Baby Brynn is here and everybody just loves her!
Read on for the birth story of baby #10 and some thoughts on birthing and raising my last child.
Our little Brynn is 3 months now so I figured it was high time to share her birth story. I love birth stories so much and I’ve shared the last few on the blog in case any of you love reading them as much as I do. Each of them has been so different! (Find them here: Vivian & Kira (#4&5), Finn (#6), Marilyn (#7), Alice (#8), and Dean (#9))
If you’ve been around for a while you might know that most of my births have been on the natural side of things. Liam (#1) was a c-section under general anesthesia and Toby (#2) was a VBAC with an epidural but all the rest have been vaginal without meds.
I have LOVED every one of those experiences but I’m not gonna lie…having a baby naturally is a lot of work. I often compare it to running a marathon involving physical and mental preparation and extreme effort. When I started thinking about this birth, I just couldn’t get myself in the proper mindset for giving birth without pain meds.
So instead of seeing a homebirth midwife or going back to the birth center, I found a good OB and went back to the hospital. I decided ahead of time that I wanted an epidural in order to birth this baby extremely peacefully and with minimal exertion and drama. And thankfully, that’s exactly what I got!
Brynn was due on February 28th and exactly one week later, Luke and I were chilling at home watching a movie after the kids were in bed. I had had some uncomfortable contractions earlier in the week but that day (Sunday) I was feeling extra crampy. At about 10pm some easy contractions started in and I knew right away that this was the real deal.
Brynn Elizabeth Wiscombe
March 8, 2021 • 2:41 am
6 lb 9 oz • 19 in
I started timing them almost right away because, as you can imagine, my labors go pretty fast these days and I wanted to make sure that I’d hit that hospital in time for an epidural. By 11pm, I was grabbing my bag and a few extra necessities and told Luke to get in the car. We made it to the nice, quiet hospital at about 11:30pm and got checked right in.
I made it to my room at midnight, got hooked up with my epidural by about 1am and she was born at 2:41am! I was also pretty nervous that I wasn’t going to feel enough to push her out (my only other epidural had been so strong that I hadn’t felt anything…and that turned out to be not so great) but thankfully this one was just perfect. I felt some pressure right when I hit 10 cm and pushed her out in one go.
We were keeping her gender a surprise this time (just like with Finn and Mimi) but I told anyone who would listen that I was positive she was a boy – ha! When the doctor caught her and pulled her up, we all laughed out loud. We thought for sure this baby was going to even the odds and give us a 5th boy to match our 5 girls but now our grand total is 6 girls and 4 boys.
I plan on writing another post down the line all about knowing when you’re “done” having kids but suffice it to say that I expected a big contented feeling when I held Brynn for the first time. Instead I got… nothing. The past weeks and months have allowed me to think about our family, my miraculous body and my mental state and actively decide that we want Brynn to be our last baby.
We’ve always taken the decision to bring another baby into the family as a very spiritual, personal decision but this time around it really feels like God is leaving the entire choice up to me. Finally, after 16 years, it feels amazing to say that it’s the end of the baby-making era.
Life with 10 kids has been pretty similar to life with 9 (and 8 and 7…) which is loud, chaotic and full of fun. Some days I’m so overwhelmed I want to cry, but most of the time I’m just in awe that we’ve been able to bring so many incredible souls (each with so much personality!) into the world.
What an honor it has been.
IF YOU LIKED THIS POST, YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
• THE VBAC: MAKING AN INFORMED DECISION
• 4 THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN BEFORE HAVING TWINS
• THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF BIRTH
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