Hazel's Birth Story

Since we're expecting our third buckaroo, we've been thinking about the whole pregnancy and birthing process again.  And it reminded me that I never have written down Hazel and Klaas' birth stories.  I'd like to be able to remember them years from now, but still needed to do the actual writing.

With Hazel, it was a bit of a waiting game.  I was due July 20, but it wasn't until the night of July 30 that anything started happening to make me realize that I wasn't going to be pregnant forever.  If you've never gone almost two weeks past your due date, let me tell you that no matter how many times you tell yourself that the due date is just an estimate, once that date passes, you wonder what in the world is going on.

On the night of the 30th, just about a month after moving from Moscow to Colfax, Jason and I decided to go into Pullman for some Mexican food and to walk around.  It was beautiful out and since we knew the baby had to come any day, whether it was naturally or by induction, we wanted to enjoy one last night just wandering.  After dinner, while at the park I started feeling something.  Could it be?  Contractions?  Finally!  All that night I was super uncomfortable and had contractions.  They were rather random, but strong enough to keep me awake most of the night.

Friday morning, the 31st, I knew that I didn't want Jason to go to work since we had never done this before and I didn't know what to expect.  The contractions came consistently all day.  We took a walk out in the country, walked around Colfax, ate some bbq, and walked some more.  The contractions were painful enough that I had to stop walking when I had one and think about it, of course looking back, I still had quite a ways to go.  But I had no idea.  First time mom here.

That night we tried to go to bed, after timing them for a while.  They were fairly consistent around 7 minutes apart, but we still didn't feel that we should go rushing into the hospital.  Jason conked out and I sat up, lay down, anything to get comfortable.  The contractions were really pressing on my back, so lying down wasn't really working for me.  Nothing worked and I finally tried to lie down on the couch.  Around 2 in the morning when I started to get up off our futon in the middle of our half-remodeled living room, my water broke.  I was in shock!  But also excited/not totally sure that this is what happened.  I called our birth center and the nurse I talked to said yes, it sounded like my water broke and that we should come in.

I went and woke Jason up.  I don't really remember what his reaction was.  Something of a mix between a sleepy, "What? Oh, ok" and an excited, "Let's go!"  We got our things together and jumped into our Volvo for the 30 minute drive to Moscow.  The car seat was in the back, all ready to go, and we had our bags packed with baby clothes.  But it still seemed surreal that we would be meeting our baby girl that day.

We checked into the hospital, they confirmed that yes, my water had indeed broken, and got us all set up and then left us alone.  I don't know if they checked me then to see how far I was, but since I wasn't in crazy pain all the time, they could tell that I had a ways to go.

After we got there, the contractions got stronger and stronger, and since Hazel was posterior, my back was still killing me.  Jason was wonderful, letting me moan as the pains came, rubbed my back, and got me juice.

Sometime around early morning, I was exhausted from not having slept very well at all the last two nights, so I asked for something to take the edge off and help me sleep.  I don't remember what it was that they gave me, but I was warned that usually only one dose of the medicine would work and a second one wouldn't have as much effect.  But that one dose let me snooze for a few hours, which was wonderful, for me as well as for Jason.

The rest of the day is a slight blur of lots of contractions, lots of pain, and just trying to focus on staying on top of things.  As I was nearing transition, I asked for some more medication, but as they had predicted, it didn't really do anything at all.

Then all of a sudden I felt completely out of control, the contractions were super strong and close together.  I remember lying on the bed with Jason right next to me and a nurse helping me breathe, and I was saying something like, "Can I stop?  I don't want to do this anymore! This is too hard! I can't do this!"  The nurse was so sweet and told me that I was in transition (obviously) and the baby would be coming soon.

At some point my wonderful doctor came and when I felt the urge, I started to push.  And push.  And push.  And then I pushed some more. And then I got some pitocin and oxygen.  And then I pushed some more.  2 hours later.....the doctor said the baby was almost out and maybe if she used the vacuum, she could help get the baby out.  At that point, I didn't even care anymore and said sure.  That was probably the most painful experience of my life, even worse than the actual delivery.  It really scared Jason to see me in so much pain.  And my poor doctor was still trying to help me deliver the baby.  Just a few pushes later though, Hazel was born at 4pm on the dot.

We were amazed and surprised for some reason.  You mean our daughter was in there the whole time?  She was amazing, beautiful, not a cone head surprisingly enough after all that time in the birth canal, and simply the best little person ever.  When she tried to nurse, she latched on right away and had almost no problems at all.  I'm especially thankful for that after such a long day's work.  We were so happy with our doctor and the labor and delivery nurses.  They were supportive for hours on end and really helped us get through a long day.

Almost immediately after she was born, all the pain was gone, and even the stitching up didn't bother me because we had our Hazel Rosemary.  It was the best day.