I can't believe there are 5 people in our family now. i look back when we are driving in the van and i'm surprised to see most of the seats filled. it's weird to me, i seriously feel like i'm not old enough to have, a husband, an education, a house, a mini van, and now 3 kids. i swear, it seems like last week that i was in high school and my biggest life concerns were what i was going to wear each day, and what songs were playing in my sweet 1984 camero. ANYWAYS.... nostalgia aside, here's the baby story of Hazel, it needs to be documented.
So my due date was July 12th, and seeing as i've never been early before, actually overdue both times, i figured Dick and I were safe heading to Calgary on the 8th to go see Wicked and enjoy some time alone together! In hindsight, probably not the best idea. So we left on Friday afternoon, did a little shopping, had dinner with geoff an nicki and went to the show. It. Was. Awesome. I first saw Wicked in New York and so i was anticipating it to be good, but not quite as good as in new york. but actually, it was quite comparable, and Dick really liked it too! We had a great time, and i was very un comfortable sitting for so long at that point, but not feeling anything out of the ordinary.
So we left to go to our hotel, with a quick stop in at Peter's Drive in for milk shakes on the way. The plan was to sleep over and head out glasses shopping in the morning before we went back home. A half hour after we checked into the Sheraton... 1am, first contraction. I knew it was a real one immediately because i could feel it in my back, not just my tummy. I didn't say anything to Dick because i knew if i did he wouldnt sleep at all, and i thought they'd probably just go away cause they seemed pretty weak.
1:10 am- next contraction....crap.
So i used my trusty little iphone app to time the contractions and they were staying withing the 10-12 min apart range. so while i layed there i started stressing...what if we have to go to the hospital in calgary? which one do i go to? where is it? who would deliver me? what about my mom, could she babysit longer? i think Jill has an uncle thats a Dr. in calgary, should i call him? etc. etc. etc. needless to say it was a LONG sleepless night amidst contractions.
Finally i decided that if the contractions hadn't gotten any closer together by 5:30 am, that we would take our chances and head back home. a decision that was definitely inspired. And so we left the hotel about 6 am, and drove back to lethbridge. scary. i was really worried this was gonna be one of those-side of the road- born in the back of the van-with only the cows as your witness- types of birth stories. THANKFULLY, that wasn't the case. After dick pulled out all of his nose hairs to stay awake driving home(literally), we made it back to our house and chilled for a bit until things progressed further. Phewf!!!
About 10:30am the contractions we're getting embarrassing and scary to the kids at home so we left for the hospital to make sure everything was ok, and hopefully get admitted. After they checked me in, and checked me out, i was still only 2 cm dilated. SERIOUSLY??!! i was so annoyed, it had been a really long night and morning already, but the nurse said to go for a walk and she'd check me in an hour. sure, sure. so i tried to walk, but honestly thought i was going to pass out everytime i had a contraction, so i ended back in my bed to tough it out. and thats what i did. the nurse kept saying when she looked at the monitor, "Wow, thats a big one" or "those are some fierce looking contractions." I was like, thanks tips. super helpful. Anyways, within about a half hour i was DYING, and begged to be checked again and get an epidural so i could have a break. My Dr. was not on call because it was a saturday, so i had a new Dr. with the DRYEST personality, but i was just happy that anyone would check me and get me out of this pain. Sure enough, i had gone from 2 cm to 7cm really fast and they said i could get an epidural...YEAH!!!!!!
so my IV was in, blood work done, just waiting for the anesthesiologist...who they were paging, and paging, and paging, and never showed up. turns out that when there is only one availiable in the entire hospital, he's a pretty busy guy. Dumb. stupid lethbridge. with all the mormons and hudderites around here having babies, you'd think they could get another Dr. for the maternity wing. Well, as soon as i came to terms that i was going to have to do this au-natural, i lost it. I said to Dick, "i CANT do this!" i'm sure a million times, or maybe like 3 times, but still. I was terrified. and the new 'bad personality' doctor i had been dealt, made me super paranoid about rupturing my uterus because i was having a V-bac, and actually seemed bored with the whole process. like i needed to hear this now, when i'm right in the middle of labor. So, they decided to give me some morphine which did nothing for pain and just made me completely out of it, and i began to push. Like i said, the morphine made me so tired and delirious that i could barely hear any of the coaching from the dr. or nurses, but after about a half hour of horror, i was with it enough to make out the words "It's a Girl!!!"
I was SO happy she was here, and safe, and crying, and i was SO happy those flippin contractions were over. seriously. death.
The aftermath of having a baby is never fun. With Greta it was only 2 days of recovery before i went back in for major surgery. With ozzie it was recovering from a c-section. But I'm not gonna lie, even though natural child birth was horrifying on many many levels, the recovery can not even compare to the other times for me. i feel like i could run a marathon (figuratively of course) this time around. I'm healing quick, i'm not so sore that i cant enjoy holding and snuggling my new baby, and i'm not having to take pain meds all the time to survive. and i feel relatively sane because i'm getting decent amounts of sleep. I'm so, SO grateful! I'm not even closed off to the idea of maybe...MAYBE having one more child someday...which is huge for me! When all is said and done, i'm just so blessed to have a loving husband and my 3 beautiful kids!
Welcome to the world baby Hazel!