Welcoming Elizabeth Grace

Who knew that this blog even still existed? I guess writing about the birth of a child is something that most people would write in a journal, but let's be honest - typing is way faster for me, and this way I can share Lizzies birth story with whoever else cares to read it. I guess you could say I'm a birth story junkie, and I figure there are a few others out there too who love a good read. It's a bit of a novel, but here we go!

I guess maybe I'll just backup a little bit. I found out I was a pregnant with Elizabeth in February-ish (I think?) when I was about 6 weeks. Halfway through week 7 I started feeling sick, and boy, did this pregnancy knock me off my feet! I've decided that this is when the terrible twos start - when mom gets pregnant with the next baby and lets the toddler do whatever they want! From about week 7 to week 14 I. Was. Miserable. I spent the majority of the day in bed, and Hazel got a lot more screen time than I like to admit. We were in survival mode. We lived on crackers and jello, and a whole lot of Doritos. Healthy, right? In fact, I remember going to my doctor's appointment at about 10 weeks and laughing when she handed me the healthy eating pamphlet. The idea of a healthy, well rounded diet sounded great, but at that point I was just aiming to get calories in my body. During those weeks I would move from my bed to the couch, and then back to my bed again, bucket by my side. A few times I debated whether or not we needed to go into the hospital for fluids because I was having a hard time keeping water down, but luckily we never had to do that. Brandon was such a trooper during those weeks too, and really stepped it up with taking care of Hazel. He would come home from work every day and take her to the park so she could get out of the house and I could get some rest, and he always made sure that my Dorito stash was well stocked. At about the 12 week mark, my friend Andrea took me into the clinic where she worked and did an ultrasound on me, and we discovered that I was actually only about 10 weeks, which I'm not going to lie, was a bit of a disappointment. Only because I was counting down the days until I could feel like a normal human being again, and those extra couple weeks seemed like an eternity! I'm pretty sure I told Brandon multiple times throughout my first trimester that we were only having two kids, but luckily we all survived and the sickness went away!

Well, second trimester cruised right along, and we got to the 28 week mark and the dreaded glucose test! Truth be told, I actually don't mind it, and I didn't even think twice about my diet leading up to it. I went to a Relief Society cooking activity the night before the test and taste tested all the different foods, then began my fast and went in for my bloodwork the next morning. A few days later I received a phone call from my doctor's office saying that I needed to come in to discuss some blood work results, but that it was non-urgent. I figured they would want to see me right away if it was gestational diabetes, so I was a bit shocked when I went to my appointment and found out that I had failed the glucose test by 0.2. Anything 8.5 and higher was considered gestational diabetes, and I was an 8.6. Well then the drama came. At that point, my doctor, who was an Obstetrician at the hospital for 20 years but had gone into family practice for a lifestyle change, told me that she needed me to be seen by the obstetricians at the hospital. And normally, that would not have been a big deal at all, but because we are not permanent residents yet and don't have Medicare, we were going to have to pay $350 for each hospital appointment (whether it was with a doctor or with a midwife) versus $85 per appointment with a family doctor. In a bit of a panic I called the hospital to see what their normal protocol for Gestational Diabetes patients was, and they informed me that I would need to be seen at least every 2 weeks by a doctor and then weekly after 36 weeks, have regular dietician appointments (also $350 each), and that I would have to have at least 2 extra ultrasounds and then be induced at 38 weeks. So having gestational diabetes meant that this baby was going to cost us a LOT of money and I was basically going to live at the hospital having appointments! I also knew that being induced before your body was really ready for labor increased the chance of an emergency c-section, and I was afraid of that happening too. Basically I was a mess. I would like to say that I stayed super positive about it all, but the reality is I turned into a bit of a drama queen for a few weeks. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I felt like I went through the whole grieving process – denial and wanting my doctor to repeat the test, anger at myself for not taking care of my health better, disappointment and feeling like my body had failed me, and after a lot of fear and stress and tears, I finally came to the acceptance stage. And now that I'm on the other side of it, I can say that it really wasn't that big of a deal.

