The England Family: Bristol Raelyn

After Emily was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, she had at least two days of appointments each week until delivery. They told her they couldn't officially schedule anything until she was 36 weeks, but that she had a strong case to be induced at week 38. When 36 weeks came around, they were able to make it official, our little girl was going to join our family on June 8th. Once it was scheduled, it was weird how real it became. Like, we knew it was real, obviously, but this just put the stamp on it or something.

With Meemaw watching the kids, Emily and I headed off to the hospital bright and early Sunday morning in order to be there by 8am. After getting checked in, they took us to our room and decided to get Emily started on Miso. We got settled in and I hooked my laptop up to the TV so we could watch Always Sunny and then some Friends. Just waiting. It didn't take long before Emily started feeling contractions, but at this stage, they weren't much, obviously. With the Miso, they would re-evaluate in four hours, and so around 1pm, they came in and saw she was making good progress. The midwife said she wanted to get Emily started on Pitocin now, but the nurse had already given Emily another dose of Miso, meaning we were in for another four hours before doing anything. So, that was kind of annoying. We didn't really care for that nurse. Anyway, the midwife tried to break Emily's water, but was unable to get it with her little hook thing.

So, we waited some more.

Hospital food is still disgusting.

The midwife and nurse came back in around 6pm to start Pitocin and, this time, the midwife was able to break Emily's water. We knew with the water broken, that it wouldn't be long because even before switching to Pitocin, she was feeling the contraction become stronger. Not even an hour later, she asked me to call the midwife because she could feel it happening. Everyone came back at little of 7pm, and kind of stood there watching Emily go through some contractions. Then Emily got to the point where she felt like she needed to start pushing, and the midwife and nurse kept saying how well she was doing. After each contraction, and pushing, her legs started shaking a lot, which isn't something we remember happening before. After roughly ten contractions of this, she delivered our little baby girl.

Bristol Raelyn was born at 7:40pm on Sunday, June 8th. They had her weighing 7lbs 9oz and measured her at 21.5" long (however, at her check-up appointment four days later, they measured her at 19.5").

Before we started having kids, we made a list of boy names and girl names, about three each, so we had some research to do in order to find a good name for a girl. Emily went back and forth on a few, and ultimately, we liked Bristol the most. The middle name Raelyn is a combination of my mom, RaeAnne, and Emily's mom, Marilyn. The other option was MariAnne, but that name always makes me think of Gilligan's Island, and there is also a lady in our ward with that name that really gives us the creeps.

Immediately, Bristol's blond hair was obvious. The nurses mentioned a couple of times that they don't get to see too many babies that are that blond very often.

Her arms and legs seem pretty long, and she's also skinny, so it makes her look really lanky.

Here's a look at her blond hair after it dried out a little.

She didn't cry very much at all and remained rather calm during all the examinations and whatnot.

Having done this five times now, I'm always amazed at Emily's strength and determination. Watching her go through the entire process of pregnancy and all the way through delivery, makes me appreciate more and more what she's willing to put herself through in order to bring our children into this world. Through my eyes, it adds to her beauty.

We didn't know if it was our paranoia, having dealt with jaundice with two other kids, but we started seeing a little orange color in her face. They hadn't tested her for it at this point, though.

She passed all her tests, including the hearing test Monday morning.

Here's a good look at her mullet.

Her jaundice results came back in the intermediate range, but given our kids' histories, they decided it would be wise to get her started with phototherapy. This, we knew, meant we were staying there for at least a day. Her numbers started at 8.4, and the pediatrician assigned that day wanted to get it down in the 7-range. Having been through this before, we knew that number could rise with each day, but this pediatrician was set on getting it down to the 7's before discharging us.

Monday night, her number had risen to 9.3, so that was a little discouraging, but until the next test, the hope was that would be the plateau. We just hung out while Bristol laid under the lights. She slept through the day, it was just in the middle of the night that she would fuss. So, basically we just scrolled on our phones and watch some Dateline.

They tested her again Tuesday, and her numbers had gone back down to 8.4. This was encouraging, but the pediatrician still wasn't ready to discharge. The nurses also kind of seemed perplexed, because based on the charts and graph, 8.4 at this point was getting into the low-risk range. Emily got a call from the pediatrician, who explained some formula and her concerns, but it didn't mean much, we still weren't going anywhere, and had to prepare to stay another night. At that point it started to feel like they just wanted to charge our insurance for another night since they didn't seem too busy this week.

Meemaw grabbed the girls from school and brought all the kids over for dinner. They were pretty excited to meet their new sister, and it great to have everyone together for the first time.

At first, Crewe didn't want anything to do with Emily. It's like he knew she had replaced him with a newer model.

When they tested again Wednesday morning, her numbers had risen again, up to 8.7. This time, there was a different pediatrician, and she came in and shutoff the phototherapy and said even though her numbers have gone up, she doesn't need the lights anymore, and said she is well below the number that recommended lights. It was definitely welcomed news. We got to go home!