hazel's birth story

when i was 33 weeks pregnant i went into early labor; i spent the day at the hospital where i was eventually given a shot to stop the labor.  i was put on a modified bed rest to prevent having a premature baby.  the shot and the bed rest must have worked really well because i ended up delivering 9 days past my due date. 

the week before hazel was born i was having less contractions than i had throughout the rest of my pregnancy.  physically i felt pretty good (it did not seem like baby was coming anytime soon), emotionally i did not feel so good (it did not seem like baby was coming anytime soon).  hazel was born on tuesday morning.  the sunday before i made a trip to kimberly to unload some of our stuff.  on monday (memorial day) i made a trip to emmett to visit dave's grandpa's grave.  looking  back i cannot believe i traveled so far from home when i was already a week over my due date.

because the baby was more than a week over due i was scheduled to be induced tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m.  on monday evening i took a nice relaxing bath and then headed to bed, both excited and nervous for the next day.  i had only been in bed for an hour when i got up to use the restroom.  at this point i thought maybe my water had broken but was not quite sure-- it definitely was not like they show it in the movies.  i stayed up for a few minutes trying to figure out if my water had really broken or if i was imagining things.  i decided to go back to bed but obviously could not sleep.  i got out of bed after about half an hour and when i stood up there was no doubt that my water had broken.  i woke david up and told him my water had broken and we needed to head to the hospital.  it was cute because he hopped right out of bed and went into the bathroom to shave; he didn't want to have whiskers when he kissed the baby!  he grabbed our stuff really quick and was ready to go!  we were staying at my parents house because like i mentioned, we moved all of our stuff into our new house in kimberly on sunday.  i went into my parents room and told them that we were heading to the hospital because my water had broken and told them we would call when it was time for them to come.

we got to the hospital around 1:30 a.m.  i was put in an assessment room to make sure my water had really broken and to monitor the baby and my contractions.  at this point i could not feel any contractions but when i was hooked up to the monitor it looked like the contractions were really regular.  i was hooked up to an iv for antibiotics because i had tested positive for group b strep.  i was then taken to the labor and delivery room.  since my contractions were not painful at all i decided to get in the jacuzzi tub.  i knew that i wanted an epidural eventually but i wanted to wait as long as i could: i wanted to feel and experience as much as possible.  i hadn't been in the jacuzzi for very long when the contractions started getting VERY painful.  poor david was trying to help me with my breathing and i told him to just be quiet.  i had never been in so much pain.  he helped me get out of the jacuzzi and we called in the nurse to let her know i was ready for the epidural.  before i could get the epidural i had to get another iv bag put in.  waiting for that iv bag to empty felt like the longest minutes of my life. 

getting the epidural was quite an experience by itself.  for some reason i have a really high tolerance for pain medications.  i was given the local anesthesia which did not work and i felt a lot of pain as the epidural needle was being inserted.  i ended up having to get 3 doses of the anesthesia before it worked.  after about 15 minutes i started feeling some much needed relief from the epidural.  the nurse checked me and i was dilated to a 6 so we called my parents to let them know they might want to start heading over.  at this point i was feeling pretty good but was shivering like crazy, i think from all the adrenaline running through my body. 

i had actually fallen asleep for a few minutes when i heard a knock on the door and my mom walked in.  i barely told her hi when a swarm of nurses came running in.  they put an oxygen mask on me and were acting really frantic: the baby's heart rate dropped way down.  they checked me and i was 10 cm and 100% effaced with the baby way down in the birth canal.  my mom couldn't have been in the room for more than 5 minutes when she was sent out: it was time to start pushing.  david had fallen asleep and somehow slept through the chaos of the nurses running in.  i had the oxygen mask on me and couldn't talk so i kept pointing to david and finally someone woke him up and said, "you're going to have a baby!"

the nurse had me start pushing which was really weird because i couldn't feel exactly where i was supposed to be pushing.  i had only pushed a few times when she had me stop and said it was time to get the doctor.  at this point there was a shift change and a new nurse came in to replace the nurse that got me started pushing.  the new nurse said my doctor was assisting another doctor with a c-section so she thought it best to wait for him to finish up instead of calling him in.  she said he should be no more than ten minutes.  even through the epidural i could tell when i was having a contractions and could tell when i needed to push, i was having a really hard time resisting the urge to push.  i ended up waiting a lot longer than ten minutes.  when the doctor came in i only had done 3 sets of pushing and the head was crowning.  he let me reach down and feel her little head coming out which was the weirdest feeling.  after that only one more push and  he was pulling her out and placing her on my chest.  she was born at 8:02 a.m.  it was as though the world stopped.  i could not stop staring at my perfect little girl.  as i was holding her for the first time she pooped right on my hand which was the cutest and funniest thing ever!  i know that at some point dave cut the umbilical cord but i don't even remember because i was in a world of my own.  i was amazed at how quickly and easily everything had happened.  i felt such an adrenaline rush and felt like i wanted to do it again!

i feel so blessed to have had such a great delivery and feel especially blessed for my beautiful daughter.