With all the stress of the diagnosis, I started to research my options. I looked into going through the private health system, which would have saved a lot of money in appointments, but if my delivery ended up being complicated, it had the potential to rack up quite a hefty bill pretty quick. So we decided to stick to the public system and just see a private dietician. To be honest, the whole thing was a bit of a gongshow with a lot of back and forth about who was supposed to see me and when, so finally I just borrowed a glucometer and started taking my blood sugars 4 times a day on my own. I was super strict at first because I was afraid of showing up to the doctor with a list of out of control blood sugars, but after a couple of weeks or so of only one or two spikes, I felt like I knew what foods to stay away from and that I could finally relax a little. I ended up seeing one of the obstetricians at the hospital who was so super helpful and understanding of our situation, and he offered to see me free of charge as Brandon was on his obstetrics rotation and worked with him often. That was seriously such a relief! My blood sugars were pretty stable, with only the very occasional spike, so I was basically treated like any other normal pregnant woman – no extra appointments or scans, and no need for an early induction. Thank the heavens! Seriously I was so relieved.

As my due date got closer, I started to feel a little bit panicked to be honest. When I was pregnant with Hazel I felt like I had prepared fairly well mentally, but this time around I had hardly even thought about the whole labor part until the very end! On Thursday, October 12, I went to my 39 week appointment and had a rather uncomfortable stretch and sweep, and my doctor offered to break my water to get things going. I think that's when it hit me that this baby could come soon! I wasn't in a rush to have a baby in the next 24 hours, so I decided not to go for it, but as I left, he mentioned to Brandon that he thought I'd have the baby in the next few days.

On Sunday, October 15, our branch was having district conference out of town, so we just went and watched a 2 hour video broadcast for church. I was joking with my friend Rachel that I was going to go home, take a nap, and then have a baby that day. On our way out of church, Brandon was visiting with a couple that was visiting from out of town, and came back to the car to tell me that he had invited them over for dinner. I'm not going to lie - I was less than thrilled to hear that. I was exhausted and not in the mood to entertain, let alone cook a big meal. Brandon suggested that we could just pull the enchilada freezer meal out and cook them up, and my hormonal self was even less impressed with that. Didn't he know that I made freezer meals to feed my family when I had a baby, and not some strangers?! haha. Ohhh hormones. You make me so crazy. Well that afternoon we came home, made some lunch, and then Brandon sent me to go take a nap. I laid down about 2:00, and about 3:00 I woke up having some fairly consistent contractions. At that point I wasn't sure if they were the real deal, so I started timing them and they were about 3-5 minutes apart, but mild enough that I could still walk and talk through them. At about 4:00 I noticed things were getting a little stronger, so I got in the bath to relax a little bit, and that felt like heaven! I'm a girl that loves bath on a regular day, and the warm water did wonders for helping me relax. About a half hour later I got out of the tub, still having consistent contractions, and told Brandon I thought this was the real deal. He was on his obstetrics rotation at the time, and knew that shift change was at 8pm, and he figured that would be about the time that we would need to go into the hospital. In the meantime, our guests had just called to see if the invite for dinner was still open, so Brandon gave them a call back to politely tell them we may have to reschedule. haha. I finished packing my bag and a bag for Hazel, and sent a text to Rachel to see if she'd still be free to watch Hazel.

Because I was induced with Hazel, I wasn't totally sure when we should go into the hospital, so I gave them a call to see what they thought. They suggested waiting until the contractions picked up a little more, and said that they could still die off tonight. Well I sure hoped that they didn't die off, because by that point I was getting fairly uncomfortable and having to focus through my contractions, and the thought of going through all of that for nothing was not an option in my books. I knelt down next to my bed and swayed my hips back and forth to get through each contraction, and by this point it was 6:30 and we decided Brandon should go and drop Hazel off with Rachel, who lived just up the road. When he got back, we packed up the car (or should I say Brandon packed up the car while I breathed through contractions) and made the 15 minute drive to the hospital. Not the most comfortable drive I've ever done. I remember thinking multiple times how I needed to relax and just get into the zone, and I searched through my phone for some relaxing music that would help me with that.

