Special Delivery!

About 8:00 on the morning of January 25, I decided I needed to push that baby out. Unfortunately, my nurse informed me the doctor was still in the OR, finishing a C-section. She ran to check on him. He was sewing up and would be there soon. Nurse M offered to bolus my epidural but I refused it. I just wanted to get the baby out and start the rest of my life.

8:10. I felt the huge primal urge to push. Nurse M told me to go ahead and push if I really felt like it. So I did. It was the best feeling EVER. Then she shrieked "Okay! Stop! Don't push anymore! Your doctor will probably kill me if he doesn't get to deliver this baby!" My response was "Then get him in here!!"

She ran to find him.

8:15 she tells me "He'll be here in five minutes. Just hang in there!" I half-heartedly laughed and said "Well that's nice 'cause this baby will be here in ten. The man needs to hurry!" Nurse M told me I could do "little pushes, just little ones" in the meantime. (Sorry M, I pushed as hard as I felt like pushing)

8:25, he comes in the door and as he is suiting up, he tells me "Hey Miss Anna, if you're feeling the need to push, you just go right ahead." I screamed out "Thank God" and pushed once. DocMac said "Whoa! There's a BabyH head! Push again!" I pushed once more and her head was out. Then he told me to stop and breathe while he got her situated. The cord was around her neck, but it wasn't tight or anything like that. Then he said "Okay, push once more and she'll be out." So I pushed hard and at 8:31 AM, January 25, 2013, HHB was born!

I want to tell you the first thing I thought when I saw her face was "Oh what a beautiful baby" but my first thought was "Dang she's got a huge snot rocket on her face." Apparently, when babies are pushed out, they are rather mucous-y. When they're pushed out fast, it doesn't all get juiced out of them. But they put her on my chest and as they did, she started to cry.

In that moment, my heart nearly burst. Hubs cut the cord and we became Mommy and Daddy. HHB proved her lungs were quite strong and she let us all know of her displeasure of being in a cold room. When the nurse was wiping her down, HHB expressed her displeasure by taking her first peepee all over the sweet delivery nurse. Sorry about that!

I told Nurse M to tell our family (who'd all kept vigil in the waiting room) the baby was here and fine, and that I wanted someone to bring me a Rt 44 tea from Son!c. My dad sent the message back that I would get tea when they got to see the baby.

We were in the delivery room for about an hour and a half after HHB's arrival. That time was spent cleaning up her, me, and the room. I was able to nurse her right away, and she ate very well I stayed on the . Then it was time for us to depart the suite. Nurse M told me she was going to get me a wheelchair to take me to my recovery room. I told her I could walk.

Yep. I said I could walk.

After some debate and proving I could indeed feel my feet and was mobile (I was smart to not bolus that epidural), Nurse M held my elbow and allowed me to walk out of L&D. My dad was the first person to meet me in the hallway. He said "What are you DOING?!" I answered "Ain't nothing to it." HHB was behind me on her little hospital bassinet, all wrapped up like a burrito.

The most beautiful face I've ever seen.

I got in my room and settled in bed. No one else was there. Thirty minutes later, my dad came in. He was elated. He said, "Wow! I can't believe how big she is!" I then realized I had no clue how heavy or how long my daughter was. I said, "Seven, seven and a half pounds, right??"

Wrong.

HHB tipped the scales at 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and 21 and 1/2 inches long!!

I am woman, hear me roar.

Dad and I had the room to ourselves for a good while. The rest of the family trickled in and they sat and talked to me about delivery. They still couldn't believe I'd walked to my recovery room. I heard a set of wheels coming down the hallway, and then a baby crying. I told them "Oh, here she comes." Someone asked how I could possibly know that was her and not some other baby on the floor. I said, "I know because she's mine." And of course I was right. The nurse put her in my arms, and all was right in my world.