Here are the details of Haylie's birth! We are so happy she's here!
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| One week old! |
The start of labor
I had an appointment on Wednesday, February 7th at 10:15AM (38 weeks and 2 days pregnant) and the doctor said I was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Yay! That night I woke up at 3AM and realized my water broke! Of course it was the one time I was wearing Rainier's pajama pants. Oops! Mine were all dirty. Oh well! I woke him up and told him and he said, "Do we need to go right now? Do you have contractions?" He just wanted to sleep more and didn't realize I needed to go in ASAP. I’m glad I woke up when I did and not wake up 5 hours later to contractions! I called my mom so she could head over and pick up Heidi and Sophie. When we talked we decided for her to stay the night in our guest room and in the morning she took Heidi and Sophie to her house. While we were waiting for her I showered and packed our last minute toiletries in our bags. I ate Frosted Mini Wheats so I wouldn't be completely starving. I wanted to say bye to Heidi but didn’t want to wake her. It was also her first time staying the night away from home so I was nervous about that too. I was glad that labor started early enough that I could see her the same day! Oh and walking around the house felt amazing after my water broke! I had been super sore the last 2-3 months of pregnancy and I could finally walk without feeling pain. I’m guessing the water breaking relieved all that pressure I was having!
Birth
We got to the hospital around 4-4:30ish and had to go in the emergency room entrance since it was so early. We went up to Labor and Delivery and in the “triage” room they had me dress in the hospital gown and they checked my dilation. I was at 5 cm. At that point I was worried that I was too late to get an epidural!
We walked over to the delivery room and I got my IV in and they measured me at 6 cm and mentioned that the baby was still really high. They gave me an epidural and it was STRONG. I didn’t mind of course. As long as I had pain relief, I knew the birth would be easy ish. Soon after they gave it to me, I tried to braid my hair and it definitely wasn’t working out. The epidural really limited my ability to sit up so one of the nurses braided my hair! It was so nice of her to do that! When they checked my dilation after getting the epidural they realized that my water didn’t break all the way; they got a stick thingy and popped it and a TON of liquid came out. (They needed 2 towels and a new sheet to clean it up!) Fun stuff. Losing that extra liquid helped the baby come down more, too. They also had me shift the way I was lying down every hour or so to also help the baby move down.
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| Heidi wanted to see a picture of me and this is what she got! |
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| Heidi was very happy with her Minnie and a balloon while hanging out with my mom at their house! (My dad was out of town and returned that night.) |
I stayed at 6 cm for awhile and my OB came in and told me that I was going to get pitocin to speed things up. He wasn’t totally surprised that I was at the delivery room not even 24 hours after seeing him from my appointment.
There was a lot of waiting and once we were settled Rainier ate at the cafeteria since he didn’t have breakfast. He also had time to go back to the car to get my overnight bag and do stuff for work. I was able to nap a few times and it was awesome. (With Heidi I was too nervous to try!)
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| My luggage was half empty so I could take home as many diapers as possible! |
I got to 9 cm at 11AM and I started to feel the pain of contractions so they gave me more of the epidural and it lasted up until delivery. The anesthesiologist lectured me about what I should and shouldn’t be feeling with the epidural like I assumed it was a cure-all for everything terrible in the world. In all fairness he walked in all sassy and said, “So why do you want more?” And I said, “I’m feeling contractions and I don’t want to.” I guess I was a little sassy too.
Soon I was able to do some “practice pushes” with the nurses to help get the baby down further since I was at 10 cm. I couldn’t feel a thing and it was awesome. Even when they checked my dilation I couldn’t even feel pressure. Right after a contraction they asked, "Could you feel that contraction you just had?" I said, "Feel what?" Haha. I was half asleep the whole time too.
Once the baby was as far down as possible, and after another quick nap, they called in Dr. Harter a little after 1PM so we could get her out.
He came in with his student who was also at the appointment the day before. I only needed to push a few times before she came out at 1:31PM. Rainier cut the cord and he didn't feel sick at all this time!
They threw the purple baby on me and the purple-ness kind of freaked me out! They kept saying she was a good sized baby and that scared me too! They finally weighed her and she’s 8 lbs 4 oz! Holy cow! She was born a professional eater; she latched on quickly and easily and we had no issues. They gave me lunch right there in the delivery room - gross meatloaf but the veggies were good. They released me to the recovery room around 3-4PM.
Hospital Stay
They wheeled me into the recovery room and the epidural was still kind of strong, especially in my right leg. They gave me dinner right after Rainier had already grabbed us Subway. I was definitely able to eat the Subway and most of the dinner they brought me. My parents and Heidi came around 5PM to see Haylie and we still didn't have a name for her. Heidi had no interest in seeing me or the baby! I was so sad! She said, "Baby?" a few times and that was it. She wouldn't even come near me in the bed - she was way too interested in everything else in the room. She just turned 2 a month before so I figured she wouldn't be too excited yet.
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| Tip: bring your own waterbottle! It was so much easier to drink out of my Hydro Flask than those giant cups! |
They left after 30 minutes or so and then Rainier went home a little after 6PM to get some sleep. I was able to sleep off and on but the nurses had to come in every 2 hours to check on Haylie and me. Haylie had some checkup at 10PM and then something else at 2AM. I watched a lot of "My 600 lb Life" to pass the time and it totally motivated me to lose the baby weight and stay healthy!
They were able to give me Motrin to help with the pain and when the nurses switched the new nurse wouldn't give me any since I wasn't currently in pain. I wanted the medicine for the cramping that happened while I was breastfeeding Haylie because it was AWFUL. Like, not being able to breathe kind of pain. The cramping stopped the next day though so that was nice. (I didn't have any cramping with Heidi so this was all new to me!)
The next morning Rainier came a little before 9AM and he went to the discharge class at 10AM so I wouldn't have to get up and walk. I was able to walk but my right leg was still feeling weird and I couldn't put much weight on it. It felt better as the day went on.
At this hospital they do a "celebratory meal" for 2 so we had it for lunch and it was okay. The dessert was my favorite! Rainier had a steak.
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| We took the Martinelli's home and Rainier drank them both a few days later. I tried but the carbonation is just too much for me! |
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| She had her hearing test after lunch and had to do it twice since she kept moving! |
We still didn't have a name yet and we had all the paperwork filled out except for the name. We couldn't agree on anything and we don't like a lot of names. I had a small list and we finally sort of agreed on Haylie Lynn (Lynn is my middle name). Figuring out the spelling for Haylie took awhile, too. After looking at lists of spellings we finally had it settled about 2-3 hours before being discharged.
The hospital policy is that 24 hours after a baby is born we can be discharged if all goes well but they took FOREVER to get everything done. We couldn't leave until after 5 and her 24 hour mark was 1:30! They even came to bring me dinner at 4:30 because I was there so late. (I should have eaten it! We didn't know how much longer we'd be there but now I totally regret not taking it!) We had my parents meet us at our house with Heidi and Sophie and we had In-n-Out for dinner. We are very grateful to be home and that it was an easy birth!
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| Such a cute face! We love her! |
