Hazel's Birth Story

The beautiful story of Hazel's birth!

Hazel was due on March 15, 2019. On Her due date the midwife asked if I would like to be checked for dilation, I said sure and was at 1.5 cm dilation with no signs of labor starting. 

The next day was Saturday and we went as a family to Bush Park to do some walking. We ended up doing a lot of walking but still no signs of labor, which was no surprise to me since babies just come when they want to. 

Sunday, March 17 I woke up around 2:15 AM to use the bathroom. I returned to my bed, but as I was drifting back to sleep I felt an unusual sensation in my abdomen, not a baby kick, but more like a balloon full of fluid just popped. Nothing gushed, leaked, or tinkled with this pop. When my water broke with Porter it came out like a gush, but I was standing when that happened. I tried to return to sleep but couldn't because of the potential of labor starting. 15 minutes or so go by and I have a mild contraction, one that felt much like the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd been having for weeks, but still no fluids leaked, so I brushed it off and continued my determination to fall back asleep. Another 15 minutes go by and I get yet another mild contraction, and with this contraction a bunch of amniotic fluid proceeded to exit my birthing regions! I woke up Roger at this point, and told him to grab some towels. It's around 3:00 AM and I cleaned myself off a bit and called my mom to let her know my water broke. I told her I only had two contractions thus far and would call her again when the contractions were stronger and closer together, but she decided she'd head over soon so that we could just leave right when we needed to (my labors go kind of fast so we don't have all day to decide when to head to the hospital).

By 4:00 AM I had several more contractions and knew labor had started, so I called the midwife to give her the news and that we would be heading to the hospital in the next hour or two. My mom arrives to my house around 4:40 AM while I finished some cereal that I would later throw up during labor.          Fortunately our other two children were still sleeping and we quietly slipped away to the hospital around 5:00 AM.

weight check!

We arrived at the hospital around 5:15 AM and as I was getting out of the car I became a bit worried that the hospital would turn me away because my contractions were still a bit irregular and far apart (every 15 minutes or so), but they didn't turn me away because my saving grace was my water breaking just hours before. 

At 5:30 AM I was sitting in triage at 3.5 cm dilated; this frustrated me because I felt like I had been working pretty hard and was only at 3.5 cm. They wanted to give me the IV and do labs at this point but I told them I didn't want an epidural and that the midwife gave me the okay to deliver without an IV. So they just put the external fetal heart monitor on to track heart rate for the next 20 minutes. This turned in to a bit of a nightmare because the baby kept moving and the monitor would slip down my basket ball shaped belly, and we couldn't get 20 minutes of continuous heart monitoring, and had to start over every time we lost the heart beat. Around 6:00 AM they transferred me to a room with the external monitor still tightly wrapped around my huge belly. That monitor was wrapped so tight I was more irritated by it than my contractions. So uncomfortable! 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

walking to the birthing room!

monitoring baby

We were now in our room and my contractions were getting stronger, more painful, and closer together. 6:45 AM was nearing and I was getting very tired. The contractions were becoming unbearable and I was starting to lose confidence in my ability to continue without pain medication. The hospital room that we were in did have a bathtub I could have used to labor in, but I couldn't birth in it. So I never got in. Nitrous oxide was an option for pain relief so I tried that for a bit, but due to my cold I was having a hard time breathing in through my nose while during a contraction. I would breath the nitrous in and then breathe it out into the air, and the nurse told me I needed to breathe it back into the mask or else everyone in the room might start to get a little giggly or groggy. So I quit that real quick! HAHA! While on the nitrous I would get too dizzy so I didn't continue using it. I was so disappointed! 

Just before 7:00 AM I decided I wanted to try the epidural this time. The midwife offered to check me to see how much progress I had made before ordering the meds. I was in full blown active labor and was so over it and wanted to be done. I was only at 6 cm! What?! I felt defeated and couldn't imagine continuing without medication. Roger reminded me that I strictly said no epidural in my birth plan. I was starting to become a bit hysterical and couldn't care less about my birth plan at this point. The nurse told me that I could get the epidural but it would take about an hour before I got it because I didn't get the IV and labs done in triage. I thought I was going to dye!

Around 7:15 AM things started really picking up and I started to feel the urge to push. They were trying to get an IV in me and get labs done so they could order the epidural but I couldn't hold the position they wanted me in long enough to get that IV. Roger recalls one nurse saying to the other that this baby was going to be here before any epidural anyway (she was right). My midwife wanted to check me one more time because only 30-45 minutes ago I was at 6 cm and she didn't want me to start pushing if I wasn't close to 10 cm, but lo and behold I went from 6 cm to 10 cm in about 45 minutes. Roger told the midwife that he had caught all of our babies and would like to catch this one too. What he didn't know was that babies born out of the water are a lot more slippery than those born in the water. 

I pushed for quite a long time (1.5 hours) because Hazel was presenting anterior (sunnyside up), like her brother, instead of posterior. Eleanor was my only posterior presenting babe at birth and she still took about 30 minutes to push out. Although it took me one and a half hours to push Hazel out it honestly didn't feel that long. I think you must lose some sense of time while in that last stretch of labor. Half way through that last stretch of labor I asked to just have the external fetal monitor removed because I was already extremely uncomfortable and still had no luck achieving the 20 minutes of continuous heart reading. I knew deep down that my baby was okay and felt comfortable having it removed to switch over to the nurse using a Doppler instead. They took the monitor off, my back and belly now feeling so much better, I continued to push the babe out. The Doppler ended up working a lot better and was able to get good readings of Hazel's heart rate. Heart rate was perfect.

At 8:37 AM Roger got to catch his third child (with help from the midwife). Hazel Brooke Miller entered this world full of life and weighing 7lbs 7oz and 20 inches long on March 17, 2019. Notice the trend of the number 7? 

3 seconds old

Hazel was my first hospital birth and land birth. Our other two children were born at water birth centers. I prefer to birth in the water because it's more soothing, but the water birth center I birthed at previously moved from Tualatin to Portland. Tualatin is already a 40-45 minute drive from where I live and I didn't feel comfortable traveling any further, so we went with a local hospital and had a great experience there too.

After Hazel's birth I needed some suturing for a small tear. I also developed high blood pressure and there was concern that I might develop pre-eclampsia or eclampsia. I didn't have any other symptoms so I was still able to go home two days after the birth. My blood pressure remained high (140-150 diastolic and 90-100 systolic) for about a week and then I was prescribed some blood pressure medication to bring it down. This was a very stressful and scary week for me. I'm a bit of a worrier and this was not how I wanted my first week with my new baby to be. We got through it and only a week after being on the blood pressure meds my midwife, with the counsel of an OB, allowed me to go off the meds to see if my BP would remain normal while not being on anything. My BP remained normal, thankfully.

Life with three children is crazy, interesting, exhausting in every sense of the word, busy, but most of all exciting and fun. Everyday brings a new adventure. Some days are down right difficult and I can't wait until bedtime. Other days are filled with love and patience and are almost easy. And most days are a mix of the two.

                      

    

Hazel has brought our family closer together, and Porter and Eleanor absolutely adore her. She's smothered with love over here at the Miller household.

We love you, Hazel!