Brielle's birth story actually starts a week before she was born. On Thursday May 14th I went in for my weekly doctors appointment. They were keeping a close eye on me because my blood pressure had been high the last two times I'd been in and they were concerned for preeclampsia.
This was the first time Kent hadn't gone to my doctors appointment (he was so awesome being at all those appointments) and of course my blood pressure was up higher than the week before so my doctor said to head on over to l&d to be induced! I immediately started started to panic, I totally wasn't prepared to hear that! I still had 2 weeks until my due date and never imagined I'd have her early.
I immediately call my mom, while in tears, and tell her I'm having a baby today or early tomorrow so she better get down here! Kent works at the hospital so I quickly called him and he met me over in l&d. They checked me all in, started an IV (awful), and gave me what I think was called cytotec and told me in four hours they'd start pitocin. Mind you earlier at my doctors appointment I was dilated to a one, had been for two weeks, and was effaced to some low percentage I was never told. After four hours after cytotec I hadn't made any progression but my doctor said no matter what we were having a baby so I knew I was in for a long night. They gave me another round of cytotec and told me to wait another four hours.
At this point my sister and grandma had arrived, my sister drove from Jackson Hole Wyoming and my grandma came from a few towns over and my mom had flown into Utah and was driving up to Idaho with my best friend Kristi. Four hours later I still hadn't made any progression and they were going to give me one more round of the pill (which apparently they never do, totally my luck) and then start pitocin! By now it's 2am and my family is napping around the room but I couldn't sleep for the life of me because I was starving, had to pee every 20 minutes, and baby girl was moving like crazy which meant the nurses were coming in to move the monitors so they could hear her. At 7am after 3 rounds of this pill and 5 hours of pitocin I still hadn't progressed at all, stubborn much?! Apparently my cervix was odd because it has what my doctor described as a dimple? The nurses all thought I was progressed more than I was because of this "dimple." Who knows.
My doctor came in and said that this kind of thing never ever happens but my blood pressure was back down and that he didn't want this to lead to an emergency c section so I should go home and we will try for another day. After being told by him 24 hours previously that no matter what we were going to have a baby today or early tomorrow it was extremely frustrating and really just sad to leave the hospital without a baby.
I got over it quickly as we went through the McDonald's drive thru.
Oh and I was told to go on bed rest as a precaution. Luckily my mom was there to entertain me!
Fast forward a long long week to my next doctors appointment. My doctor was out of town so I went to another doctor in the facility. At this point I was convinced I had the most stubborn cervix and baby in the world but she told me otherwise. I was effaced almost 80% and dilated to a three, felt like Christmas.
Anyway that following Monday I woke up with a headache and just didn't feel like myself. My mom was concerned and drove me to the hospital where we learned my blood pressure had spiked and I indeed had preeclampsia. We were told once again we were having a baby today whether I pushed her out or they took her out!
Thank goodness things progressed much more quickly this time. I was started on pitocin and the doctor came in and broke my water. I wasn't expecting it to hurt so bad! She had to try three separate times because "my bag was the thickest once she'd ever seen." Apparently I just have odd anatomy.
Once my water broke I was dilated to a 5 and was having regular contractions. I knew I wanted an epidural but wasn't sure when to ask for one. I felt dumb asking too early but I was in pain so asked anyway.
After I asked I was freaking out to say the least. I am terrified of needles and you know being paralyzed. However, he was awesome and just handed me the paper, I signed it, told him not to show me anything or tell me anything. I was surprised by the weird position of hovering over a pillow and the weird electric shock I felt when it started to go in but it was the best decision I made that day!
At this point it was midnight and I slept and watched the Taken movies on TV. Kent, my mom, and Ashly were there entertaining me as well. I literally didn't feel any contractions after my epidural I dont know why I didn't realize this would happen before but mot was such a shock to me!
Around 5 am I was dilated to a 9 and then a 10 an hour later. The nurse came in and explained they were going to let her descend for an hour in hopes I wouldn't have to push longer. (Sadly this got my hopes up in pushing for less than an hour). At 7am they asked everyone to leave, prepped the room and told me to start pushing. I dont know what I was expecting but it wasn't that! I hadn't gone to any birth classes and didn't have any idea what I was doing. Over the last nine months I had heard many birth stories and was told "pushing felt good", "I only pushed for a half hour", "I pushed for 10 minutes," "I couldn't feel a thing while pushing," etc. NONE of these statements held true to me, not even close! Since I hadn't felt anything since my epidural I thought it would be a breeze. I even did my makeup, eyeliner and everything right before I started to push. (Ha!) After an hour of pushing I was beyond exhausted and my epidural bag had run out (don't even get me started on this) so I could feel everything. Baby girls head kept getting stuck on my pelvic bone and I couldn't push her over it. Apparently her head would come forward and they'd think she was about to come out and then the contraction would end and she'd suck back up. The nurses and doctors kept saying "she's so close, you're almost there!" I know they were trying to be helpful and motivating but I could tell they were fibbing because in between contractions they'd whisper about what they might have to do.
On a happy note right when I started to push my doctor said she saw a full head of hair! I started to bawl, I never thought she'd have hair due to my bald head until I was 2! Anyways, 2 hours later I was still pushing, just awful! The doctor decided to do an episiotomy and within 15 minutes our baby girl finally had arrived and every painful feeling vanished!
Brielle May Merzlock was born at 9:32am on May 23rd. She was 8 pounds 15 ounces! 
They held her up and she didn't cry or anything, made mom panic for a second! She just started to look around as dad cut her cord! She was so beautiful! They set her on my chest and it was the most amazing indescribable feeling in the world! I had dreamed of this moment my entire life and it was perfect.
After snuggling her and staring at her amazing head of hair, I checked for dimples (no such luck) and made sure she was actually a girl since I was so convinced she was a boy the entire time!
During this snuggle I look over at Kent and he looks like he saw a ghost, or his wife completely ripped open and tons of blood. After she cut me I had torn to a third degree tear. Kent watched her sew me up and I'm pretty positive he thought I was going to die. My IV then decided to pop out of my hand and the nurses poked me a gobillion times trying to get the IV back in me.
Kent and I took guesses on how big she would be. I guessed 8 lbs 3 oz and Kent guessed 8 lbs 5 oz. Brielle wasn't Brielle at this point she was still baby girl! We went into the hospital with four names; Brielle(my favorite), Audrey(Kent's favorite), Harper and Presley. Once she was born we narrowed it down to our two favorites and after the nurses left us alone for a moment Kent turned to me and said that he thought she looked like a Brielle! I was so happy! Her middle name was down to Sue (my middle name) or May. We thought May sounded better and both of Kents grandmas middle names are May.
We spent 24 hours in the hospital after she was born and had so many visitors who instantly fell in love with her! She had no problem being passed around all day and the nurse commented on how she was the most relaxed baby she'd ever seen! We are so blessed that our Heavenly Father sent us such a healthy, beautiful, sweet girl! We are completely smitten by our Brielle! Best day of our life!