When we got to the hospital, we parked next to the after hours door and made a mad dash to get inside before another contraction started. When we got to the labor assessment area, there was nobody in sight, so Brandon headed off to find someone while I paced the hallway to get through another contraction. Then we moved into the assessment area where we were met by our midwife, who said she needed to put me on the monitor for 30 minutes and then she would come back and check to see how dilated I was. Well, that lasted all of about 5 minutes. With strong contractions coming every few minutes, there was no way that I was going to lay flat on my back on a stretcher for 30 minutes. After a few minutes she decided to just check me and I was 5cm with my membranes still intact. Our friend and Brandon's coworker Sonia happened to be the doctor on that night, so she popped her head in to say hi, and let us know that she had spoken with the consultant, who was going to come in for the delivery as a courtesy to us because Brandon worked at the hospital (normally with uncomplicated deliveries its just the midwives or junior doctors who do the deliveries). It was a crazy night in labor and delivery (I think about 7 babies born?) and by that point I wasn't feeling like chatting, so Sonia went on her way and our midwife moved us into our room.

Because I had gestational diabetes with this pregnancy, I had to be monitored my entire labor. When we got settled into our room, the midwife asked if I wanted to get into the shower, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was allowed to while wearing the monitor. I was REALLY hoping I could get in the tub, since it had helped me relax so much at home, but if I was allowed the shower, I'd take it! By this point I think it was about 8:30pm and I was needing something to help with the pain. I got settled in the shower, sitting on a chair and resting my head against the wall while I had 2 showerheads pouring down on me, and I decided to give the gas a try. And let me tell you, that stuff became my best friend! I spent the next hour or so in the shower, but we kept losing the baby's heartbeat on the monitor, so eventually I had to get out. And I'll be honest, I totally tried to ignore the midwife multiple times when she suggested I come out of the shower. I was comfortable (or as comfortable as I could be at that point!) in there and did not want to move! But eventually I gave in and did as I was told. Haha.

The next little bit is kind of a blur to be honest. One of the biggest differences that I noticed with this birth compared to Hazel's was that the midwives just kind of left me alone to do my own thing, where when I had Hazel, my nurse helped to coach me a lot. Not sure if thats a nurse vs midwife thing, if they figured that it was my second baby and Brandon was a doctor and we knew what we were doing, or if it was just because there were so many other babies being born at the same time. But personally, I kind of liked having someone to coach me along! By the time I got out of the shower, I was having pretty strong contractions pretty close together, so getting comfortable and into a groove was a struggle. When I had Hazel I loved sitting on the ball and leaning over the bed, so I gave that a try, but the ball was too small and I just couldn't get comfortable that way. I paced the room a little bit and hung on Brandon during contractions, but eventually I just ended up laying on my side on the bed, still clinging to that gas for dear life. At that point I remember telling Brandon how the gas was my best friend, and it was pretty much what was getting me through each contraction. I think it was around this point that Brandon mentioned that our baby's birthday was either going to be October 15 or October 16, and I told him it had to be October 15, because having the baby after midnight would mean that I had to be in labor for way too long!

