9 Years Ago!

Has it really been 9 whole years since Hallie entered the world?!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HALLIE!

Hallie's birth story. I really need to get this written down, so if you don't want to know all the gory details, know that you have been warned. Cause here they are:

9 years ago yesterday was just a normal pregnant day. I went out to lunch with Tausha, we went to Tucano's, YUM! And then we walked around the Riverwood's and checked out some of the shops. I was having braxton hicks type contractions while I walked around, but didn't really think anything of it.
I went to work at 3, I was working in the ER at UVRMC and had the swing shift that day. It was actually my long weekend to work. I was scheduled to work Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. At my last OB appointment my Dr. had scheduled an induction for the Monday after my long weekend. I would be 38 weeks pregnant on that day, my blood pressure was up a little and so she thought it would be best if this little lady would make an appearance. At work that night I called everyone on the schedule to see if someone would take my Sunday shift for me, or at very least the last 1/2, but no luck there. I was feeling a litter discouraged and overwhelmed at the thought of working 4 days in a row and then waking up to give birth. I wanted time to get my house settled and have a little r&r before the big day.
Half way through my shift, Hal picked me up for dinner, we went to Burger Supreme, the BEST, yummiest burger shop EVER! I could hardly eat, I was just feeling a little off and the braxton hicks contractions were annoying me. I went back to work and for the rest of the night I kept having contractions, they didn't hurt at all, I just noticed the basketball hardness with each one. One of the nurses with long fingernails kept joking around with me that she could reach up there and break my water, LOL! I was dilated to almost a 4 a few days earlier, so it made me almost want to do it. One of the other male nurses kept asking me if I should be sitting on a chucks pad, because I looked like I was going to burst.
I left work at 11:30pm, Hal and Trenton picked me up because we only had one car. We got home and put Trenton to bed and I jumped in bed with Hal. I forced him to ummmm, have relations, LOL! I was determined to not be induced, I wanted to go into labor on my own. Right after we were done, I had a HUGE contraction and I felt a "pop" in my upper abdomen, this was 12:20am. I walked to the bathroom and felt another milder contraction, but it felt different from the braxton hicks. I figured that if it was labor that I would be doing this for a long time, so I decided to take a bath, while it was filling, I felt 2 or 3 more contractions and figured that this must be it. I laid in the bath and tried to relax, but by about 10 minutes into the bath I was having to breath through contractions. I decided to get out and pack my bags. I grabbed a basket and started putting all of my toiletries in the basket, I had a contraction and walked out to the kitchen, the time was 1:19am, I breathed through that contraction and then went back to packing my bags, at 1:22 (just 3 minutes later) I was in the kitchen breathing through another contraction. I picked up the phone to call my mom and walked to my bedroom. Hal was in there trying to get a little bit of sleep, he had been up since 4 am the day before! He was so tired. I woke him up and told him that we needed to get ready to go. I had my mom on the phone telling her what was going on, I had another contraction and my water broke, all over my bedroom floor, YUCK! My mom said that she was on her way. I went back into the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub and shaved my legs, oh the things we do!
By the time my mom got to my house, I was hurting pretty bad, I had to have help to get my shoes on. My little sister Shelley stayed with Trenton and we left for the hospital. Hal drove like a mad man! I kept telling him to slow down, I wasn't that close to giving birth. We got to the hospital at about 2:30, they took one look at me and sent me straight to the closest delivery room. I got settled in and they FINALLY got around to checking me at 3:30am, I was dilated 5-6cm and contracting really regularly. I asked for an epidural and the Dr. came right in. I believe that I was "pain" free by about 4am. The epidural was REALLY strong, I was feeling numb up my chest and didn't like the feeling, so I had them turn off the epidural. By about 5am I was feeling a lot of pressure and asked the nurse to check me. She said that she didn't want to, she wanted to wait until 6 or 6:30, when the shift change happened. I told her that I really was feeling a lot of pressure, so she broke down and checked me. I was a 10 except for a little corner of my cervix that was left over. She asked me to push through a contraction while she tried to move it out of the way. 1 push in and she told me to stop. The Dr. walked in while this was happening. My LEAST favorite Dr. was on call, he wasn't happy about being there. He was annoyed with the nurse for having me push when I wasn't actually complete, he said I was going to swell and that he was going to be here for too long. He had surgery scheduled for 6am at another hospital and this was going to screw up his whole day. Yeah, I wasn't happy with him. He checked me and had me push once too. While I was pushing he told me to stop. I apparently pushed too hard and the baby was starting to crown. He threw on a gown and was all smiles because I was going to make this happen so quickly. I was getting ready to push again and I told him that I hadn't been cut with my 1st child and I didn't even have stitches, so I wanted to avoid that if I could. He folded his arms and looked at me and said "Well, we will just have to see about that." I wanted to slap his face! What a jerk he was being. Anyway, a couple of minutes later and Hallie was born, she was born at 5:19am, weight 7 pounds 9 ounces and I didn't require any stitches! The Dr. was so happy that he didn't even have to spend the time on stitches, he looked at the clock and said, "Oh my, I think I will make it to my surgery, Hal do you want to cut the cord?" After it was apparent that he was going to make his schedule he got all nice, seriously a jerk.



Hal left pretty quickly after Hallie's arrival, he was so tired. I called work to let them know that I had my baby and wouldn't be coming in. I called at about 6:30am because all of the grave shift people were still there, it was so funny to hear them, they couldn't believe that I was at work just 6 hours before she was born.
They moved me to the postpartum unit and took Hallie to the nursery. I was missing my sweet baby and wondering when she was going to come back to my room. My Grandma Julia came in at about 8:30am and we walked down the hall with her to find my baby. She had her first bath and they had put a little bow on her head, all the nurses were admiring her CURLY hair! I took her back to my room and my grandma and I swooned over her, taking in all of her sweet little expressions and drinking in her newborn smell.
Hal brought Trenton over to see his new sister and also so he could spend some time with his new daughter, they didn't come until about 1pm, Hal needed a little bit of sleep. Trenton wasn't sure what to think of Hallie, but after a few minutes he decided that she was okay.
The OB that I love came into see me, she went oncall at 7am, she asked me why I couldn't have waited an hour and a half for her, LOL! I so wish I could have. I told her what happened with the delivery, she said that if I had another baby that she would give me her beeper number and that she would make sure to be there for my next delivery. Needless to say, she did deliver Jack and she left the practice with "the Jerk".