Hannah Elizabeth was born on June 7th, 2011. She was 6 pounds 12 ounces, and 21 inches long. She was born at 11:36 AM. She was born on Uncle Korey's birthday, which he called from the very beginning. She made us wait, but she was well worth it. On the early morning of Monday the 6th, my contractions started, but they weren't strong or consistent. While I was at work they became more consistent. I called my doctor's office and they told me to come to the hospital. It was a short trip because I work at Magee. All I had to do was walk across the street. I called Ron, and he frantically stopped at home grabbed our stuff and was going to meet me there. Ellen (a dear friend and nurse that I work with) walked with me and kept me company while I waited for Ron to show up. The doctors were going to send me home because my contractions really weren't that strong, but my membranes (water) had started to leak. I was only 1-2 cm at that time, which was around 1 PM. I didn't know when I started leaking, and the longer you have your membranes rupture ("water breaking") the more chance of infection, so they admitted me to get things started.
I had only progressed to 3 cm by 10 PM. It was going to be a LONG night. My parents and Ron's mom stayed the whole night with us. I tried to get some sleep, but that didn't happen. I had an epidural and wasn't in pain, I was just uncomfortable. Sometime in the middle of the night Hannah's heart rate dropped. The nurse came running in and put some Oxygen on my face and turned me to my other side. This brought her heart rate back up. Soon after that, I developed shaking chills and had a fever. I didn't need antibiotics because after a bag of IV fluids it got better. They checked me again, and at 7 AM the next morning I was still only 5 cm. With my fever, her heart rate dropping every now and then, and her lack of moving down, we though I was going to have a C section. We just wanted her out safely. The decision was made to check one more time at 11 AM and decide what to do next. At 11 AM I was fully dilated and ready to push! I pushed like 4 or 5 times (didn't feel a thing thanks to a lovely epidural) and at 11:36 she was here!!
Her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck three times and she also had a fever. They checked her blood count, and her immature cells were higher than her mature cells. When your body is fighting an infection it will pump out as many cells it can that fight infection, so this finding can be consistent with sepsis (which is an infection in the blood) Needless to say, this a earned her a trip to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Both Hannah and I had 48 hours of IV antibiotics, but thankfully we were both able to go home after negative blood cultures for two days. We had a really rough couple days with her being in the NICU. The nurses on my floor loved me because I was never there. Ron and I came up to eat, sleep, and for me to get my dose of antibiotics. The nurses and doctors at the NICU were absolutely amazing. We couldn't ask for better care, and we praise God we were able to take home a healthy little girl.
We had many visitors. Here a couple pictures of our first visitors :)
When Hannah was 10 days old, Jaime Durzo gave us one of the best shower gifts possible. She came to take a newborn photo session. She did such an amazing job! We are so pleased to have these pictures to treasure forever!
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