Our Christmas Surprise

Britain J'Leigh Bradshaw

Dec 11, 2009 9:50 am

7 lbs 18 inches

Friday morning didn't start the way a normal Friday would start at our house. I got up, got Brecken ready and off to school and because I was soooo exhausted I decided to lay back down for a little while. When I laid down my heart was beating really, really fast but I didn't think too much about it. Right after I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom and when I sat up I felt a gush of something, I thought was maybe my water breaking. When I got into the bathroom I quickly found out that things weren't right. I was gushing blood. Luckily the phone was only a couple of steps away so I called Rickie at work and told him I needed to go to the hospital. I then called my mom and told her the same thing and asked her to come back and sit with the boys. She got here first and called the hospital and told them what was going on and as soon as Rickie got here we left for town at 100 mph (not joking.) The hospital staff was expecting us and were all ready and waiting for us to get there. We went to a delivery room first where one of my very good friends, Julie Thornock was the RN. She thankfully found the heart beat right off (much to the relief of all of us) and started getting things ready for us to go to ultrasound. The ultrasound tech, another one of our friends, Jill Brown, came down and took me in for the ultrasound where after a few minutes she found an 8 cm blood clot at the top of my placenta. As soon as our Dr. saw the image on the screen he told me we were going in for a c-section. The OR staff were already ready and about 10-15 minutes after the ultrasound and a blessing by my dad and Rickie I was wheeled into a freezing cold room that reminded me of a death chamber. A very few minutes later I was completely out. The first thing after I came to I didn't have a clue where I was or what had happened. I'd just had a continuation of a dream I'd had some time lately and I didn't even remember that I went in to have a baby until they told me the baby was okay. I can remember (very vaguely) a few other things from that day, but not a a whole lot. I couldn't focus much on what the baby looked like (name wise or what brother or sister) and I didn't even hold her until later that afternoon.

We finally decided on her name Sunday afternoon, and after driving everyone crazy! We had a hard time deciding between Bristol or Britain, both of which relate to Rickie's mission (Bristol, England) and I also liked the name Bergan. The middle name would have been the same no matter what. My middle name is Leigh and the J stands for both Rickie and I's mom's (Jill and Jana) it also represents my Grandpa Jay Robert Miles who passed away on December 11, 35 years ago.

Our hospital stay wasn't at all bad. We were the only patients in our hallway all weekend, so it was really quiet and I got a lot of rest. The nurses we had were all really good and the only thing I could complain about is how hot it was a couple of nights and having to have liquid diet for 2 1/2 days! When I finally got something solid it was the best food I've ever eaten!

We are very, very thankful for our little girl. We didn't realize how serious things could've been Friday morning and how lucky we were that very thing turned out the way it did. We are very blessed to have this special spirit as part of our family. Every night I'm reminded by something that someone says how lucky we really are and how things can be taken for granted so easily.