On Tuesday, April 23, 2019 we welcomed Hannah Rose into our family. We are so happy she is here and healthy!
My entire pregnancy I wondered the question many other pregnant ladies wonder – “When will my baby come?” This was especially a question in my mind because we normally rent out our house for the Masters Golf Tournament, and with a due date of May 5, and a history of earlier deliveries – I wondered if we would be able to rent it out again this year….if she came at 37 1/2 weeks, like Josiah, that would only be a few days after the end Masters. In the end we decided to go ahead and rent it out and try to find a place in town to stay with friends during the week of the tournament. Well Masters week came and went, and I was super pregnant during all the Masters prep but was really happy that we made it through Masters week without a baby being born!
The next week we just had a normal week of getting back into the routine of things, and also started trying to switch our bedrooms around to get ready for Hannah. My dad came over the weekend and help us disassemble, move, and re-assemble some beds and other furniture. On Sunday, we had a great Easter and enjoyed celebrating with friends! On Monday, we had a normal day of school with a OB appointment thrown in. She said I was 3 cm dilated but I had had no signs of labor (other than Braxton Hicks) so far.
On Monday night, we were in the final stages of getting the big kids room all ready. Jason had been assembling the new bunk bed and loft bed, and I was helping by doing all the other household chores and getting the bedding on. We stayed up past midnight trying to get it all done! We even joked that it would be funny if Hannah was born that night because we were finally starting to feel ready for her to arrive. Well sure enough, I had my first contraction around 3:30am – so I had gotten about 3 hours of sleep. I started timing my contractions and they weren’t super strong, but they were about 5 minutes apart. With all of my other kids, once my contractions started, they progressed normally, getting stronger and closer together. So, after about 30 min of contractions, I got up, packed my bag, and woke up Jason. We started texting people who we had talked to about watching our kids at night and the next day, and I called my mom so she and my sister could start driving to Augusta to hopefully make it in time for the birth. I knew that Josiah’s labor was about 6 hours start to finish, so there was a possibility that Hannah would arrive by 9:30am or earlier!
But as soon as I was done packing my bags, and started resting on the bed again, my contractions started to slow down, then way down, until there was about 12-13 minutes in between them! I didn’t know what to think! I had a baby shower planned for that day, so I was actually thinking it may be good to have a false alarm labor so I could go ahead and have my baby shower. 🙂 I started to feel bad about my mom and sister driving down the highway, when my labor was sputtering out.
I ate a little bit and Jason and I tried to go back to sleep until about 7:30. When my mom and sister arrived, my contractions were still really far apart so we just ate breakfast and I just did random stuff that needed to bed done before we left for the hospital – like put on makeup! something I had never had time for before. Well around 9:00 we decided to go on a walk to speed up my labor. We started in our cul-de-sac with our kids riding their bikes – their most recent favorite activity. It was such a beautiful day! Probably about 65 degrees outside and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. I was having contractions but they still weren’t that close together, although they were getting stronger and were about 1 minute each. I decided I could make it on our normal walk about the neighborhood that we do often with the kids – it’s probably about a mile long. By the end of the walk, my contractions had really picked up, and we had finally figured out a plan for who would watch our kids – it had been really confusing to decide when to get someone to watch them, since I wasn’t sure if I was actually in labor or if it was a false alarm. When we got back to the house, Jason, my mom and I left for the hospital, and Kristen was left in charge of the kids and was going to drop them off at my friend Abigail’s house.
Contractions were pretty strong on the way to the hospital, but not any worse than I remember with any of the other kids. It was awesome to have my mom there to push me in a wheelchair up to labor and delivery because at this point, my contractions were strong enough that I wanted to delay labor to give myself a chance to get an epidural!
When we got up to labor and delivery they weren’t in a rush at all and told me that there were lots of women there giving birth today and weren’t very many rooms free. We got there around 10:45 and they probably had me in the triage room at 11:00 and I was 6 cm. At this point my contractions were getting much closer together and much more painful. They moved me on a stretcher to a labor and delivery room – we got in there probably around 11:30. At this point I started having unbearable contractions like I have never felt before. Then I started to feel her head move through my body! Then I felt an urge to push and with the next contraction I pushed her out! I didn’t realize she was being born until I felt the sensation of her head and body coming out. I don’t think I could have stopped myself from pushing even if they had told me to. But no one was ready for her to be born, there was no doctor in the room yet, the nurses were pretty unaware and kept telling me that how I felt was “normal for 6 cm”, but before she was born I said “something’s happening!” and then after she was born I said “She’s born! She’s here” which then alerted the nurses to get her and put her up on my chest! The doctor arrived and helped finish everything else up. Hannah was born at 11:48 am on Tuesday, April 23. She weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz. and was 18.5 in. long. She was totally healthy and still is! I haven’t stopped thanking God for her and the countless answered prayers over the last few days.
The previous weeks I had read the Bradley Method book and even had Jason read some parts, so we were a little prepared for what a natural labor would be like, but we both didn’t expect it to happen that fast! I hadn’t had my blood taken or an IV in or anything when she was born, although they did want to put one in after the birth in case anything went wrong post-partum. In hindsight, I’m really glad I had read the book because I think it made me less fearful about a natural birth. After she was born it was crazy that my legs weren’t numb and I could just get up and walk. Kristen got there maybe an hour or so after she was born and got to hold her and told us that our big kids were super excited. We got lunch and spent the next few hours just taking photos and holding Hannah. That afternoon, the big kids and my dad came to visit and we had some friends visit too. Jason came back that night to spend the night at the hospital with me, and we got to leave the hospital a day early since everything was checking out fine.
The first night in the hospital was hard and she was up a lot, and the first night home was hard as well, since she didn’t sleep much, but after those two nights – after which I was the most exhausted I ever remember being, I think we all started to catch up on sleep and started to feel a lot better. Hannah has been doing amazing! She wakes up to eat on her own every 2-3 hours and has done this consistently since she was born, she has been pretty happy overall and has had some alert awake times the last few days! She is a really good eater and basically wants to eat all the time haha. We are trying to get her used to a pacifier – something none of our other kids have ever mastered – our kids tend to like sucking on their thumbs better. Jason has been super-dad and taken on all of my previous duties while also trying to do fun stuff with the kids so I can focus on Hannah.
She had her first pediatrician appointment on Friday and it was hilarious how unprepared we were. The appointment was at 8:30am, I slept until 7:30am, and I not only had no diaper bag packed, I didn’t have a diaper bag at all! I ended up using one of my kids school book bags and throwing stuff in there to get out the door in time! We also didn’t have her stroller in the car, so Jason had to run up to the attic to get it. At that appointment, she was down to 6 lbs. 6 oz, but the dr. said that was fine for her age, and that she would soon get back to birth weight. She is so tiny which makes it extra fun to hold her – she is so light!
