"Hazel" McCarthy
10/24/2012
3:47pm
7 lbs. 8 oz.
19 in. long
I woke up after a horrible night of sleep feeling like it would be THE day and announced it to Jay. He decided it was a good date to be born, since 1024 is a power of 2. (His vote was to call her "Kilo" on the blog, since 1024=2^10=kilobyte. I obviously gave him a polite laugh and picked my own name...) Though I suspected I was in labor, I wasn't positive because it felt so much different than my first two. It was more like really intense Braxton-Hicks contractions (which don't normally hurt me) accompanied by really intense lower abdominal cramps. It's hard to explain, but they just felt like they were in a different area than past labor contractions.
So, just in case, I took a shower and did my hair so I would at least go to the hospital clean to begin with (I never have the energy to shower there...) and packed up my hospital bag. It was about 9:30am and I realized that a playgroup I'm a part of was planning a field trip to Pumpkinland for that day. It was rainy and cold, though, so it got last-minute changed to just playing at someone's house (just down the street from us). I was secretly glad, though I knew The Frog was excited about Pumpkinland.
I told Jay to take the car to work that day, in case he needed to drive home quick, so we got on our rain-gear and I pushed Peach in the stroller while The Frog rode his "rocket-bike" to the neighbor's. At this point, I didn't think the contractions were regular enough to worry about- maybe only 4 or 5 per hour. They were frequent enough to make it really awkward to put the chain back on his bike when it fell off, though...
I consulted the ladies at playgroup and one of the more experienced (6 kids) told me some of her labors were different feeling from each other, so it could be labor, BUT she also had more false labor, with each successive child. I decided not get my hopes up.
After going home, fixing lunch and putting the kids down for a nap, I called my mom to let her know I was unsure if I was in labor (it's now noon), since I texted her that morning saying to be on guard. After talking to her, though, I realized I hadn't really timed the contractions and decided to do that.
Side-note: during lunch the contractions started to be hard enough I needed to breath through them a bit. I had a contraction while giving the kids their food and I had to sit down and breath through it. The Frog looks at me confused and says, "Mom? Mom? What are you doing? Are you gonna poop your pants?!" Which makes me laugh- very unpleasant during a contraction, in case you're wondering. Don't tell jokes to women in labor.
Anyway, I timed my contractions for about an hour and realized they were actually happening every 4-ish minutes, for about 30 seconds, so that's probably regular enough to be considered labor and I called my mom back to come on down.
The plot thickens...
Jay and I just got approval to refinance our home (which we are SO SO pleased about!!) and he had an appointment to sign the papers in Sandy (about 40 minutes away) at 3pm. Jay came home for lunch at around 1 and we discussed and decided he should go up and sign the papers and he'd probably still have time to be at the birth. (because labor always seems to take forever, right?) Plus my mom was already on her way down to help with the kids, so I had a backup plan.
So Jay leaves, the kids wake up, and my mom arrives all within about 20 minutes of each other. SO glad I had her come when I did. Turns out, it's hard to be in labor and be expected to take care of kids, or even be around much noise. My mom took them outside to play and I labored on the sofa for about another hour.
By now, it's about 2:45pm and the contractions are starting to be more intense and are happening every 2 minutes. My water still hadn't broken, which is what I was sort of waiting for since laboring at the hospital is so much more uncomfortable, but I just felt like I should go, especially since I was supposed to come in a bit early to get an I.V. of antibiotics since I tested positive for Strep B.
Side-note: sometime in there I went to use the bathroom and Peach, of course, wanted to join me. I had a contraction on the toilet, so I'm sitting there breathing heavily and Peach is across from me on her potty, copying my breathing and lying her head on my leg, very dramatically. I managed not to laugh this time.
So I text Jay, who is now in Sandy, waiting for his appointment, to tell him I'm going to the hospital and assure him my water hasn't broken, I just want to go now. My mom took the kids to a neighbor's and we drive to the hospital.
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| me, right before leaving for the hospital |
Meanwhile, my mom just got off the phone with Jay who said he got the papers signed in record time (telling people your wife is in labor can really get them moving) and was just getting off the free-way to meet up with us.
I changed my clothes, another contraction and the nurse checked me and said I was at 9.5cm!! Woah! She put the baby heart-rate monitor on me, I had one more contraction and Hazel was now in my canal ready to come out.
They got ONE minute of her heart-rate.
I kind of moaningly said, "she's coming out," and it took the nurse a second to realize what I was saying. I'm not exactly sure what was going on in the room at that point- I know someone was about to try and give me the I.V. and the doctor had just come in, but two pushes later and Hazel was here!
Thank GOODNESS I decided to leave when I did. My water didn't break until her head had already emerged- which is not that common and actually really great since it minimizes the risk of her getting an infection from the Strep B.
Jay walks in about 5 minutes later and casually comes over to see how I'm doing and I lift up the blanket and say, "She's here!"
"She's here?!"
A nice bonus of having my mom there was getting pictures of Jay and I together in the hospital :)
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| Just after dad's arrival |
3 comments:
What a crazy story! In actually had the same thing happen with my second, where her head was already out and surrounded by my bag of water." The nurse told me to push to break the water and out came a baby! Congratulations on the birth of your baby!
Congratulations and what a fantastic story!!! I can't believe how long you were able to hold out! The Frog's poop comment was *hilarious*. When my cousin and his wife went from two to three, he proclaimed they had moved from "man-to-man defense" to "zone defense."
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