By this time it was probably about 11:00 and things were getting a bit crazy. Contractions were coming hard and fast, and I felt like maybe I needed to push. This was another big difference having a midwife in Australia vs a nurse/doctor when I had Hazel in Canada – when I had Hazel and mentioned that I needed to push, they checked me right away, let me know when I was fully dilated, and gave me the go ahead to push. But with this birth, when I mentioned to the midwife that I felt like I needed to push, she just responded with “that's great, that means the head is coming down!” I asked if she could check me to see if I was ready to push, to which she responded that they don't really just check for no reason. (Isn't checking to see if I'm ready to push a good reason?!) My face must have shown my thoughts to that response, because Brandon knew right away that I really just wanted to know where I was at. I told her that if she wasn't going to check me, then I needed to know what my pain options were, because at that point the gas wasn't cutting it anymore. She said that the next option would be Morphine, but that I needed to be checked before I could have any. (Great! That's what I wanted in the first place!) I was 8cm with bulging membranes, so morphine wasn't an option. I had definitely hit transition and while I'd love to say that I was totally under control, I was starting to lose it a little bit. I asked if the midwife could break my water, knowing that things would likely go quickly once that happened, but didn't get a straight answer from her. I was kneeling up on the bed with my arms over the head, and with every contraction I tried to convince myself that my water had just broken. I just wanted so badly for it to break so I could finally push this baby out! And then came the magical moment. Sonia (our doctor friend) had been talking to our midwife in the hallway, and the midwife mentioned that things were going well, and that I wanted my water to break naturally (not sure where she got that idea!). Thinking that that didn't really sound like our style, Sonia popped her head into the room to assess the situation for herself.

“Hey Amy, so you want your water to break on its own, is that right?”


“I don't care, just get this baby out of me!”


“Okay, I can do that for you right now!”

One contraction later, and Sonia broke my water, and I heard her tell the midwife that I was now dilated to a 10 and there was meconium in the fluid. Nobody was telling me to push or not to push, but by that point, I decided I was just doing whatever I wanted until someone stopped me. I gave 2 good pushes and then everyone started telling me to stop pushing and start taking panting breaths. The baby's head was out and after one more push at 11:46pm, so was her whole body. The biggest relief and the best feeling in the world was when they placed her on my chest. After a rough pregnancy and exhausting labor, she was finally here! She had come out with one hand up by her face, so I ended up with a second degree tear that needed a little stitching up, but by that point I didn't even care. She was our perfect little girl and worth every bit of effort.

Our hospital stay was fairly uneventful. They were nice enough to give us a private room (perks of being hospital staff!) and thankfully, Lizzie's blood sugars were all stable, so she didn't have to go to the nursery at all. Brandon brought Hazel in the next day to see her, and at first she wasn't quite sure what to think. Tears welled up in her eyes and she started saying “No, no!” while shaking her head, but after the initial shock, she became just as smitten as the rest of us. We were now a family of FOUR and have been loving every (exhausting) minute since!

Welcoming Hazel Mae

I can hardly believe our little Hazel Mae is already two months old!  She is seriously the sweetest thing that ever was, and I can hardly remember what life was like without her!  She took her time coming to us, but she was definitely worth the wait!

At my 37 week appointment I was explaining our situation to Dr. Godwin (being home to have the baby, Brandon having to go back to Australia 4 weeks after my due date, and me planning to go back as soon as possible after having the baby).  She suggested that we strip my membranes at my 38 week appointment to help encourage things along.  I was a bit surprised that she encouraged it so early, but I wasn't saying no!  Up until that point I had felt like this baby was still so far away, so I started getting more serious about getting things ready.  I started packing my bags, bought some diapers and a few things I thought I'd need.  Long story short, over the next few weeks I had nothing more than a few Braxton Hicks, and had my membranes stripped every week to try and encourage things along.  My due date came and went, and I tried every induction method that you can google.  Yes, I even drank the magical castor oil/orange juice concoction.  But baby Steedo was just snug as could be, and nothing was making her budge (although at this time we were convinced that it was a boy!)

I went in to the doctor the Monday after my due date (6 days overdue), hoping to convince her to induce me the next morning.  I was so done being pregnant and was ready to meet my little baby.  It was a new doctor that I hadn't seen before, and she explained that they would induce me on Wednesday morning, when I was 41 weeks.  Now, if we want to get REALLY technical, I was actually 41 on Tuesday because my dating ultrasound was done in Australia, which is a day ahead, but that's besides the point I guess.  I asked if there was any way I could be induced on Tuesday instead, because Brandon had to leave in a couple weeks for Australia and we wanted to have as much as a family together before he had to leave.  She quickly responded with a firm "no", explaining that if I was induced before I was ready there was a chance it would fail and I would have to wait a few more days before trying an induction again.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up a little.  That one more day seemed like an eternity!  She checked me and I was about 2cm dilated and 50% effaced, which she felt was favorable for a successful induction.  Which of course made my hormonal overdue self even more upset (drama queen, I know).  If it was so favorable why couldn't they do it a day early?!  But she wasn't budging.  She stripped my membranes again (now the FIFTH time I had it done) and told me to be at the hospital Wednesday morning.  I promptly drove to the coulees to walk off some of my frustration and make a tearful phone call to my mom.  Then, after accepting the fact that I wasn't going to put myself into labor and there was nothing else I could do, I went home and took a nice long nap. 

