Little Giant

This is my first multi-picture post. Actually, it's my first picture post period. (This is Stu by the way. Debbie is hard at work for her dad right now, so that leaves it up to me).

So our little giant Hazel Kae was born October 26, 2009 at 12:41am, weighing 9lbs, 3ozs, delivered via C-section. Yes, I know how to spell Cesarean, but did not want to, but now have.

Debbie is doing pretty well considering the surgery. The last picture is an aerial view of Hazel next to Debbie still cut open and being sewed up, after they weighed her, cleaned her, I held her and chopped off the umbilical cord. Sorry Debbie, after all you went through, I was the first to hold her. There's also a sweet picture of me in the enormous disposable scrubs I had to wear in the OR. That stands for Operating Room, for those of you abbreviatorily challenged. Yes, I'm a punk when I'm tired.

So the basic story is: we were scheduled to be induced at 3am Monday morning anyway, but Debbie was having some good contractions, Sunday morning finally, and I said, "We're going to the hospital to get this going". Debbie was reticent, and we ended up getting there an hour and a half later, 1:30ish, which turned out ok for Debbie. She wanted her to have her own birthday. Happy Birthday Hazel.

We walked around for an hour because she was only dilated to 4cm when we got there. She was at 5.5cm after the walk, so they admitted us. (Walking the 2-3 hallways at the hospital got boring and nurses were looking at us like, "you're back again? and again?" I didn't care, I was excited to finally get the show on the road.

She got put on the labor and delivery bed and was at 6cm, progressing well. They talked to us about the epidural, Debbie, didn't like the sounds of it, but knew she wanted it. She held out for a while, she started driving down the left lane, the right. . .dodging. . . oh wait a minute. I thought I was broadcasting a sports game here. :)

Back to Debbie. . .she waited a while and then ordered the epi. She was at 7cm this time, and. . .oh my goodness I almost forgot her favorite part. She was still at 5.5cm, Dr. Tut came in and broke her water which sounded like a huge water balloon snapping when it pops. Really cool. We both laughed and Debbie was really enjoying gushing the amnio everywhere. TMI? Sorry for those with weak stomachs.

The doctor told her she should get the epidural going, and she held out for a while, things got painful and then she had it done. She was kind of freaking out about what was going on with it and I was a jerk and told her she doesn't want to know what's happening on her back side. She was fortunately ok with that. whew! The epidural kicked in and she took a deep breath and said, "I love epidurals. Everyone should have one everyday!" HAHAHA! I laughed out loud at that one. It was great. Glad to see her finally relax.

The nurse came in, and had her push for about an hour before calling in Dr. Beck, our OB, who was now on call. Dr. Tut was on call when we got there earlier. OB stands for Obstetrician. So Dr. Beck gets there, checks her out and finds out that her pubic bone is too narrow and oval shaped instead of heart shaped like normal. Thus no baby's head will come through it. He told Debbie she needed a c-section, and she didn't like that at all. Dr. Beck was super nice and said he could try the forceps, which are huge, although he didn't say anything about the size of them. Debbie really wanted him to try. After 3 pushes from Debbie, and 3 tugs with the forceps, he said a c-section was absolutely necessary.

It took an hour to get to the OR because there was a C in progress, and since Debbie wasn't an emergency C, she had to wait. Dr. Beck was peeved at this, because he was obviously tired, but he cooled off. Anyways, they finally wheeled her to the room and prepped her. I got dressed in my MC Hammer outfit with a lunchlady cap, and was pulled in later just before she went under the knife. This was about 12:30ish. Since I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast I was woozy and about lost my empty stomach upon entering the room. So I sat behind the curtain with Debbie's head and chilled and breathed deeply trying to calm myself down.

At 12:41am, they pulled Hazel out, and I heard Dr. Beck say, "Here she is!" and then she immediately let out a little cry. I'm not ashamed to admit that I teared up and was happy. My little baby girl was finally here! I looked over to the weigh station where they did what they had to and cleaned her and kept crying. I looked back at Debbie and said Hazel was huge and hairy and cute. Debbie was pretty out of it, so I was the soft one of the family at that time and was trying to hide my tears. But it was a sweet moment. I got to cut the cord, which was cool, a little overrated really, but cool nonetheless. And then I got to hold my little giant. 9lbs 3 ounces! She looked like the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow man for a while there. :)

I won't bore you, with more details of the rest of the week. Suffice it to say, mom and baby still look very good, and I, father, look like I've been poked in the eyes. Not a whole lot of sleep happened this week until last night. She's a good baby.

Welcome to the world Hazel Kae. We love you!