Hanna's Birth

When Hanna was born all the kids wanted to know when they were born, how long it took to be born, etc. and sadly I can't remember most of the stories. I remember bits and pieces.  I remember going into an appointment for Tyler and my blood pressure being too high so they wheeled me up in a wheel chair, taking down the pop up when my water broke at UoP with Scott, the kids being at the park with my parents when Kira was born.  I claim to have early alzheimers.  Some is contributed to having way too much going on in our lives over the years.  So here are the details of Hanna's birth so someday I can tell her.

County, the end of season meet, with Dana Hills was the 11th-13th.  I had some contractions leading up the meet but Friday night: the excitement of relays, cheering etc. gave me contractions.  Nothing unbearable but definitely noticeable.  I had no worries of getting through the meet.  It was such an exciting meet!  So fun and the kids did great!  I came home and that Monday they stripped my membranes and I had intense contractions that day and night, but didn't want to go into L&D because I needed to clean my home and didn't want to go in the middle of the night.  I thought I will just go in the morning but my contractions ended by the morning. For the first time, I actually needed a week to get things done and wasn't overly anxious for my pregnancy to be over.  It helped that leading up to that point I was getting up at 530AM to get my house situated, packed and to work by 630, at the pool for a couple of hours and living the rec swim coach dream.  I knew it would go quick, but Dana Hills made my pregnancy go REALLY fast!  No time to get ready or even think about being pregnant.  I did fall asleep almost every night at 8pm when Danny put on our show.  We always watch a show at night and I can't even tell you what we watched.  I never really got into it because I was sleeping instead.  He often wanted to have people over on Saturday and Sunday night for dinner and I just always wanted to relax.  So anyway, I had a week to get things done now that work was over and before the baby came.

Nesting is REAL andAWESOME!  It is like cleaning on cleaning drugs.  I went through everyones closet to get rid of clothes, organized drawers, cleaned carpets, walls, etc.  It was so nice and definitely needed.  For better and worse, a decluttered and clean home allows me to function and makes me happy.  That is a great thing but also a nuisance when I find myself having to spend a lot of time cleaning up before I do others things.  When I should get out the door but need to put things away first.  I guess I will focus on the good and appreciate a semi clean home.  I just need to work on not getting frustrated or stressed when I clean my home in the morning and by the evening things are left out.  Working on that with the kids. So I spent my week off cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.  Danny claimed that he looks forward to this every pregnancy.

When the cleaning was done I was ready to go into labor.  My due date was my parents anniversary.  From the first time the doctors told me my due date, I knew that was a tender mercy of the Lord.  Some might call it a coincidence but I knew that it was more than that.  From the beginning I felt like it was a sign that they were aware, close by and the Lord was aware of the presence of them in this little babies life and my life.  When I thought about going into labor, I felt like I would have her on my parents anniversary.

 I had an appointment on her due date.  I was having small contractions and they stripped my membranes again.  I was 4 centimeters dilated and called Danny if I should go into labor and delivery.  It was his day off which was convenient.  I went home to eat lunch, called labor and delivery and they told me it was up to me what I wanted to do.  The great thing about being baby 7 is that they trust that you know what labor it and isn't.  With all my kids except Scott, I go in with mild contractions and high blood pressure.  They keep me because of my blood pressure.

I went in.  I took the stairs to the 3rd floor to keep my contractions going, they hooked me to the monitor.  I was having contractions but they told me my ticket in was my climbing blood pressure. Jacqueline admitted me.  Same spelling of my mom.  Something that I knew wasn't a coincidence.  I knew that my parents were close by.  Were a part of sending me this beautiful gift.

