full bladder wasn't preventing my water from breaking. While in there, I started to think about getting in the tub and Bobby must have read my mind because that was the next question he asked. I stayed on the toilet until the bath was ready. Getting in felt AH-MAZING. It was so soothing to my back. Until......my next contraction. I remember looking Bobby straight in the eyes and shaking my head, "No" and it was like I didn't know what to do with my body. I just wanted to find that one position that would alleviate all the pressure in my back, but there wasn't one. I eventually ended up sitting in the tub like you would normally to just relax and with each contraction, I laid my head back against the glass of the shower and moaned as deep as I could through it. Bobby was so amazing at being right there with me and letting me know if my tone was too high or if he could tell that I was tensing my butt muscles. 

After laboring in the tub for a while, (it felt like at least an hour), I finally told Bobby that I was ready for La Shel and Jamin to come. I just needed to know where I was at and how much more I had to get through. Now looking through my texts, I realize that it had only been 45 minutes since I was texting her myself about my water not breaking. La Shel arrived shortly after 3pm. I got out of the tub once she was all set up and had her check me. Amy, a student midwife, had also arrived at this point and Jamin was on her way. Just like with Jordan, I could have sworn I was not going to be very dialated and I was going to lose my ever loving mind. My body is now two for two in proving me wrong. I was already 8 cm with a bit of a cervical lip. Oh, I could not have been more relieved. I curled up on my side on the bed and just asked Bobby to apply counter pressure on my lower back. Jamin showed up in the mean time and one of them expressed that they didn't want me laying down and suggested I get up and sit on the toilet...the one place that I found the most excruciating while having a contraction. But.....if it was going to help, I was willing to try it out. The very next contraction that came on while I was on the toilet was H*LL!! The sounds that came out of my mouth were horrifying and I remember hearing Jamin say something like, "Yup, that's what we were hoping for!" I felt so much pressure at that point that I was so ready to get this baby out. I don't remember why, because I was a bit confused as to when I was going to start pushing, but I got off the toilet and ended up spending a few contractions leaning against the sink with Bobby applying counter pressure again. With each contraction, I was starting to squat down into it and finally asked when I was going to push. They told me I could start whenever I felt I was ready, so we made our way to the bed. I didn't want to push while laying on my back again, so I started out on my knees with my upper body over the birthing ball, but the ball was too high, so they stacked a bunch of pillows for me to drape myself over. This position was fine except that I was practically sitting on the bed still and this left no room for the baby to move down, let alone, out. So they told me I needed to lift my butt up a bit. Stink bug it was. My big bare A** up in the air, but I couldn't have cared less. I bared down a few times in this position and then ended up switching to a side lying position. I don't remember exactly why I decided to move, but I did. I continued to push in this position while pleading for someone to tell me how much longer I had to do this and dropping a number of F bombs. It felt like I had been pushing for hours. Time distortion was not on my side, as I ended up pushing for 12 minutes! La Shel ended up having to break my water for me and said that it was actually pretty difficult for her to rupture. It was housing our mighty healthy 9.5 lb baby girl afterall! I had to sit with her head crowning in an attempt to help from tearing, but I ended up with a tear anyway. Once her head was out, La Shel told me to reach down and pull my baby out and I couldn't believe she was here. I reached down, grabbed her underneath her arms and went to pull her to my chest, but she slipped right out of my hands! I regripped and was holding my new love, my new life, my new baby girl on my chest. The feeling is indescribable. 

And, without further ado, here is the latest addition to the Flood Family!

The most amazing birth team a mama could ask for! Thank you all for another amazing homebirth!

The past two weeks have been such a mix of emotions. I have had some amazingly intense emotions, feeling so incredibly grateful for my beautiful family and the support that we have had around us and then feeling beyond overwhelmed at the thought of having two under two and not knowing how I was going to manage things once Bobby went back to work. Well, I'm on day two of having the girls by myself and I am happy to report that we are all still alive. We had Brynnlee's two week appointment yesterday and she is up to 9.6 lbs (she was down to 8.8 lbs at her first appointment at 5 days old) and 21.5 inches. The Dr. reported that she is absolutely perfect. She's a keeper! 

After her appointment, I decided to brave Target with both girls and aside from getting in a check out line behind someone that wanted to sign up for a Target debit card without having a blank check, everything went perfectly fine! We then came home for some lunch, both girls went down for naps (!!!) and I was able to prep dinner and get some R&R time on the couch. If only I could guarantee all days would go that smoothly! 

Jordan is adjusting just fine. She loves to shower baby sister with hugs and kisses and to hold her all the time. When she hears Brynnlee crying, she'll run to her saying, "Don't cry baby, I gotcha!" By far, the sweetest thing. She has been testing limits like it's her job, one of my biggest concerns with being home alone with both of them, but after surviving yesterday, I'm starting to think that she pushes more buttons with both mama and dada are around, but is better behaved when it's just one of us. She's been a much better listener the past day and a half and I will count my lucky stars that it continues. Jordan seems like such a big girl now that Brynnlee is here. It's unreal, but I'll save the details for her 23 month (!?!?!) update!