I relaxed for the next couple of days and went to bed Tuesday night with my bags packed and ready to go.  We tried to get to bed early that night, but still didn't turn out the lights until about 11:30.  I tossed and turned as usual, and I think slept for a couple of hours before getting up at 2:30 to go to the bathroom.  I felt a little trickle as I walked and then a big gush as soon as I sat on the toilet.  I questioned whether my water had just broken, but I wasn't entirely sure, so I just headed back to bed. I laid there wide awake for a half hour or so, and felt another big gush as I rolled over in bed.  I figured that must have been my water breaking, but Brandon looked so peaceful sleeping so soundly that I didn't wake him up right away.  I got up and ate a midnight snack of a banana muffin and a glass of milk, and did a last minute check that I had everything I needed in my hospital bag.  At about 3:00 I woke Brandon up and told him what was going on, and we decided to call the hospital to see if we needed to come right away or if we should just go in at 6:30 like we had previously planned.  They told us they for sure wouldn't be sending us home once we got there, since I was already booked to be induced, and that we should come before 6:30, although we didn't need to rush in.  We headed to the hospital at about 4:30, checked into emergency, and headed upstairs to labor and delivery.

We were greeted by a friendly nurse and I was put into the semi-private induction room so they could do a non-stress test.  The nurse agreed with my suspicions that my water had broken so she decided not to check me and to just let Dr. Watke do it when she came in.  I laid in bed on the monitor for about half an hour, but nothing was happening (except my random gushes of amniotic fluid all over the bed!  That was not my favorite feeling...)  So we decided to go for a walk.  They wanted us to stay on the same floor in case we needed to rush back for any reason, and so they could find us if need be.  Turns out the third floor of the Lethbridge hospital isn't that big.  I quickly lost count of how many times we circled from ICU to day surgery, and then down the long empty hallway to the elevators.

We headed back into our room at about 7:30, and one of the nurses came in to inform me that a girl I knew had been assigned to be our nurse.  She just wanted to make sure that I was okay with it, and if not they would assign us another nurse.  I didn't mind at all, in fact it was kind of nice to have someone I knew!  We chatted a little about life and babies, and Kassidy calmed some of my fears about potentially being put in the dreaded oxytocin drip.  It seemed like everyone I had talked to in my pregnancy told me how horrible it was, so when my water broke and that became the only option for induction, I was a bit nervous.  Dr. Watke came in at about 8:00 and I was 2-3 cm, but still not having any contractions other than some mild period-like cramping.  She gave me a couple of options: 1) I could wait until 2:30 that afternoon when my water had been broken for 12 hours to see if I would go into labor on my own, or 2) I could start the drip and get things going.  I again expressed some of my nervousness about the drip, and Dr. Watke's response was perfect: "Here's the thing.  Labor hurts.  If you go into labor on your own, it will hurt.  But if you go on the drip and go into labor and it hurts, well then of course its the drip's fault.  The pain may come on more quickly and more intense, but I wouldn't say that a labor on the drip is more painful."  Okay then, bring it on.  "Perfect," she said, "we'll have a baby by 5 then?  Just kidding.  That's my optimistic guess.  Realistically it will probably be by midnight."  She was on her way and Kassidy came back to start my IV and get me hooked up to the monitors.  She told me that with her first baby her water had broken and she had to be induced with the drip.  "It worked quickly and efficiently, but it worked!" I have to say I liked everyone's honesty on the matter.  Don't try and sugar coat it for me - just tell me how it is!

