Hannah Elizabeth is here!! JOY!!

Hannah Elizabeth was born on Saturday, January 5th, at 4:29pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 9 oz, and was 20 1/4" long. She has the most gorgeous big dark blue eyes, so dark they're more like navy blue. Her lips are so sweet, and the cutest chin in the world. Her arms and legs are so long they don't fit in most of her clothes, and her fingers and toes are long and skinny too! She has dark brown hair, it's longer in the back and so soft. She's just perfect!

So, here is the story. My water broke at the house Friday at about 5:00-5:30. That was a shocker, even though you know it could happen...it's still really weird! Walt still hadn't packed his hospital bag, so there was a bit of a frenzy to leave, he was quite stressed and I was surprisingly calm. I was in the middle of making potato soup and I really wanted to stay and finish it up, but Walt insisted that since the dr. said I had to go right in, that's what we should do. (Smart man.)

We got there and they checked us into our birthing room pretty much right away. I was in pretty good spirits, even though the contractions had already started coming on as soon as we got there, Walt was timing them at every two minutes apart and lasting a minute long. The nurse and the midwife both said that was really fast, and typically when they're that close together you're ready to deliver (now.) I asked Ann (our midwife) what her guess was on timing, and she said probably between six and eight hours, but not more than 10 (which is really quick and fast.) She had two other patients there and said how much better I was progressing and how I'd definitely deliver first.

(must go...to be continued soon.) :)

Walt went down to get us something to eat, he came back with Fish. I thought he was kidding, but that was it. So I ate some mashed potatoes. (I later threw these up in the tub, along with two Tylenol they gave me after I asked for it. Luckily, Walt held a bag for me, so it didn't end up in the water with me.)

Well, my contractions continued and got more and more intense, and they were in my back (back labor) and went down my legs. I spent a lot of time in the tub, and the nurse was sweet enough to come and give moniter me in there every hour (I had to have a round of antibiotics via my IV every 4 hours, and they had to moniter the babies heart every hour for 15 min.) There was a phase early on when I just wanted to be by myself, I even kicked Walt out for a while. It was like I just needed to focus alone. Then I went into a whole other phase where Walt was needed every minute. Poor guy...he did so great. He was so patient with me and stayed by my side all the time, even though he was exhausted and his hands were completely worn out from rubbing my back constantly. I regressed quickly into this state of complete concentration, where all my effort was in just getting through the next 60 seconds. I spoke in one word bursts like "rub" (which meant my back) etc. If Walt didn't understand immediately what I needed I got extremely impatient. I also remember saying / yelling "help me", "Help me God." Walt wouldn't understand and thought I was talking to him. I must admit, I didn't feel like God was helping me, it just hurt so bad, and never seemed to get any better. Walt helped me with my breathing (which is really just a technique to get you to think about something other than the extreme pain.) And I remember thinking how incredibly stupid this whole thing was, and why hadn't I gotten an epidural when I got there, and why hadn't she come OUT yet. The nurse shift changed. I was in the tub and I started getting ANGRY. I told Walt I was getting out of the tub and I was going to go and push THREE times and she was going to COME OUT. NOW. Walt had done so well, he'd tried not to let me see him crying when I got really bad. Now he was worried at this new angry phase. To me, it was just determination. I had been in a state of self pity for the last 14 hours or so, and now I was done with it.

He called the midwife and she came in and checked me. I was dilated to a 10 (which is completely dilated) and she was positioned at a plus 2 (plus 3 is crowning) so they told me to go ahead and push. I pushed. And pushed. And pushed. We tried all different positions until on the last one I felt like I was going to die. I just wanted to crawl out of my skin and go sit and watch this business from the oher side of the room. At some point one of the doctors (Dr. Crause) came in and checked to see if everything was ok. I vaguely remember this. Then my midwife left and I asked the new nurse how long most women push when it's their first baby. She said anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. I said "I want an epidural now."

They sent in the epidual guy. He gave me the spiel about risks, etc. (I didn't care at this point, I just wanted it NOW.) And then I asked him "so, how many of these have you done." He said, "oh, a couple hundred in the last two months." Hmmmmm, sketchy. He left the room to get his stuff and I asked the nurse, "Is he a resident?" She said, "Yes, do you want me to get the attending?" I said, "YES." So they got the attending to come and give it to me. I felt kind of bad, but this is my spine we're talking about. At first it seemed like it wasn't going to work on my right side, but then she adjusted me and it kicked in over there too.

She gave me the epidural at 10:00 am, after about 16 hours of labor. Then they had me "rest" for about an hour since I hadn't slept all night. I called my friend Judy and we talked for a bit (Walt was sleeping, exhausted! I couldn't sleep.) It was so nice to not be in pain! The nurse came in and Shanna, my midwife for the second course of the journey. Ann had finally gone home. Shanna was great too. They had me push for an hour, and no progress. They started talking about c-sections, in this not pushy kind of matter of fact way. I pushed for another hour. Still no progress. At this point they had been gently putting the idea out there long enough that I knew. They had Dr. Craus come in and talk to me about the c-section. They all said that either my hip bones weren't big enough, or the baby's head was too big, that she should have come out by now otherwise, and it had nothing to do with my having had an epidural (I was feeling like it was my fault for not pushing hard enough.)

So, they changed my epidural do Demerol or something hard core and wheeled me down for surgery and Walt went to scrub in. The anesthesiologist and my last nurse were all in on the surgery, and Dr. Craus, and a Resident. They almost forgot to go get Walt, but I asked for him when I felt some tugging and realized they'd started, and the Anesthesiologist had just realized he wasn't there and went to get him. It went so fast, and then there she was, I could hear her crying, and they put her head over the curtain for me to see her, and then they took her over to clean her up and Walt went with her.

I heard the dr saying something and I asked what was going on. She said there were 7 or 8 Fibroids in my uterus, between 2 or 3 cm each. I asked if they could take them out while they were in there, but they said no, they would bleed to much. I don't know what we'll do about them! (It makes Hannah that much more of a miracle, I have a friend who had one fibroid and it caused her to miscarry and grew to the size of a cantalope while she was pregnant.) When I think about her growing inside me with all of them...she is such an amazing miracle!

They brought her over and Walt laid her on my chest. I love our baby girl! Walt said a prayer for her and for us and thanking God for this miracle gift. The sweet anesthesiologist took photos for us. Walt said she started crying and said it made her want another one.

I said "I think we should name her Hannah Elizabeth." Walt said, "I always knew that was her name."

In all, it was about 23 hours of labor from the time my water broke to the time she was born. She is worth every minute, and I'm actually glad I got to experience all of the different aspects of labor.

Have I mentioned how much I love her?