Our Hannah Elizabeth arrived February 14, 2012 at 12:15pm. She weighed 7lbs, 14 ounces and she was 20 inches long. We are so so thankful to have her here and welcome her into our family! We couldn't love this little girl any more! She's absolutely beautiful and perfectly made by her Creator!
Hannah's Birth Story: I started having consistent contractions about 8pm on Monday, Feb 13th. They were 10 to 12 minutes apart and not too intense so we weren't sure if this was going to be "it" or not. We did call our parents (living in GA) who were chomping at the bit to get in the car and get up to NC. We encouraged them to wait a while longer to see if we were actually going to go into the hospital. Bert started getting us more organized in case we'd be heading to the hospital in the middle of the night. I started jotting down my contractions so that I could tell how far apart they were and how long they were lasting. About 2am we decided it was time to call and talk to the doctor on call. I actually didn't think she would have me come in because my contractions were still about 7 minutes apart, but I just wanted to call and talk to her about when she thought we should head that way. Dr. Watson was on call and she was quick to say that she thought we should come on in for a few reasons: it takes us about 40 minutes to get to the hospital, it was my second baby and my first came in about 7 hours (which is fast for a first child), and I had tested positive for Group B Strep so I needed to have at least two doses of antibiotics before I delivered.
So, at about 2:15am we called Alison and Stephen and asked them to come on over to stay with Emily. We're so thankful that they were willing to give up sleep and come over in the middle of the night! They live about 15 minutes away, so while they were driving over Bert started packing the car and getting us ready to walk out the door. We went in to give our sweet Emily a kiss before we left. For some reason I felt bad leaving her in the middle of the night without her knowing. I knew she was going to be in great hands, but it still made me sad.
We left our apartment at about 2:45am and got to the hospital about 3:30am on the 14th, where we found out that I was 3 cm dilated, contractions were coming every 5 minutes and lasting at least a minute. I had a doctor's appointment earlier that day (2/13) and I was 2 cm. I was definitely disappointed that I hadn't made more progress, but thankful I had made some. At this point they still hadn't admitted me, but were just monitoring my contractions and Hannah's heartbeat. The plan was for me to walk some laps around the hospital to try to get things moving a little faster. Just before I was about to start walking the nurse noticed a slight dip in Hannah's heartbeat when I was having a big contraction. They said they needed to keep monitoring her so I wasn't going to be able to walk the halls. The contractions kept coming and slowly but surely I was dilating. It wasn't too long after this that they decided to admit me. One of the main reasons was that I needed to have 2 doses of my antibiotic for testing Group B Strep positive and the doses needed to be 4 hours apart. So, they hooked up my IV and we were there to stay. It was that point that we knew we were going to have a little Valentine's baby! :) They checked me again about 8:30am and I was a 4, so they ordered my epidural and I waited in great anticipation for the anesthesiologist to get there.:) I was ready! I had be having good contractions for just over 12 hours and he (the anesthesiologist) couldn't get there fast enough.
The anesthesiologist actually had some trouble getting the epidural in. The first time he put it in, it went in the wrong spot and he had to try a second time. The entire process took about 5 minutes when I had Emily and about 20 minutes with Hannah. As he was leaving he informed us that I leaked some spinal fluid when the needle went in the wrong spot. He said there was a chance I would develop a spinal headache in the days to come. We prayed that I wouldn't develop this horrible headache, but that honestly wasn't our major concern at that time. We just wanted to get our Hannah here safe and sound!
My OB came back in to break my water. They were also keeping a close watch on the dips in Hannah's heart rate. It didn't dip with every contraction, but would just take a slight dip periodically. They said she was probably grabbing the cord, but they really weren't that concerned about it b/c her heart rate would jump right back up to normal. About 10:30am I still wasn't progressing as quickly as they would have liked so they decided to give me a little pitocin to move things along. They can give up to 30 units of pitocin and they only gave me 2. The pitocin really did it's job and my contractions started coming every 1 or 2 minutes. They were actually coming so fast they decided to stop the pitocin after about 30 minutes. The doctor came in a few minutes later to check me and to everyone's surprise I had gone from 4 to 10 in a little over an hour. The nurse quickly started preparing everything for delivery. The doctor left the room but quickly came back. The nurse wasn't going to let me push one time without the doctor being in the room, Hannah was too close. Once the doctor came back in the room, I pushed one time and Hannah made her grand entrance.
Hannah was (still is) absolutely beautiful! Her color was great, but for some reason she wasn't crying when she came out. I asked them why she wasn't crying and no one seemed too concerned. So, after a few seconds I asked again...."WHY isn't she crying???" They handed her to me for a second, but I just kept asking them why she wasn't crying. I quickly gave her back so they could check her out. They took her to the warming station in our room. At this point she still hadn't made a noise and you could tell everyone was starting to get concerned. I later found out she started turning blue/gray and her heart rate fell from about 140 to 60. The nurse quickly called for help. She first called for another nurse. Then she called for the special care unit. After about 15 seconds the special care unit still wasn't there and the poor nurse said "WHERE IS THE SPECIAL CARE UNIT??" It felt like forever, but it really didn't take long for 10 people to rush into the room. All I could do was just stare and cry and beg God to save my little girl. I couldn't see Hannah from my bed, but I could hear them counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4." At the time, we thought they might be giving her CPR. I have literally never been so scared in my life. I truly thought we were about to loose our little girl. I later found out that they did have to "resuscitate" her by giving her oxygen. My mom was in the room when Hannah was born. Once we realized our little Hannah was in trouble the three of us (my mom, Bert and I) held hands and Mom prayed for her. I don't think any of us stopped praying throughout the entire process. We were all three crying. Mom stayed beside me holding my hand while Bert was trying to get as close to Hannah as he could. He couldn't get that close b/c of all the doctors around her, but he wanted to be near her (and I wanted him to as well). After about 15 or 20 minutes she still wasn't really crying, but she had made a few noises and her color started to get back to normal and the team of doctors seemed to think everything was fine. One by one the doctors and nurses started leaving the room. I stopped one to ask why they were leaving and if my baby was okay. They said she was and that because I delivered her so fast that she didn't have time to squeeze the the amniotic fluid and mucus out of her lungs as she was coming down the birth canal. He went on to say that if the mom has to push for too long the baby is usually in "shock" and if the mom doesn't push long enough the baby is usually in "shock." Our poor Hannah experienced the latter.
This picture was taken just as the special care unit left and they handed Hannah to me. Talk about shock....I was still in shock. I was so so thankful that my little girl was okay, but the tears kept coming....they were happy, thankful, relieved tears.
Bert was one proud Daddy.
After they weighed her the pediatric nurse came in the room to give her a bath, measure her, etc. They usually do this in the room with the mom, but as soon as the nurse saw Hannah she pointed out that she was flaring her nostrils and said she must have some obstruction in her airway. She said they would need to take her to the nursery to do some more tests, but that Bert could go with her. I had to stay, but I didn't want Bert to let her out of his sight. In the nursery, she was able to work out whatever was blocking her airway and they once again gave her a clean bill of health.
After an hour or a little more Bert and Hannah came back down to my room.
Throughout that day and the next I asked every nurse or doctor that came in if she was okay. Thankfully, everyone kept telling us that she was perfectly healthy!
Our precious little Valentine made quite an entrance! We were reminded from her very first breaths that we weren't in control. We love her with every fiber of our being, but I'm thankful that Hannah has a heavenly Father who loves her even more than we do! I pray that one day she will put her trust in Him and follow Him all the days of her life.
