Hannah Elizabeth

Hannah Elizabeth arrived at 6:16 pm on November 20th, 2008 after a long but peaceful labor. She was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 3/4 inches long.

I actually started having contractions late Tuesday night early Wednesday AM, and wandered the house for a couple hours that night. The contractions died off and I sent Matt off to work, not knowing when things would actually get started. Luckly I was able to get a couple hours of sleep during the day. By the time Matt came home, I was having contractions again, but far apart and not to strong. We settled into bed around 10pm and I wasn't able to get comfortable. I got up, hoping that Matt would be able to get some sleep and went down stairs. By midnight, I was having stong contractions and they were getting closer together. I called the doctor around 12:30 am and he suggested we head to the hospital. I went up stairs to tell Matt, and you would have thought there was a fire. He was dressed and heading to the car in no time. I hadn't even had a chance to get myself ready. He rushed to the hospital even though the roads were clear, and we had to check in through the ER. It must have been a busy night for babies, because there were several pregnant women coming in.

They put us in a room and checked my status. I was only dilated to 3cm, so they made me walk the hall for an hour to see if I would progress. They claim they can't admit you until 4cm. It was one of the longest hours of my life. Anyway they did admit us and we settled in to have a baby. I tried to relax in the whirl pool and finally decided it was time to get an epidural. It was the best decision we made. Unfortunatly I had to wait for the doctor to be available to place the epidural. But after it was placed, Matt and I both were able to get some rest, sleep and relax. We even played cards for a while. They did have to administer some pitocin, but I didn't feel a thing.

We were finally ready to move into the final stages of labor around 4pm, but had to wait for the nurse and doctor to get their acts together. We also had two nursing students that helped with the delivery. They were great and it really left Matt to just focus on supporting me. We finally started pushing around 5:45 pm, and about 35 minutes later we had Hannah. The Dr. let Matt announce that she was a girl, then he cut the cord. I cried and held Hannah while Matt started making phone calls to family.

Hannah is beautiful and healthy. The doctors and nurses at the hospital were great but we are so happy to be home.