Hannah Banana

This will be a long post. I am going to copy a few of my friends ideas and post Hannah's birth story.

Hannah was conceived on Christmas 2001. My pregnancy was going GREAT up until the 6th month. That is when I started having problems with my Blood Pressure. My Dr. immediately put me on bed rest. Now bed rest for PIH is NOT fun! I had to be down and on my right side (I think) for basically all day and night. I had to make arrangements for Zachary because he was not to be with me if I was alone. I could get up to use the restroom and get something quickly to eat and every other day for 30 minutes only to shower. This was really hard--I wanted to be up and around. I wanted to take care of my other child. I wanted to do the vacuuming, dishes, laundry and other cleaning that I knew needed to be done. But the thing is if I were up and moving and doing things I probably would have had a very premature baby. I followed Dr.'s orders and farmed Zach out to my parents until 8:30 every night when they would bring him home and put him into bed with me until Matt got home. This went on for 2 months--yes--2 whole, long, excruciating months. My Blood Pressure stayed manageable as long as I stayed down. I never developed Toxemia like with Zach and Liv which was a good thing.

You all read about the horror 1st induction experience. If not check out my post titled Induced But Not Induced. My doctor rescheduled the induction for Monday September 9th. My mom's birthday is September 9th so on Sunday the 8th, I decided that since I was being induced the next day I would go to her house and celebrate her birthday with the rest of the family. We had a HUGE dinner and I stuffed myself because I could not eat past 10:00 p.m. because of the induction. We left Zach with my parents because when they call to come in for induction it is usually around 5:00 a.m. Right as we were walking in the door the phone started to ring. I looked at the Caller I.D. and it was LDS Hospital. I started to cry because I knew for sure that they were calling to cancel my induction. A really sweet voice said, "We were wondering if you could come now to be induced. We have no one in the maternity ward right now so we would like to get you started." I was so excited but wait--I had just eaten a HUGE meal and I would be mortified if shadoobie were to come out while I was pushing. Oh well--nothing I could do about it now they said it was o.k. that I ate and to get up there a.s.a.p. We grabbed my bag and were on our way.

They checked me in, gave us all the paper work, and set us up in a room. I called my mom and told her to get to the hospital because we were having a baby. They came in around 9:00 p.m. to start the pitocin. The nurse asked me if I was o.k and that scared me. I told her that my back was hurting due to the bed rest and she proceeded to tell me that I was already in labor but they were starting the pitocin to move it along. Pitocin really intensifies the contractions but I was being strong and brave and kept saying, "I don't need an epidural yet". Well--I waited until I was ready to commit harry carry and then called the nurse to tell her I was ready. Guess what? There were 2 people in front of me so I had to wait--good times. I told the Anesteologist to please give me the smallest dose possible so I wasn't numb all over. He did a perfect job!! I was progressing rapidly and when the nurse came in to break my water she found that the baby was sunny-side up. She told me that a special nurse was going to come in and fix that. I really didn't know what that meant and it scared me a little. Well in came the "special" nurse with gloves on up to her elbows. WHAT THE? What does she thing she's doing--holy crap is she going in--with both arms to flip the baby over? Yup--she sure did. I was mortified! Oh well--what do you do. When she finished her job she told my nurse to call my Dr. and get him here NOW the baby was right there and ready! My Dr. got there in about 5-10 minutes and gowned up and was ready to go. He had me push one time and then made me stop because he wasn't all the way ready. My cute nurse ripped the pillow case off my pillow and held one end and told me to hold the other end and when the contraction came to pull myself up to her. I did and the head was out. The Dr. told me to wait so he could get her suctioned out. He turned around to grab the suctioner and Hannah decided that that was a bunch of crap and she pushed her arm out and then with that arm pushed the rest of herself out. Needless to say she almost fell on the floor but the Dr. turned around just in time to grab her. She was born on September 9, 2002 at 1:47 a.m.

She was beautiful!! She had a TON of black hair and looked just like Zachary! I got to hold her while they were wiping her off and taking care of the rest of their business. They took her and weighed her. She was 7lbs. 4oz. and 19" long. She had to have stupid (not really but it broke my heart when she screamed her guts out) shots and they put her in a t-shirt and hat and wrapped her in a blanket. This was all new to me because Zachary was a preemie and I saw him for a few brief seconds and then not again until the next day. They had me try to nurse her (another first for me) and she latched right on and nursed for 30 minutes on each side. They needed to move me to another room and I wanted to walk but they wouldn't let me--Hospital rules--stupid! It was such a wonderful night! I had a beautiful baby girl who was healthy. What more could you ask for?

Hannah shares a birthday with my mom, my mom's older sister and my cousin. I am so glad that Hannah is a part of our family. She is beautiful, loving, sweet, bossy, happy and quite a diva. I love her with all of my heart! Happy Birthday baby girl--mommy loves you!!