A Baby Story

April 18, 2008- As I laced up my ice skates in Charleston, SC for our last tournament of the season, I began to worry because I was L-A-T-E and feared starting during a game. I felt a little nauseous, but I blamed that on the mediocre dinner we ate at Banana Cabana's. My coach said I must be nervous (ha!). I was actually 6 1/2 weeks pregnant AND I scored a goal against a team no other teams could score on during the tournament with little Arden inside me.
Fast forward past the 24 hours/day nausea fest and the separated pelvic (which forced me to stop yoga and start physical therapy) to Dec 11. Around 6pm, contractions started about 5-8 minutes apart. They kept getting longer and stronger and after 4 hours of contractions being 3-5 minutes apart, we decided to go to the hospital. After all the doctor did say when I have contractions 3-7 minutes apart for 1 hour I should go to the hospital. Well, I decided to wait a few more hours because I didn't want to be one of those who gets sent home. I got sent home. The contractions were 3-6 minutes apart on the monitor and lasting 90-120 seconds, but I STILL wasn't dilated. The nurse said since the contractions were strong and steady, the doctor may have me walk around the hospital for a while or give me pitocin. After 4 hours laying in the hospital bed, he sent me home and told me to go to my appointment I had the following week and take Tylenol for the pain. Derek and I went to eat at Panera Bread on the way home and then planned on going to target to walk. Well the pain was so bad that I couldn't finish my bagel and could barely walk back to the car. Derek wet into Target to get Tylenol and I thought he was buying out the entire store. That was the longest trip EVER for one item!
9PM that night I really couldn't take anymore. We headed back to the hospital. I was dilated 3cm (yay!). At some point they gave me some pain medication which was awesome but only lasted 2 hours. At 7AM I was dilated 5cm and they gave me pitocin and the epidural which wasn't as bad as I thought. I pushed for 25 minutes and at the last second, the doctor came in with about 20 other people and a big spotlight. I thought all those people were part of the camera crew, but I never saw the cameras. Arden Brielle was born at 11:55 AM on Dec 13th (her grandpa's birthday!) She weighed 7lbs 14oz and 20.5in long.
Both of our trips to and from the hospital, we listened to Taylor Swift. Derek was searching for famous people who had the same birthday and Taylor Swift was also born on the 13th. I guess we should have used Taylor as her middle name =). Like Taylor Swift says, "I don't know how it gets better than this..."

Arden Brielle