Hazel's Birth Story

At this time last week I was having contractions. Today, I'm sitting on my couch while Miles plays in the floor and his sister sleeps in the swing.  I've been meaning to sit down and write Hazel's birth story for the last few days, but naps win over blogging every single time.

How Hazel got here:

I knew I didn't want a 4th of July baby, I didn't want her to have to share her special day with a holiday every year.  That being said, I was ready to be finished being pregnant. Some women love being pregnant..I'm not in that camp. So on the 5th, I told Trevor whatever needs to be done to get her on her way into the world, we will be doing.

Around 3:00pm I started having contractions.  I knew immediately what they were and was a bit hesitant to be excited. I realized at 4:00 I was still having them.  I told Trevor maybe we should go to the grocery store so we would have food he could fix if I did have this baby.  We went to Aldi's and picked up food for him and Miles that he could throw together. My contractions were steady still.  At 5:00  we told our parents, that I was having contractions, but not to head this way yet. They were three minutes apart, but not lasting a minutes each. They honestly didn't hurt very bad I was walking around and talking through them.  At 6 my mom told me under no certain conditions that they were head this direction to eat dinner and I should go to the hospital and get checked out.

We arrived at the hospital, I didn't want to be 'that pregnant girl' who went to labor and delivery every time she felt a weird twinge.   By 6:45 I was admitted and surprised to find out I as dilated to a 4/5! So we told our parents to come on!

My labor was steady until around 9:00pm when our parents showed up. Our dads took Miles back to our townhouse to sleep and the moms stayed and prepared for a baby that night. Well, Hazel didn't get this memo because as much as I was dilating, she wasn't coming down.  I started telling the nurse around 11 that my water was going to probably have to be broken. She kept telling me I was progressing. I tried two different birthing balls, hot compresses, different positions, walking the halls everything to try to get her to move. She wasn't having it.  It was super frustrating to be dilated to a 9 and be not in pain from contractions.

They started me on Pitocin to give her a 'push' at 6:55 am.  I chilled while we waited for the Pitocin to kick in.  I finally started feeling weak contractions around 7:30.  My doctor showed up at 8:00 to break my water. After that things got painful quick.  It was too late for any sort of pain medication because I was fully dilated and just waiting for her to descend.  Natural birth is no joke. I think it was around 9:15 I started pushing.  I pushed through 3 different contractions, three times each.  The pushing was actually a welcome relief after all the contractions, I guess it gave me something else to focus on.  The only part that hurt was when the doctor rotated her because she was face up instead of face down.  After that I couldn't even feel the contractions because pain was just pulsing through my body. They had to tell me when I was having my next contraction and out she came! I pushed less than 15 minutes, and I didn't tear! 

I was up and at them soon after and just felt tired from not sleeping the night before. After I moved to my postpartum room, I had some trouble with blood clotting and they had to 'massage my uterus' quite a bit more and give me two shots in my leg.  After that was over I was good as new.

I haven't had much trouble recovering at home, the only thing is I can't lift Miles which makes me sad.  I miss putting him to bed and getting him up and just generally walking around holding him.  So far he loves his sister.

 

Hazel Lane Howard

7lbs 6oz

7/6/2014

20 1/4 inches long

9:33 am