My first nurse was Natalie Cline, a dana hill swim mom.  She got my IV going and it was shift change.  I got another nurse who was an iron man athlete.  She said she requested me so she could get swim tips.  She was really nice.  I told the midwife and doctor pitocin doesn't usually do anything for me but breaking my water gets me to a 10 fairly quickly.  Every other doctor has insisted on starting pitocin first and then breaking my water to make sure my body is in active labor but my widwife and doctor said they would just break my water.  We waited for Danny to get there which was about 4pm.  Kaylina came to watch the kids.  They broke my water around 430pm and Danny and I watched Longmire on his computer.  My contractions went from nothing to moderate to the point that I couldn't really watch the show in one episode.  I called the nurse in to tell her that I felt like I was going to have the baby soon and wanted to go to the bathroom. My midwife felt like I would have the baby soon, I contemplated having an epidural.  If I would be able to push soon, which I felt was the case, I wouldn't get one but if I was going to be in that type of pain for the next couple of hours I was going to get an epidural.  The nurse checked me again and said I was still a 4 which was shocking to me.  I was starting to shake, which usually happens right before I have a baby but realized if I wasn't progressing I didn't want to be in pain for the next who knows how long.  The anethesiologist came in, prepped me and I felt like in the 15 minutes she was there, I needed to start pushing.  The midwife checked me again and sure enough I was a 10.  I don't know if I went from a 4 to 10 in 15 minutes or if the nurse misjudged.  She claimed it was because I was sitting instead of lying down.  Who knows.  Regardless, there was no time to hook up the epidural which I really didn't care about at that point and just relieved that my labor was coming to an end.

I pushed for about 3 contractions.  The baby's hand was by her head which was somewhat painful and the midwife needed to grab her hand and arm and pull it out.  They were pretty concerned about my high blood pressure and kept asking me if I was concerned.  I told them that always happens in my labors and it will go back down.  The doctor was in the room as well to monitor by blood pressure.  The baby came out and I saw right away it was a girl.  I would have been shocked if it was a boy.  Danny was able to come over from the couch at that point and excited to have a little girl.  He doesn't do well with labor.  He finds the entire process quite gross.

He said the baby looked just like Blake, which she did.  She was like a concerned, wrinkled old little man.  I felt so complete.  So grateful for this little miracle.  It was such a relief to feel our family was complete.  I recognized she was a gift from God.  Danny looked at her and said we should name her Hanna, which I loved.  It was my mom's middle name and Grandma's family name.  My family back east are all Hanna's.  We named her middle name Ruth after my grandma.  Hanna Ruth born on my parents anniversary.  They are close, I know she was a gift from them.

I felt great!  Epidurals are nice because you aren't tired from intense laboring, but they also come with back pain and not being able to feel your legs very much.  I had the best of both worlds.  I didn't need to deal with the pains of an epidural or the pains of a difficult labor.  I felt great!  I was so grateful.  I have always had easy labors, but this was my easiest labor.  I felt pretty good very quickly after having her.  I really had minimal pain.

Danny went home to be with the kids and get a good nights sleep.  He stopped by the next day during his lunch break.  Kaylina came back to watch the kids and Danny's mom came in to help for a couple of days.

Hanna was such a good baby.  They are always so easy the first couple of days and weeks because they sleep so much.  She has been a good eater and relatively easy.

The first week was the roughest not because of me or Hanna but because of the other kids.  They were all fighting with each other.  Maybe it was the stress of having another baby.  I think most of it was them getting to bed too late.  I am pretty strict on bed times because my kids don't sleep in.  If they go to bed at 8 or 10pm they will still wake up at 630AM.  Scott even earlier because he plays the piano before school.  He had just got back from a weeklong camping trip as well.  Well, of course they stayed up late some of the nights and man did we pay for it!  Scott had a meltdown at his awards night.  He gets to the point of being tired and becomes emotional and non-functional. He wanted to stay home from awards night and I should have let him because by the time we got there, he was done!  Danny doesn't usually see the consequences of them staying up too late because he is at work the next day but I told him that we weren't doing late nights again that week.  I couldn't do it!

