Hannah Carys
She weighed in at 6 lbs. 13 oz., and 18" long.
I unfortunately had a pretty hi-tech pregnancy w/ Hannah. Was unsure of the date of conception, which led to many ultrasounds along the way. When I was further along in our pregnancy each ultrasound I had showed that she was a boy. Picked out boy name: Justin Lucas. Had 3 baby showers, everyone gave us boy clothes. Needless to say my daughter spent the first year of her life dressed mostly like a boy LOL.
It was a horrible birth experience for me, totally unlike everything I had hoped for. I went into preterm labor w/ Hannah, can't remember how far along I was, spent an awful night in the hospital being given an IV w/ some horrible drug in it to stop the labor. I was bleeding like crazy, this all started after her dad & I had sex one night, turned on the lights & we were covered in blood. Pretty scary. Rushed to the hospital, only to be introduced to a roomful of med students hoping to get a glimpse of what preterm labor is, etc. Very irritating. Had to have a catheter. Ugh. Got no sleep at all. Was discharged two days later, given a prescription for some awful drug to take to keep me from having my baby. I took these horrible things for a week, and flushed them down the toilet. I KNEW my baby was ready to be born, I just had a strong intuition about this. After 3 days off of the meds, I went into labor. I was lying on the couch, reading & eating bing cherries & watermelon (my pregnancy craving!) w/ my cat on my belly. Stood up to go to the bathroom & felt a huge rush of water hit the floor, soaking my socks. I thought my bladder had failed me, my cat was soaked and she meowed loudly & took off under a bed. I went to the potty & the water was still coming on strong, and I realized what had happened. Sooo I rush to the phone, call my boyfriend, couldn't get thru to his workplace, called everyone else I could think of, meanwhile grabbing towels to throw on the wood floors which were very wet & slippery by now, laughing my behind off. Finally reached my boyfriend, who took us to the hospital the WRONG WAY of course, he was really nervous I guess....
Get admitted, go thru all the crap you have to go thru for a hospital birth, IV's, etc. My CNM wasn't on call so had a doctor I'd never seen before deliver my daughter. Nurses constantly coming in and bugging me about giving me medication. I finally agreed to something but told them I wanted to be able to feel everything, just something to take the edge off. I just felt really stoned, as was able to sleep between contractions. I sat on the edge of the bed thru the entire labor, holding on to the IV stand during contractions, not making a sound. My boyfriend's mom was in the room, talking incessantly & driving me nuts. Boyfriend fell asleep in a chair, which irritated me beyond belief. Finally birthing time, moved into delivery room, I asked the nurse if I had to walk there and everybody laughed. Told doc I did not want an episiotemy under no circumstances. Delivered my daughter, and tore needing "1 1/2 stitches". Baby was immediately taken from me, cut the cord right away, they thought she was premature. She was fine, full term, healthy. My instincts were correct. But she was awfully white, her face was terribly bruised, she looked like a prize fighter. Hannah was given to her dad to hold, after 20 minutes of all this I finally sat up & said "Can I please hold my baby?" It was like I wasn't even there, I had become something that needed stitches, that was all. She was so cute, tho, blowing bubbles and looking around, blinking at the bright lights. She nursed right away, and was very snuggly & sweet.
Hannah roomed in w/ me, I never slept the whole time we were in the hospital, i just held her & stared at her. The nurses couldn't understand why I wouldn't let them take her to the nursery so I could sleep. Duh! They said I was the only mom who kept her baby in the room w/ her. How sad for those other little newborns.
~ Tina (chinacat)