Labor was confirmed on the evening of the 24th (Christmas Eve) when Bryn-Erinn's contractions were less than five minutes apart. In the morning, Bryn-Erinn wanted to keep active, so we busied ourselves with going to various stores to walk. We knew that the stores would be busy with last minute shoppers, but we were willing to risk it in order to keep Bryn-Erinn on her feet. On our way home from the store we hit a slick spot on the snow-covered roads and Brett did everything that he could to keep from hitting the barriers. He succeeded in not hitting anyone or anything, but he did leave the car backwards in the lane. We made it home safe and sound, and
Bryn-Erinn focused on her self-hypnosis to control the labor pains. She had been having pre-labor throughout the day, and Braxton-Hicks contractions for two weeks. Brett was
very supportive, and in the midst of a Midwest winter storm which left a foot-and-a-half of fresh snow, he kept the walks shoveled in case we had to make a quick escape. We watched the "Nativity Story" before we went to bed, and Brett slept on the couch to be ready at a moment's notice in case we had to go. Bryn-Erinn's water never broke and the contractions slowed enough to allow her a few hours of sleep.
Christmas morning came, and Brett woke early to shovel the driveway again. We had breakfast and in-between contractions we opened gifts. The contractions gained in severity and Bryn-Erinn decided that it was time to go to the hospital. Brett loaded up the car, and we drove slowly over the snowy roads and we arrived to Abbott Northwestern hospital in Minneapolis without a hitch. Bryn-Erinn's general appearance and groining gave a passerby a good scare, as well as the male security guard, so we got a security escort to the labor and delivery department. Bryn-
Erinn was triaged, and she was shocked to hear that she had not made any changes since her last OB appointment. It was decided that they would observe her for an hour or two and see if she made any changes, they also wanted to run HELLP labs as Bryn-Erinn's blood pressure was high. The labs returned normal, and on the next check Bryn-Erinn's cervix had made progress. She continued in hard labor
for many more hours with the very helpful Jessica (our L+D nurse), including two hours in a hot shower. However, the pain was great and cervixal changes were slow even after the membranes had been ruptured. After 25 hours of labor, Bryn-Erinn had used up all of her coping strategies and energy, and anesthesiology was called in to place an epidural. After the bolus, Bryn-Erinn expressed her love and gratitude to the anesthesiology
team. She was able to sleep for an hour while the cervical changes were completed.
Better rested, Bryn-Erinn began to push. Both the doctor and nurse were surprised at the strength she had while pushing, and she attributed it to her years of Pilates training. Within an hour, Bryn-Erinn reached down
and brought our baby girl into this world. Brett cut the cord. From this point on it was mostly smooth sailing with the hickups of new parents (at one point of the night Bryn-Erinn shouted in her sleep, "she isn't breathing" and Brett jumped up to find that she was fine). We took some extra time to consider her name and after a good half day of discussion, we came to Elodie Cadence Gourley (we are quite proud of it).
We are very much in love with her, and are looking forward to taking her home to teach, guide, learn from, and grow with.