The next week was much better!  Phew!  It is great getting back into routines.  Scott had science camp.  I had a week off before work started and it was nice just being able to relax and get into the rhythm of life.

We did a very last minute trip to Sacramento.  It was over 110 degrees here and there but we still decided to go for it.  I looked into a couple of things to do around Sacramento that I thought would be fun.  They were fun and we had a good time but the heat was too much!  When I asked Danny what he wanted to do he said he just wanted to go on bike rides and drive the RC cars.  We did that.  Overall it was a good trip. It was nice to get away but the kids and complaining would get to me.  They complained that they didn't want to do the activities we had planned and then once we were there, they had a great time and didn't want to leave.  I think if we did the trip in 80 degree weather it would have been much more pleasant and less complaining.  There were times I just needed to get indoors and out of the heat.  I don't think I have ever been in that type of heat.  It was HOT!

On Saturday we went to Old Town Sacramento and they were doing Gold Rush days. The streets were lined with horse drawn carriages, booths and performers.  It was fun but sooo hot!  The coolest part was the Mormon Battalion Booth.  The kids learned how to start a fire with flint, make rope and calligraphy.  I had to go into the train museum and wait with Parker and Hanna because I was worried she would overheat. It was about 110-115 degrees. It felt soo good when we walked in the doors to the museum.  It felt like you were going into a refrigerator.  The kids liked the museum.  Parker has been really into trains.  He calls them cars so it was fun to take him.  He loved the train that seemed like it was moving when you were inside.  He went through it about 4 times.  We went back to the hotel and went swimming in the pool which was fun.  The next day was Sunday so we went to church and the kids all did great going to nursery and primary.  Parker is the most adaptable of our kids with the least separation anxiety.  I think it is because I work in the summer and he is used to being with Kaylina and the other moms. I really feel like I am so blessed to coach, have the kids with me at the pool but also have others there to help and not be with just me 100% of the time.  It gives us all a very healthy balance and break.  After church we went to the fish hatchery which was cool.  The kids loved to feed the fish.  I remember going to hoover dam as a kid with my family.  We will have to do that some time.  The fish weren't climbing the ladders so we will have to go back when they are doing that.  Then we went to the temple to take some pictures and walk around. So beautiful as always but it was HOT!  The kids were dumping water on themselves from the fountain.  I would usually tell them not to do that but it was just too hot to stop them.  We went to the hotel for a little bit and then drove to davis to go on a bike ride through UC Davis.  The internet talked about a botanical garden walking trail that got great reviews.  It was soo cool!  And it was shaded and a little cooler in the afternoon which was so nice.  The kids and parents had a great time!  We saw horses, turtles, lizards.  Scott liked to read about the man made river that was filled with algae and how they were working on making it blue.

 We put Parker in the kid seat.  He usually rides the tandem bike, but we needed to pull Hanna in the trailer.  We put her carseat in the trailer because she is still too small to ride the trailer by herself.  It worked great.  When we got back to the car, Parker rode his little push bike all around the parking lot.  He loves that bike.  It was a great trip.

The next morning was Tyler's birthday and we asked him what he wanted to do and he said he really wanted to go to the jelly belly factory on the way home.  Easy and convenient.  I researched it and thought it would be closed on Labor Day but they said that people wouldn't be there working but the tours are still open.  I explained thinking he would think it was lame, but he really wanted to go. We went, he was so appreciative and the kids had a great time.  Afterwards, we found a dirt field and the kids played with RC cars and this giant dirt mound. It was a great time.  We got home and I did wash and unpacked and Danny took the Kira, Scott and Tyler to the movies.  They saw some action movie like Spiderman.  Can't remember what but they had a great time.  It was a simple and great birthday for Tyler.  Now we have to plan a sleepover.  He wants the same birthday party he had last year which is easy.  The boys play in the court, watch and movie and sleep over.  I don't love sleepovers due the fact they are up to late and in horrible moods the next day but can bare it every once in a while.