It's a Girl!! Hannah's Birth Story

Well, if you read my last post, and notice the date, I was in labor while I was posting, I just didn't know it yet!

After I posted that blog, my back continued to hurt really bad, so I alternated a heating pad and an ice pack. But nothing really seemed to help. It was coming in waves, but it was only in my back. Finally around 9:30 or 10pm, Steve and I just decided to get into bed, since I was so miserable. We watched some TV, and since our alarm clock is under the TV, I was watching the clock too. 10:13pm - back pain. 10:20pm - back pain. 10:33pm - back pain. We figured I was probably in early labor, so Steve went to sleep, and I tried to do the same. Of course I couldn't, so I got up and took a shower. By the time I was finishing my shower, by "back pains" were every 3-5 minutes. So I went out into the living room and called the hospital, and the nurse said that I should come in. So I blow dried my hair, pausing for my "back pains" and then woke up Steve. It was only about 11:30pm, and he was like, "Are you sure?!" Needless to say he was groggy after only an hour of sleep, and I was praying that I wasn't having a false alarm. I definitely didn't feel like I was having contractions, but the waves of back pain weren't letting up, so I wasn't sure. So we packed up the rest of our stuff, and off we went.

We got to the hospital, and had to go in thru the ER. Steve dropped me off, then went to park. I went in to the ER and said that I thought I was in labor. I was still calm and not in a ton of pain, but they were still about 3-4 minutes apart. It's amazing how everyone in the ER drops everything to help the pregnant lady. The security guard looked panicked, all the the other patients stared, and the woman checking me in asked me if I was still ok about every 20 seconds. They got me checked in, called up to labor and delivery, and brought out the wheelchair. Then off Steve and I went.

When I got to L&D, I think I was the only one there. The nurses had me get into a gown, and then got me in bed and hooked me up to a monitor. I was definitely having contractions, and was glad that I didn't cry wolf and drag Steve out of bed for nothing. My contractions were every 3-4 minutes, so I am glad we left the house when we did. And I had been 3cm dilated at my appt that morning, and was now about 4cm. I had wanted to labor at home, but the contractions went from 10 minutes apart to 4 minutes apart so quickly, I thought I better get going! The next hour or so was filled with lots of questions and people coming in and out. I had to give my medical history, answer questions about how I wanted my labor to go, and had blood drawn. I told them I didn't want an epidural, because I was going to try to wait it out. That lasted until abut 3am, when I called the nurses and said I wanted an epidural. Lol. I tried, but it just got to be too much. So about 3:30am, the anesthesiologist came in and got that started. It wasn't as bad as I thought. And about 15 minutes later, I was a happy camper. I think at that point I was about 4-5 cm.

After that, the nurses left us alone and told us to get some sleep. Steve passed out for a couple of hours, and I just laid in the dark, listening to Sarah McLachlan on my iPhone. I used to fall asleep to her music in college when the dorm was loud, so it has always relaxed me. I didn't sleep, but I rested. With the epidural, I didn't feel any pain. I did feel my water break, but I wasn't positive that that was what it was until the nurses checked me later on. It was just like a "pop", and no fliud leaked out or anything. When the nurse came to check me at 6am, I think I was about 6cm dilated, which was slower than they had expected. But they said they'd let me wait it out a couple more hours before they gave me Pitocin. Oh, and they had called my OB when we got to the hospital, and she hadn't called back yet. But the nurses said that she would probably come in even though it was the weekend and she wasn't the on call doctor.

At this point, we called our parents and I sent a text out to some of my good friends/family and let everyone know what was going on. We figured that there wasn't much point in calling our families at midnight, but we didn't want to let too much more time go by without letting them all know. So they all got up and started getting ready to join us at the hospital. I think they showed up about 8am? I can't remember, which is why I should have written this blog 2 months ago! Anyway, the next time the nurses checked me was about 8 or 9am, and by this time, I had progressed to 9cm, so I was almost good to go! The nurse also said that my water had definitely broken, and the baby was moving down, and she could feel it's head. At this point she told us that the baby had a ton of hair, which was so cool, and made it so real!

