Brooke's Birth

Ok all, I have finally wrote the birth story of our little Brooke. Sorry it took so long.

It all started at 5:30 am on Nov. 24th, 2008. I woke up due to a contraction. But it was one of those things were I didn’t know if it was real or part of my dream. As I sat there thinking about it Easton woke up and came in our room. I got up to put him back to bed and as I put him down I had another contraction. I didn’t know if this was real as I have had contractions throughout this pregnancy. I went to use the bathroom and when I was done, I had another contraction and woke up Josh. He shot out of bed and got ready. He asked if I thought I could make it to the hospital or not and I told him I thought I could as the contractions weren’t that intense yet. He went out and started the car and got the suitcase in the car. He came back and told me to go get in the car and he would get the boys. Josh got on the phone and called our arranged sitter but she wasn’t answering the phone so he called Holly. When he finally came out side to put the boys in the car my water broke on the front seat. I told him I wasn’t going to make it and call 911. At this point I was actually laughing at Josh as he had our house phone on one ear calling 911 and the cell phone on the other ear calling our neighbor to see if the boys could go over there. Immediately we heard sirens and Josh ran the boys over to the neighbors. I was sitting in the car by myself and kept praying for someone to hurry and get there because I had the earge to push. I saw Josh running back across the street and then the Fire truck pulled up. It only took then 2-3 min. to get there. 2 firefighters came to my door and asked what was going on and all that. I told them she was coming and that her head was crowning already. They looked like they really didn’t know what to do as none of them had done this before. They told me to stay calm while they try to figure out if they wanted to move me to the ambulance or in the house. We didn’t know this at the time but the Base ambulance can not go off base so they could only take me as far as the front gate and then we would have to wait for the city ambulance. As they were trying to decide what to do I looked up to see 5 or 6 fire fighters around the front of my car peering through the windshield. I then told them I wasn’t going anywhere because her head was out. The guy looked at me and said, “Ok just stay calm”. I think he was saying that for himself as I was surprisingly calm. I told them again her head was all the way out and I needed to take my pants off. They told me no and to just wait. I looked at him funny and started to take my pants off anyway. As I started to get them off she came shooting out into the pant leg of my sweats. The firefighter looked down and said, “Oh, too late, baby is here!” Then, started the scramble for blankets and suction for Brooke. I was so relieved it was over and shocked everything had just happened in my car. They clamped the cord, cut it and handed Brooke to Josh. He rushed her inside to get her warm as it was only about 20 degrees outside. The fire fighters told me I needed to go in the house now so we could wait for the city ambulance to get there. I thought they were going to carry me inside but I was wrong. They told me to take it slow and walk to the house. This was very embarrassing as they wouldn’t let me pull up my pants but they wouldn’t let me take them off either. So I was walking into the house with my pants at my knees and the umbilical cord still hanging down. As I walked into the house there were at least 10 fire fighters and cops clearing the way to the couch. They threw some blankets on the couch so I could sit down. Finally after a few minutes the ambulance showed up. They got me on the stretcher and took me outside. As they were wheeling me to the ambulance I was looking around and it was crazy. There were 2 cop cars, 2 ambulances and a fire truck all with there lights on. Josh and Brooke were already in the ambulance and I was glad to see them. They had oxygen on Brooke while Josh was holding her. They put an ivy in my arm and took some vitals and off to the hospital we went. As we were getting on to I-90 I delivered the placenta. They EMT in the ambulance wanted nothing to do with that so he left it where it sat all the way there. He was an older guy and actually made me nervous. He had a pot belly and was coughing and wheezing all the way to the hospital. All I could think is “man, please do not have a heart attack on me.” When we got to the hospital they took us in through the ER side which is a little ways from the labor and delivery ward. As they were strolling me through the hospital I could feel the placenta next to me under the blanket and every time we turned a corner it would move that way. I just kept praying that it would not roll off and hit the floor. Luckily it stayed on the bed until we got in the room. As we were coming up on the room they wanted me in there were 4 nurses waiting outside for me to arrive. As they pushed me passed them, 2 of the nurses pointed and said “Hey I know you.” They had taken care of me when I was in the antipardom ward for 2 months. We all had a chuckle over the reunion. We went in the room and they moved me onto a different bed the paramedics left. They took Brooke and got her cleaned up, got her weight and all of that and then I was finally able to hold our little girl. It was quite the event and we will never forget it. Later that day Josh went and got the boys and took the car in to get detailed. Kadin said it was awesome to see all the flashing lights at our house. Brooke had to stay 2 extra days in the NICU because they wanted to make sure she didn’t have an infection and then she got to come home. She is doing great and we are glad to be home.

We went to the fire department the next week to show her off. They were all excited to see Brooke. The fire fighter that delivered Brooke is a young guy about 19 years old and is TDY right now so has not got to see her yet. When he gets back we will go see him. He did a wonderful job for his first time delivering a baby. J Brooke is the first baby born on base in 10 years. The news was all over the base that day that there was a baby born on base. Very exciting!!

My friend Amanda said she pulled up while I was in the ambulance and said it was like a scene off of the TV show CSI. She was so nice and cleaned everything up for us after the fire fighters left. She is a great person and a life saver through this whole pregnancy.

there it is. :) Pretty crazy!! Hope you got a good laugh over it. We did.