"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life;
to put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived." ~Henry David Thoreau

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Happy Birthday Hailey Jane

Hailey turned four on January 19th at 2:05 p.m. I can not believe four years have passed already! Hailey's birth in itself is not anything dramatic, but it was by far the most dramatic pregnancy and recovery. I supposed the good Lord spared me an eventful birth for that reason.

She was due to be born on January 30, 2006. But we had elected to do a repeat c-section so it was scheduled for January 19. My doctor, Mike Draper, had a policy that if he electively took a baby a day before 39 weeks we wanted to do an amnio to make sure that baby's lungs were developed enough. I guess he had seen his share of 38 weekers born with premature lungs. Even though I wasn't as big as I was with Ethan, I was by far more uncomfortable. The days leading up to her birth were agony and I told Cody on many occasions that I would flip out if the amnio came back badly, because that would mean I would have to wait even longer to expell her from my body.

Cody's Aunt Lyn volunteered to come over and stay with Ethan the day of the birth, so she showed up early that morning and we left for the hospital. They got us in for the procedure as scheduled and to my surprise it wasn't bad at all. I felt a little prick when the needle went in, but it wasn't painful at all. The technician said she could see the baby's hair on the ultrasound! I was beaming with excitement. The amnio was over and the real fun began. We had to wait almost three hours for the results and I wasn't aloud to eat anything, despite how ravenously hungry I was. I had been instructed not to eat anything after mindnight the night before. Cody headed downt o the cafeteria to get breakfast with out me.

I decided to walk around a little to kill time and that's when the pain started. I had been warned that sometimes teh trauma from an amnio can trigger labor...and it had for sure! I began having regular contractions as I walked the halls. I sat out in the waiting room and timed them. Five minutes part. They weren't too uncomfortable at this point, but I really began praying that we would get good news about the amnio because no matter what, this baby was not going to stay put.

Around noon we received word that the baby's lungs were fully mature and the surgery was on. They got me into the pre-op room (which doubled as a recovery room) and I changed into my gown and got hooked up to an IV...after only a million pokes! They put me on a fetal monitor and sure enough, I wa s having regular contractions that would rise and fall on the screen. Around 1:00 Dr. Draper got there and in a little while we were in the operating room. I made the mistake of insisting on walking myself into the OR rather than being wheeled in. I walked in an imediately saw the tools and equipment that would be used to cut me open and I almost hit the floor.

After receiving the spinal and being catheterized, the surgery began and I was able to stay pretty calm. It was a much different experience from Ethan's birth. At 2:05 p.m. Hailey Jane made her apperance, fat and beautiful with a head full of black hair. 6 pounds, 5 ounces and 19 inches long. More than two pounds smaller than her brother had been! She was wrapped up and brought over for me to see and my finger softly stroked her face. Oh she was so beautiful and I thought my heart would explode from my chest! I couldn't believe that I had been so blessed as to now be the mother to TWO perfect children!

Now if they would just hurry up and put me back together so I could get back into the recovery room and hold my precious girl!

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