Ahhhhh!  It is all so scary, even though it is a planned pregnancy, the life change is unknown and scary.  AJ and I were very excited to welcome our little girl to our family on March 2, 2015 (on her due date)!  I always tell people that if AJ could have had babies with me five years ago, he would have, so I am very happy he is getting this experience. 

 Welcome to the world Brooklyn Nichole Copeland - March 2, 2015 - 7lbs - 20 inches long :) 

The name:  we named Brooklyn's middle name after my older sister, who passed away from Leukemia in 2006.  Her name was Ashley Nichole Skidmore.  After we knew her middle name, AJ came up with Brookyn, it is a mix of my middle name (Brooke), my mom's middle name (Lynn) and my little sister's nick name (Lin/Linny). 


On March 1st, (one day before my due date) I woke up feeling like I had a urinary tract infection and overall wasn't feeling very well.  I called my mom (crying) about not feeling well and of course, being over the whole pregnancy thing.  She came over and brought us lunch around 1 pm.  I let her know I was having Braxton Hicks (which I had been having since week 35) all morning.  Around 1 pm, she was like "ummm we need to time this, because I think you may be in labor."  Low and behold, they were 10 minutes apart and then 9 and then 5 and then 3...time to go to the hospital.  But, before we went (when my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, I decided I had to paint my nails pink.  SO here I am, in labor, sitting on a yoga ball, painting my nails!!! 

We arrived at the hospital at 6:30pm and got admitted and hooked up very fast.  By this time, the contractions were in full swing, I mean 1 minute apart and PAINFUL!  My mom and sister and step father arrived shortly after that, to witness the worst part of labor.  I was throwing up with every contractions and probably wasn't very nice (but, I don't really remember).  All I was doing was focusing on the pain and of course I forgot my breathing, so the nurse is like "just relax when they hit"...um...ok, if feels like my entire torso is in a meat grinder and that is her advice! Although, of course she was right, it is just hard to believe in that minute.  So around 9:30pm, I asked for my epidural and got it about an hour later when we moved in the birthing suite. 

After that...it was easy peasy, seriously, I slept better than all my family in the room!  My water had not broken at this point, so they waited all through the night to see if it would break on its own, which it never did. So, first thing in the morning (around 6:20am) my doctor came in and was like, "ok, it is time, I am going to break your water and you are going to start pushing."  The pushing was the most exhausting thing I have ever done.  I pushed for about and hour and a half and then she was there :)  Since the had meconium, she had to be "resuscitated"  so they threw her on my chest for about 2 seconds, rushed AJ through cutting the cord and then the neonatologist started to clear her lungs.  Watching this process was so hard, I mean they were literally beating my brand new baby so hard!  But, this is what had to be done and she was ok.  Once I finally heard her first breath, I was able to relax a bit. 

After that, they took my epidural out and an hour later I was walking to the bathroom (with some assistance).  I have to say, that out of the pregnancy, labor and the recovery, the labor was the easiest, least painful part, in my opinion.