July 9th and Beyond.

As I watched the nurses clean up Hazel, I kept thinking how incredibly lucky I was.  I had an INCREDIBLE husband who loved my unconditionally and together we made this beautiful baby girl.  

I felt so many emotions and so much love as my family gathered around to see my previous sweet Hazel May. 

The next few days spent in the hospital consisted of nothing but holding Hazel and cuddling Caden.  I couldn't get enough of either of them.  

We spent 48 hours in the hospital and then they sent us home to he parents. Caden was completely calm, cool a d collected. He was ready to be a Daddy and have his baby girl home.  I, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck.  

We made it home safely and had visitors the next few days.  I wanted everyone on the world to come over and to see what an awesome job Caden and I did at making a baby. 

I loved hearing people tell me how pretty she was and constantly asked if she really was pretty or if I had "mommy goggles".  

Now it's been a week and life is more perfect than I could ever imagine.   

Caden is the best dad.  Watching him with her makes me cry every single time. He is an absolute natural.  He tells her stories, he sings her silly songs, he changes her diapers, he baths her every morning while I sleep, he does her laundry and he folds her clothes, and he rocks her to sleep skin-to-skin. 

Seeing the two of them together is more than I can handle and I cry happy tears just thinking about it.  

Hazel is a happy baby. She sleeps great, with our without loud noises.  (She must have gotten use to Caden's loudness while in the womb.)  She is already an expert at breast-feeding and has never had a problem latching on.  She wakes about every 3-4 hours to eat and then sleeps the rest of the day.  She sneezes the most adorable sneezes and she grips on to Caden's finger when he holds her. 

She truly is perfect. 

I miss being pregnant and I miss feeling her cute baby feet inside me.  However, being able to share her with Caden and him being able to hold her and love her is much better than pregnancy. 

I feel so very lucky to have had such an easy pregnancy, labor and post-pregnancy. And I feel so very blessed for such a cute family: me, Caden and Hazel May.

Prayers do get answered and dreams do come true and this is proof.  

Amen.

July 9th: The Delivery.

As we arrived to the hospital, walking in was mortifying.  I was no longer leaking water but actually gushing.  I tried covering my pants with my purse as we walked inside, but it was obviously not covering much. 

As Caden grabbed me a wheelchair a cute lady stopped me. "Did your water break?"  And then she proceeded to tell me how happy she was and asked what we planned to name her. I tried to be polite but all I could think about was how wet my pants were and how embarrassed I felt. 

At 9:30am we arrived to our room, I got hooked up to the monitors and an IV was started.  Our nurse came in to introduce herself and we filled out some paperwork. She told us it was going to be a while before baby was here and we should make ourselves comfortable.  

Our families showed up around noon and I was only dilated to a 2.  We visited, watched some Price is Right and mentioned a hundred more times how excited we were. 

At 11:00am I was hooked up to Pitocin to get things moving quicker.  The contractions intensified, but nothing too painful. I tried "toughing it out" for about 10 minutes until Caden convinced me to get my epidural so I was comfortable.  Best decision ever. 

I was so worried about Caden during the epidural. He is NOT a fan of needles, or of me being in pain.  I feared he would pass out and my anesthesiologist would have to stop what he was doing to help Cade.   Not the case.  Caden was a champ and held my hand the whole time.  The epidural wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined, and afterwards my labor was a breeze. 

The family started taking bets on when Hazel would make her big debut.  Some thought as early as 7pm, others thought as late as 2am.  I guessed 11:30pm.  Way off. 

At around 4:30 the nurse checked me again. I had progresses in thinning my cervix but was only dilated to a 5.  The nurse thought I would dilate a centimeter an hour and predicted I'd labor another 5 hours.  My mom disagreed. 

My family has awesome baby-making genes. Both my mom and sister had simple deliveries and my mom knew she had passed on those child bearing hips. Boy, was she right.  

Caden left to go to the bathroom and instantly I felt the urge to do the same.  Lots of pressure and big contractions.  My mom panicked and pushed the call light. "You better come check her again," and the nurse came rushing in. 

I had dilated from a 5 to a 10 in less than 10 minutes. The nurse checking me just looked at me and said "are you kidding?!"   Nope.  I'm not.  I'd like to have this baby now.   She's ready. 

She called the doctor who was on his way into a c-section. Because this was my first baby, he thought I would be pushing for quite some time. He told the nurse to do a few practice pushes and he would come in once he finished with his other patient. 

My next contraction the nurse had me do a practice push.   "Push!! 1...2...3...stop!" She stopped me in the middle of my contraction to tell be that Hazel was coming much sooner than expected. 

I'm a good pusher.

She called the doctor back and he rushed right over.  I gave him two big pushes and Hazel was here. 

July 9th: our office visit.

July 9th: Hazels due date.  We had an appointment to see the doctor and I was hoping with all my might that he would induce me and get the ball rolling. 

I was so tired of wondering when I would go into labor, where I would go into labor or if I would go into labor.  I felt like a ticking time bomb and I was so very tired of people asking me when the baby was coming.   

After talking with the doctor, he said it sounded like I would be pregnant for another week and I was showing no signs of labor, besides me contractions two days prior and my extreme efforts of walking and ginger baths. 

Then, the doctor checked my cervix. 

Low and behold, instant gush of water and my water had broke.  Ohhhh, happy day.  

I left the office grinning from ear to ear and gushing water so heavily that my pants were soaked to my knees.  We headed to the hospital and called our families.  Hazel was on her way.