Hazel's birth

We were thrilled to welcome Hazel to the world on Tuesday, May 8, 2012.  After two pretty easy pregnancies and an uncomplicated birth with Sloane we were crossing our fingers that Hazel would keep our lucky streak alive and the girl delivered.  The stars aligned in the form of a scheduled induction.

Sloane spent the night before with John's parents so I woke up early to get ready (love being able to do my hair before giving birth) and John went into work since we didn't know what time they would call us in to the hospital.  The coolest thing about having a scheduled induction was getting my "dream team."  My awesome doc, we call him Dr. Bob, didn't deliver Sloane so I was so happy when he said we could schedule an induction before he headed out of town this time around.  And Suzanne, friend and nurse extraordinaire, moved her schedule around so she was working that day.  We met Suzanne when she was our nurse for Sloane's birth and it was so special to have her with us for Hazel's entrance into the world.

Suzanne and I were texting in the early morning and she let me know that there was a back up and it could be a while.  I had finally resigned myself to the fact that I needed to find a project to dive into to keep myself from going crazy so I was about to get out my sewing machine when my phone rang at about 8:30 am and it was Suzanne calling to tell us to come on in.  John jumped in his car, came home to grab me and we headed to the hospital.  We checked in around 10 am and I got hooked up with some pitocin a short while later.  Then we waited and waited for things to start picking up.

One new addition to the delivery room this time around was my mom.  She jumped at the chance to be a part of Hazel's birth and it was so special to have her there.   John even let her cut the umbilical cord. When she arrived John put together a little hang man game for her to guess the name.  It took her a while to figure out Hazel and she was thrilled to finally be let in on the secret!

We missed Sloane and got to face time with our girl throughout the afternoon.  Love technology.

Around 2:30 they broke my water and things finally started to progress, but not too quickly.  Both Dr. Bob and Suzanne estimated delivery around 8:30 pm.  Though Suzanne vowed to stick around until the end I told her that we'd just go ahead and get this baby out before her shift ended at 7. 

The joke throughout the day was that I was looking much too happy and that we needed to get the contractions moving along to wipe that smile off of my face.  There are lots of pictures of me smiling, not many of me frowning - I wasn't very open to photos at that point in time.

I got my sweet, sweet epidural just in time as things started to pick up pretty quickly a couple of hours later.  Dr. Bob came in a little before 6 and said it was time to start pushing.  He asked me to do a practice push and when I did quickly said "no, stop, I need to put my gown on."  I knew we were close.  I then pushed through two contractions and Miss Hazel entered the world at 6:01 pm.  She weighed 7 lbs, 12 ozs and was 18 3/4 inches long. 

When it was time to start pushing I lost it and bawled until she came out a few minutes later.  The emotions of meeting your child are just so overwhelming.  When they placed that slimy little body on my chest I knew I'd met the third love of my life. 

Hazy girl - we are so blessed that you are ours.