Brooklyn Emma Kovac

Wow- over a year since the last post...What better way to start again than introducing you all to our newest addition...

Life has been a wild ride since coming to Detroit, Michigan. At this time, Kylin is in the middle of his three month orthopedic trauma rotation at the level one trauma center in downtown Detroit. To say he is busy and never around would be an understatement! At that, trying to plan when this baby would come required lots of guessing and assuming on my part...good thing I was wrong all together. My other three children have all come before 38 wks- so of course number four would be even earlier because it is number four..wrong! She was very comfortable and not wanting to grace us with her presence until 39 wks. I had family here from 37 weeks on just in case and I am so grateful for that. With Kylin gone it was a stressful thought to go into labor and have to find someone to take the kids and someone else to take me to the hospital.

After only progressing to about a 2 1/2 or so at my 38 wk appointment, we decided to go ahead and schedule the c-section instead of waiting to attempt a v-bac. I knew Kylin was wasn't scheduled for call on Mon. Aug 22, so we set the date for 5:30 am. Upon arriving at the hospital I asked the on call Dr. to check me to see if I had progressed any more over the previous few days before they prepped me for surgery. To my excitement, i was a 3+ which doesn't seem like much, but with that, positioning and effacement he felt it was good enough to classify as early progressive labor and was willing to induce labor. He called my Dr. who was on board as well and gave orders to begin labor. They took me to my room, hooked me up and started the pit drip at the lowest level possible due to possibilities of uteran rupture.

My nurse Erin was heaven sent, I knew her from all of my OB visits as she works at Dr. Goldstein's office as well. She made the day go by so fast! With the pit drip, my body naturally kicked in and the contractions came long and hard. Around 11:00 I got the epidural but still wasn't past a 4 because she was posterior. Erin was positive that she knew a position to get the baby turned- so on my knees I went facing the back of my bed which was now at a 90 degree angle. While holding on to the back of the bed I was supposed to shake my bum especially during contractions. Silly I know- Kylin and her made it quite a humorous event- all we needed was some music to turn it into a serious party :) After about 20 min or so she helped me lay back down and had me tilt from side to side after every 20 min. It was now about 1:30 or so and she left us for a few minutes to see if all that shaking worked!

Did it ever...within about 10 min or so I started feeling really heavy pressure. She came back in and I actually asked her to up the epidural if possible (I didn't feel like being tough!), when she told me it was just the baby descending and was a really good sign that I was feeling it. At that point I was at an 8. She walked out for another few minutes (maybe 30 or so) and when she came back She walked in and was a little nervous to see my knuckles white gripping the hospital bed. She ran over to check me and saw the baby's head crowned and coming. She told me to try and sit tight for a min while we located the Dr. (who was a few floors away) who came running at the call. By the time the Dr. arrived, they didn't even have time to break the bed down before I was pushing (whether ready or not, she was coming).

So, 5 glorious minutes of pushing, and Brooklyn was out at 2:40 pm. I have to say, even though it was only five min., there was one point where the pain was so great I thought to myself- "I should have just done the c-section!" Then I looked up at Kylin and saw his eyes big and wide watching in amazement and said, "the head just keeps coming!" I knew the earlier pregnancy predictions were right by that point and this was a big baby! As soon as she was out they placed her on my stomach and I saw her for the first time...Although she was beautiful and the emotions of that moment are indescribable- I noticed her rolls under the chin, on her legs and under her arms!!! the nurse placed her on the scale which continued to rise for a long time and finally decided to stop at 9 lbs 4 oz. That is 2 1/2 pounds bigger than any of my others!

She is precious, beautiful and so sweet! She takes all the love that her siblings offer 'patiently'! We left the hospital 24 hours later and have been adjusting to the life with a newborn again ever since! And life couldn't be better!