When I was nearly 36 weeks along
I was at church and I fell down about five stairs and hit a wall at the bottom.
I felt really sore, but nothing too painful. As soon as they saw me fall,
someone from the church called the paramedics and they came and checked me out.
I was fine. But my doctor wanted me to come to the hospital and make sure
everything was fine. After calling a neighbor to see if they could watch our 16
month old son for a couple hours, we headed to the hospital to make sure
everything was okay. As soon as we got to the hospital they put me on monitors.
The baby seemed fine, I wasn’t dilated at all, and I wasn’t having any real
contractions. I was having the same Braxton hick’s contractions that I had had
for weeks. They did an ultrasound and declared
the baby and my uterus looked great and they estimated the baby’s weight to be
6 lbs 10 oz. I was getting ready to go home when the contractions started.
These were different. The emergency doctor came in and checked me. He said I
was now dilated to a 2 and the blood work showed that I might have a tear in my
uterus so I should be prepared to have a baby. They were going to admit me. We
called our neighbor and asked if our son could stay the night and I tried to
prepare myself to have a baby. My first son had gone full term and I had
prepared myself that this one would come at full term too. We were not ready to
have a baby and it hurt to breathe from my fall down the stairs. I finally got
it into my head that we were going to have a baby in the next day or so. We got
checked in and by this time it was late in the night. The monitors were reading
hard contractions every 8-10 minutes but I wasn’t progressing at all and the
contractions weren’t super painful. About 24 hours after my fall the doctor came
in, checked me, and said the blood work came back normal and since I wasn’t
progressing, I should just go home until the contractions became painful. I went home and for a week I was having
contractions every 10 minutes. It was so exhausting. But at my next doctor’s
visit I still had not progressed at all. I was very discouraged. Then at about
37 weeks, the contractions went away.
During this time I was worried
that I would have a big baby. If my baby was 6 lbs 10 oz at 36 weeks, I
couldn’t imagine how big he was going to be at full term. At my 39 week visit I
was dilated to a 3.5 and I decided to be induced as soon as possible. I had to
be given pitocin with my first baby, and I was sure I would need it again, so I
might as well be induced earlier rather than later. Well because of a mixup
between the doctor and the hospital the earliest they could induce me was three
days after my due date, which just happened to be my birthday.
We got to the hospital around 7
am ready to be induced. The night before I had been having contractions that
were different, so I asked the nurse if they could check me before they started
pitocin. I really didn’t want pitocin if I didn’t need it. I wanted to go all
natural and I know that pitocin makes the contractions harder immediately. They
said they had to talk to the doctor about it and they would get back to me.
About 9:00 my doctor came in, checked me, said I hadn’t progressed at all, and
asked if I wanted her to break my water and see how that went before giving me
pitocin. I told her that was what I wanted. She broke my water and left. I
asked the nurse if I could walk around and she told me no, I needed to be
monitored. I didn’t understand why I needed to be monitored. A couple minutes
later a new nurse came in (apparently the other nurse didn’t want to deal with
a woman who wanted to go natural) and I asked her if I could walk around. She
said of course. Just come back every 15 minutes so that we can monitor a
contraction and see if they are getting harder. My husband and I walked around
the maternity ward. At first it was just a fun walk with a contraction here or
there, but after about an hour, we had to stop so that I could breathe through
contractions. At 11:30 they checked me and I hadn’t really made much progress so
they said they needed to start pitocin. I knew that I was in labor and I didn’t
want pitocin. The contractions were just different and they were hard. The
nurse said, “All right I will give you 30 more minutes and then we have to
start pitocin."
At my next contraction check 15
minutes later, I decided I was done walking. It just hurt too bad. At about
12:00 they checked me and I was dilated to a 4 so they said I could keep going.
In my head I thought, I am only dilated to a 4? I am going to die! I think I
better get an epidural! I will wait for 30 minutes and then I am getting an
epidural. Then our nurse asked if I was going to get up and move. I said I
didn’t know and she asked if she got a say in the matter. I said sure. She told
me to get up and move my hips in a slow dance and it would help the
contractions. She was right. We were listening to the piano guys Christmas CD
during my labor, and so my husband felt like we were just doing some slow
dancing. He loved it! The next time they checked me I was dilated to a 5.5,
then an 8, then a 9. It all went so fast. When they checked me and I was at an
8 my nurse ran and called the doctor and told her to come over immediately
because I was progressing so fast. Then she went outside where a midwife was
talking to another nurse and asked her if she would come in because she didn’t
think the doctor would get here in time. Well I started pushing as the doctor
was running in. I asked if they could see the baby’s head and the nurse asked
if I wanted a mirror to see. I said YES! I was so glad I did. It was surreal
watching my baby be born. It hurt bad, but it was so wonderful to see him
getting closer and closer. After pushing for about 15 minutes the baby’s head
came out. I was so relieved to see him and I felt so much relief. I felt so
good. I felt like I was done. The doctor looked at me and said, Hannah, you
have to keep pushing. Only his head is out. I said that I felt fine, but the
doctor convinced me that I needed to push the rest of the baby out. In one or
two more pushes my baby was born. My first thought was that he didn’t look
anything like his older brother. Tyler was born on my birthday at 2:34 pm and
was 9lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long.
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| Beautiful mama and new baby. |
Bringing home a second baby was
nothing like bringing home a first. I had all of these imaginations of how hard
it would be to have a 16 month old and a newborn. I was really scared. We had
just moved to Texas two months before the baby was born and all of mine and my
husband’s families live in Utah. I didn’t know anyone here. I didn’t know how I
was going to do it. But it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. In fact, I
love being a mother of two. That doesn’t mean that everything is perfect.
Daniel comes and throws balls at Tyler; he kicks Tyler and hits him. He doesn’t
understand why he can’t squeal really loud in Tyler’s ear while he is going to
sleep. But I didn’t think about the wonderful times that we would have together. I love
it when Daniel comes to Tyler and “reads” him a book, or when Daniel gives me a
toy to share with Tyler. No, I don’t get to sleep while Tyler sleeps, I feel
like I change diapers all the time, and I never have a moment alone, but I
wouldn’t change it for the world. I love my boys! I love seeing their smiles. I
am excited to see them grow up together. I love being a mom!
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| Such a sweet family! |
Please contact us if you have any questions for Hannah!
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