My Mister Mischief: {yet another} birth story

i'm forgetting a lot these days. comes with the teritory of motherhood. saggy skin, larger hips, memory loss, etc...all a part of the package.

but motherhood also brings sweet smooches, "i love you mommy" whispers at bed time, and snuggles galore.

i wanted to write hazel's birth story since i've been forgetting some of the details or mixing up things with the other two stories. so while my house sleeps i shall write.

you may remember me looking like this...

hazel had decided that i was an extended stay america and went into deep hibernation for an extra 8 days. we had multiple appointments all deciding that she was perfectly healthy with plenty of fluid, so we were gonna wait and see. not what this mama wanted to hear, but i know it's best to let them do their thing. if i've learned anything with three babies is that you can't do too many things to get them to come out if they don't want to.

i ate pounds of pineapple, took supplements, went walking every night, among "other things." contractions for days, and yet no result. so an induction was scheduled for the 24th of september. just eight days from the day her sister joined our world just one year ago.

i went to the hospital at 7:00 in the morning. donned the lovely gown and got hooked up. my ah-maz-ing nurse amy noticed that i was contracting regularly 3-4 mins apart on my own, which i informed her was my favorite game of late. "contract for a really long time, but don't actually go into labor." she hooked me up to pitocin who i knew would put an end to the game and actually make it the real deal.

about 10 mins before the pitocin drip the doctor came in and broke my water (i'd been 1-2 cm for about 2 weeks) hoping for big gushes of fluid, and you know what they say...be careful what you wish for.

holy hoover dam. no wonder the kid wasn't making any progress. i was holding in the entire colorado river in my belly. once that was out of the way and the pitocin got going my contractions started to progress to 90 seconds long and only a 30 second break. they weren't crazy painful, but very long and with little break. around 9:00 a.m they decided to turn my pitocin down because it was bringing things on way too quickly and we didn't want anything crazy to happen with her sweet heart.

i was progressing on my own at a slow and steady pace and didn't want to make any decision about pain management until i couldn't handle it anymore. my ipod was in, the lights were dim, and i thought this would be a super smooth ride, until the back labor started. **now, folks. let me tell you. back labor is strait from the devil. pure and simple.** i had back labor with the last two, and since cora was natural i felt no need to do that to myself again. at 11:30 since i was only a 4, i signed up for a visit from the most popular person in L&D.

while getting my epidural i had even more gushes of fluid and some super crazy hard back to back contractions which ended up making my heart race like crazy. amy had me focus really hard on my breathing and get my heart to slow back down, and when it was done i was able to lay down and rest. within in mins i started to feel better, but then i started to feel a little woozy. amy and the anesthesiologist came back in and saw my blood pressure had dropped immensely and i was all pale. a few adjustments with the dosage and my position in the bed and i was back to normal.

and i rested.

around 1:30 amy came in to check me and i was a 7!!! woot woot. i told brent to go get some coffee or food since i wasn't complete yet and it'd probably be a few more hours. he used significantly better judgement (remembering that last time i went from an 8 to a 10 in 5 mins) and chose to stay with me.

now, my epidural was the ideal. i had no pain, but could feel slight pressure on my belly with the really strong contractions. between the time she checked me and about 2:00 i started to notice that the contractions were strong, and with each one i had pressure in all the right places. so when amy came in to say she was going to lunch since she didn't think anything was going to happen, i just mentioned that she might want to check me again with all this pressure going on.

i was fully dilated. and my doctor was at home. that's when things started to get really interesting.

thank the good lord i had the epidural. here's why. while i was waiting for the doctor to arrive they didn't have me get into pushing possition or take the bed apart, because {come to find out after her birth} that every time i was contracting amy and my husband could actually see the top of her little head. every. time. i had no idea. just some pressure that i would "blow off" and not think too much about. my husband would have had to deliver the baby with my nurse for sure.

once the doctor got there they took the bed down and i told me to push with the next contraction. her head was out. one more, the shoulders and the baby. fastest stinking delivery ever. they do just walk right out at that point.

2:55 p.m. 8 lbs 9 oz. and perfectly squashy.

they put her on me and she was so cute. but a little blue in my opinion and seemed to be struggling. so the peds rt took her over to the warmer while they finished piecing me back together (sorry, tmi? you are reading a birth story.) after they got all the fluid out and finished her check up we got our golden hour time.