Brielle Elise Jones

Today we welcomed Brielle Elise Jones. She was born at 2:37 p.m. She weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 inches long. She was delivered by Dr. Carol Uhlman at Lakewood Hospital in Staples, Minnesota. I was not due for almost three weeks. I woke up about 7:30 a.m. for church, and after taking a shower, woke up Matt to tell him that I wasn't feeling well. I thought I was having contractions regularly, but they weren't lasting very long. They were coming about every two minutes, but lasting only about 30 seconds. With Mikaela, I was in labor 21 hours and ended having an emergency c-section. When I told Matt I thought I was in labor, he was in no hurry because of our experience with Mikaela and the fact that it was almost three weeks until I was due. I called my friend Christina, since she just went through this December 3rd. She encouraged me to call the hospital, so I did. It wasn't my choice to deliver in Staples, as it is almost an hour drive from our house - we live 17 miles south east of Brainerd near Mille Lacs. I had been seeing Dr. Uhlman in Brainerd, and she left the end of December, and since I was planning on a natural delivery, I did not want to switch doctors so late in my pregnancy, so I followed her to Staples. I hadn't even seen the labor and delivery rooms. Anyway, by the time the hospital got ahold of Dr. Uhlman and called me back to come in, it was almost 11 a.m. I was definitely having stronger contractions, so I told Matt that we needed to go. Our house was destroyed from a busy week - laundry and dishes everywhere. We were not packed at all and our family was at church. It was a rush to throw some things in the suitcase for three people and tie the dog up. We made it out of the house in about a half hour or so. Matt's mom offered to take Mikaela at the church. By the time we got to Brainerd, I told Matt we didn't have time to stop at church and drop Mikaela off. Labor was intense and I think everyone was out driving slow on purpose. It took nearly an hour to get to the hospital. I couldn't even talk to the check in clerk in ER and barely waited for the wheelchair. As we arrived on the 3rd floor, all the rooms were full. Staples is a beautiful new hospital, but they only have three or four labor and delivery rooms. We had to wait for it to be cleaned. It was after 1:00 p.m by the time I was in my room. We texted my friend Kristi to have her tell everyone at church and I called my mom and Matt's mom. Since things took so long with Mikaela, no one was in a hurry to get there. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to 4. Dr. Uhlman arrived shortly after and she said that we were for sure going to have a baby and she went to scrub up. She was back a half hour later and I was at 8. She broke my water and by 2:37 Brielle was born. We were only at the hospital for about a hour and a half before I delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Mikaela was sitting in the chair in the room watching Dora through the whole thing. We didn't really plan to have her there, but it happened so fast that we had no choice. She was amazing, and the nurses gave her a t-shirt and big sister button. Kristi was the first person at the hospital, and she brought me Dairy Queen - I was so hungry!