So my parents, and Steve's parents, and Mark and my cousin Lin all visited for awhile, until the nurse kicked them out so I could rest. I think it was about this time that I found out that my doctor couldn't make it in to deliver Hannah. So it would be the on call doctor, who came in to introduce himself. He was nice enough, but I was bummed my doctor couldn't be there, because I just love her. I think Steve thought I was going to lose it, but at that point, there wasn't much I could do about it, and I was progressing so well that I wasn't really worried about anything.

So at about noon, our nurse came in and said that I was fully dilated and ready to push. The crazy thing is, it was just Steve, her, and me. I guess I envisioned a whole room of people! Steve definitely didn't know that he would end up so involved. He and I both thought he would just be standing up by my head, encouraging me. Turns out, he had one leg, the nurse had the other, and he totally helped me by counting and talking me thru it. I gave him an out when we first began, but he said he was ok and was really great the entire time. I had no idea that pushing would be so hard. I figured it out pretty quickly, so they were able to keep my epidural going, so I didn't really have any pain. But I never imagined it would take so much effort. It was truly exhausting. The nurse offered to have a mirror up, which I loved. Some people don't want to see what is going on, but I found it encouraging. I think it helped me to push longer because sometimes I could tell I was making progress. So anyway, this went on for about an hour or so, and then the on call doctor came in and checked on me. My nurse told him we were ready for him, and he gowned up and came in for the rest of the birth. First thing he told me was that I needed an episiotomy because the baby was stuck behind some ligament that wasn't stretching enough. I really had wanted to avoid this, but gave in because he seemed to think that was the only thing holding me up. Sure enough, 2-3 pushes later, Hannah was born!  She was officially born at 1:37pm, and she was 20 inches long, and 7 lbs, 15 oz.

I remember they immediately put her on my chest and I kept asking "what is it?" as I tried to check out her nether region. Finally the doctor said "it's a girl!" and then I was crying and Steve was crying, and Hannah started crying. It was the best feeling to know that I was able to give birth to her and that she was healthy and finally here!

Next the doctor stitched me up, and Steve went with Hannah and the nurses to get her weighed and cleaned up a bit. About 20 minutes after she was born, I had her back and was able to begin nursing, which was awesome. She latched right on, and was a champ from the start. After a little while, the nurses took her, with Steve, down to the nursery for a real bath. I am kinda bummed I missed all that, but Steve got lots of pictures and videos. They put her under a heat lamp, and she was all sprawled out, enjoying the heat. It was really cute. By the time they were done, I was being moved to my post-partum room. I got to finally eat some food (Steve's dad brought be pad thai yum yum!) and digest the day. It was so surreal to be in that room, just me, Steve, and Hannah.

The grandparents all came back to see her, and then we were alone. We basically nursed, slept, chatted and repeated. Steve stayed overnight with me, but we did send Hannah to the nursery at night. I kind of didn't want to, but everyone encouraged me to, so I could rest, which I did. The nurses just brought her back to me to feed her every 3 hours.

I had a pretty easy recovery, even in the hospital. I was up an about pretty quickly, and I was sore of course, but not as bad as I had imagined. Nursing was difficult and I was pretty sore from that, but we got thru it.

The day after she was born, we had a steady stream of visitors from about noon to 8pm. I was exhausted, but it was nice to see everyone. We got lots of lovely gifts - all girly stuff! Clothes, toys, etc. So fun.

I was able to go home on Monday, which was surreal. My doctor came by to check me, and got to meet Hannah. She made her a cute little bow for her hat, and seemed genuinely sad that she had missed her birth. She better be there for the next one! Once we got home, I think we just sat and stared at her for awhile. I was soooo happy to be home, and to be able to take a real shower.

I have to say, I don't remember our first night, or the first month really. I know I slept a decent amount, surprisingly, but I basically fed her, changed her, and put her back to bed, around the clock. No surprise. It's funny how quickly you forget!

So that is Hannah's birth story! Now I have to catch up on the rest of her first 3 months!!