The day I delivered it was crazy busy in labor and delivery, and we waited for a little bit before starting the drip to see if I could be put in a private room.  By this time there was another lady in the bed next to me getting induced as well.  After about an hour, Kassidy decided just to start the drip and we'd move when the next room came available.  So 9:00 things began.  I remember Kassidy bringing my breakfast tray, but I wasn't super hungry at the time.  She mentioned having breakfast a couple of times, and now I understand why!  Good thing I ate it when I did, because had it wasn't long before there were other things to focus on.  By 10:00 I was having contractions roughly every 3 minutes, and I had to concentrate to get through them.  This is where I put my hypnobirthing skills to work by doing my alphabet repetition (A...a...a...a...b...b...b...b...).  Brandon was his usual light-hearted, chatty self, and I remember thinking to myself "Can't you just focus on what is going on here?!" but I'm pretty sure I never actually said it.  He caught on pretty quick though :)  I remember the nurses coming in to check on me and making comments about how quickly I was responding to the drip and how well it was working, and then increasing the drip before leaving the room.  That's one thing I didn't realize...in my mind they put you on the drip until you started having contractions, and once things were progressing they just left the drip where it was.  Kassidy had told me before starting the drip that they could stop it if things were getting too intense and contractions were compounding on each other, but they wouldn't turn it off or down because of pain, because that was kind of the point.  As things picked up though it was a struggle to look back at the IV pump and see that it had been increased again - I was sure it was working well enough!  haha.  Because I was induced on the drip I also had to be monitored my entire labor, so I could look back at the strip printing and see that I really was having contractions as often as it seemed - I was almost hoping that it was just in my head!

About 10:30 things were pretty intense and I was still only 3-4 cm so I decided I needed something for pain.  My blood pressure was also high (up to 170/100ish at one point) so they gave me some meds to bring it down and sent off blood work for HELLP syndrome, just to be safe.  I had a dose of morphine and gravol and shortly after I was moved into my own room.  I'm pretty sure Kassidy had to fight the other nurses to get me into that room, but I'm glad she did!  I was getting pretty uncomfortable and didn't really want to be sharing a room by that point.  Even just the move was a mental challenge for me.  We waited until my contraction finished then bee lined down the hall before the next one started.  I got settled in there and decided to try sitting on the exercise ball instead of laying in bed.  Which, I might add, was the best decision ever.  I pretty much didn't get off that ball for the rest of my labor unless I absolutely had to.  By this point my mom had arrived and helped me through my contractions by coaching me to switch up my breathing.  Before this point I was trying the long inhale/long exhale breathing, but we switched to shorter, more puffing kind of breathing, which totally helped.  Every time a contraction came I would panic a little bit, but as long as someone was looking me in the eyes and breathing with me I could handle it.  My mom helped me through a few contractions, and then Brandon took over.  I seriously couldn't have done it without him.  As I sat on the ball, leaning over the bed with every contraction, he leaned over the other side of the bed, looked me in the eyes, and held my hands,  squeezing my fingers in the rhythm that I needed to breathe.  He didn't move for hours and I'm sure he must have had a sore back by the end.



At about 11:30 I was starting to feel like things were picking up and I asked to be checked again.  I was 6 cm and decided I needed a little something to get me through the next 4 cm.  I didn't really want an epidural, so I decided to go for another dose of morphine.  Kassidy, my mom, and I discussed whether I should go for the full 10mg dose or just take half, but after checking with the charge nurse we decided to go for the full 10 as I probably had more than 3 hours until the baby would be born and it wouldn't likely affect the baby.  The next few hours are kind of a blur to be honest.  The morphine made me pretty stoned and I basically just sat on the ball, breathing away, and dosing off between contractions.  Its a good thing Brandon was holding my hands because I was a little tipsy sitting on that ball!  My contractions were all really focused in the front, so I would try to lean back a little bit to ease up some of the pressure, but in doing so I was a little off balance.  haha. Exhibit A:

Around 1:00, Dr. Watke and her student dropped by to see how things were going.  I got back into bed (which I dreaded doing every time I got checked) and was 8 cm!  She didn't stay long and I just kept on doing my thing.  About 2:30 I got up to the bathroom and told Kassidy I thought maybe I needed to push.  I was 9 cm and seriously - that next hour was definitely the hardest!  We decided to change positions, so I kneeled up on the bed and leaned over the head of the bed.  Every contraction seemed like an eternity and I just remember thinking "I'm sure this has gone on long enough.  Why hasn't she checked me again?  Why is nobody asking me if I need to push?"  I remember hearing about "transition" and I finally understood what everyone meant.  THIS was transition.  The part where you just want to throw in the towel.  Finally after about an hour I asked to be checked again and I was a 10!  Oh happy day.  Kassidy said the baby's head was really low and ready to go so it shouldn't be long.
I started pushing at 3:25, with Brandon holding my right leg and Kassidy my left.  At first I clearly didn't know how to push, because I was still kind of breathing through my pushes.  Well my mom, nurse Susie put an end to that right quick. "Amy!  You can't breathe and push.  Just hold your breath and pretend like you're having a poop."  All of a sudden my pushes were way more effective!  Kassidy said to try having 3 good pushes with every contraction, and everyone kept telling me how great I was doing.  And how much HAIR this baby had!  About 10 minutes into the pushing, Dr. Watke poked her head in to see how things were coming, "Oh wow, I'll go get changed quick!".  Thank the heavens.  It was so nice to hear everyone talk about how soon this baby would be here.  I had been told that the pushing felt the best, but it was still so exhausting!  I can't imagine having to push like that for hours.  My contractions kept coming about every 2 minutes, and I was giving 3 or 4 good pushes with each one.  Dr. Watke and her student came back and Dr. Watke kept saying how impressed she was with how well I was doing. ("I keep forgetting you don't have an epidural!")  Then came the ring of fire.  The other thing that I had heard so much about, but couldn't really appreciate until I had experienced it.  I've tried to block that part from my memory.  But it was definitely motivation to keep giving effective pushes!  Only a couple pushes later and our little GIRL came out all in one push!  The cord had been wrapped around her neck and she was a bit tangled in it, so Dr. Watke was going to deliver the head and unwrap the cord, then deliver the body, but she just came all at once.  "She's all tangled up," said the med student.  "SHE?!"  My jaw must have hit the floor.  We were convinced we were having a boy!  Dr. Watke commented how we seemed surprised, so I had to clarify that we were very happy with a girl, just surprised!

They clamped the cord quick and handed me my little girl.  She was so perfect.  She had so much hair!  And...she was a little bit blue.  Between aspirating a little bit of meconium and getting tangled in the cord, she was having a little trouble breathing and she wasn't crying (her first apgar score was a 6).  So I only held her for a minute before Kassidy took her back, "Your baby is fine, but we're just going to take her over here for a minute."  The NICU team was called and they gave her a quick suction.  Up until this point I hadn't cried, but after that suction she let out a big cry and my tears started flowing.  That was my little girl!  She was finally here, healthy and strong.
 
Once our little girl had pinked up a bit they handed her back to me and Brandon and I just stared at her, commenting on how perfect she was.  And that she was a girl!  We both fell instantly in love with her, and she's had Brandon wrapped around her little finger since day one.  We had always talked about how if we had a boy he would be Brandon's little sidekick, and I never had to wonder if he would have rather had a boy.  Watching him become a dad has been the most precious thing, and he is the best dad I could ask for for our little girl.




The next day it came time for us to decide on a name.  Hazel was always at the top of our list, and it was an easy pick because we each have a grandma named Hazel.  There were a few other names on our list, but that just seemed to suit her so well that we never even really considered anything else. Brandon wrote "Hazel Mae Steed" on the whiteboard in our room and we decided that would be her name.  We filled out the forms and made it official, then headed home that afternoon to begin our life as a family of 3.  She was finally here - our little Hazel Mae.