HAILEY IS HERE

Hailey Marie Hamilton arrived at 7:44am on Sunday, July 30, 2006. She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20.5 inches long. She scored almost perfectly on her APGAR test, and was delivered without the use of any pain medication whatsoever. She has a full head of brown hair with blond undertones.

Now that we have the basics out of the way, I'll tell you some of the gorey details. On Saturday night, I started having contractions around 10:00pm. I had a feeling that I would go into labor on Saturday because it was the one day in the last month that my doula was out of town. Neither of us thought that I would be 8 days late so it didn't seem like the trip would be a big deal. Surprise, surprise...it's the day Miss Hailey finally decides to come.

So, I didn't recognize the contractions at first because it felt like back pains, and there was no pain at all in the front. I started timing the pain around 11pm, and they were about 8 minutes apart. It didn't take long to go from 8 minutes apart down to 5 minutes apart, and we were packed and in the car by 12:45am. We arrived at the hospital around 1:15am, and I measured only 4 cm. I was so pissed when I first got there because I had hoped to labor at home until I was at least 6 cm. Luckily, it only took about an hour to get from 4 cm to 6 cm.

Within another 2 hours, I was 8 cm. Since Amy, the doula, was not around, my Mom served as my doula and Luke was the coach. It was great! They were absolutely perfect and kept me completely calm and relaxed through each contraction. Since I had so much back labor, my Mom stood in front of me so that I could hold on to her while Luke sat behind me and rolled ice or massaged my back. It worked out very well (that's not to say that it wasn't ridiculously painful).
The midwives and nurses basically stayed out of our way since we were doing so well on our own.

At about 6:30am, I was 9.5 cm and ready to begin pushing. Pushing was by far the most invigorating, amazing, and painful experience of my life. Still, I knew I was at the end so it didn't take that much motivation for me to really give it my all. I pushed for about an hour and fifteen minutes, and I was able to reach down and feel her head when it crowned. Then, before I knew it there was a screaming, slimey baby on my belly. I kept her on my belly for a long time before they finally took her to clean her up. It was amazing!!!!

Here's the picture from just after she was born. Since we are still at the hospital, we haven't been able to get the pictures off of the camera, but we'll put them up asap.

Christmas with No Santa

It's 6:00am on Thursday, and I'm now officially 5 days overdue. I'm getting a little bitter about it at this point, which I know is a terrible thing. It's just that every night I go to bed feeling like I'm a little kid on Christmas Eve and wondering if Santa will come. Then, every morning I wake up to find that he hasn't. Now, imagine having that feeling of disappointment every day for two weeks. I know that she'll come when she's ready, and there's really not much I can do (that I haven't already tried). I'm not quite to the point of consuming caster oil (which my neighbor says works), but that point is getting closer every day. I think that everyone in this household is hoping that this ends soon, particularly as my crankiness quotient increases exponentially each day. At least we've learned one important lesson about Miss Hailey - she has her Dad's sense of timing :)

No News Yet

Well, my due date has come and gone, but still no Baby Hailey. We are all just waiting around eagerly anticipating her arrival. I feel like I've tied up every loose end that I had left so there is nothing to do but wait. Of course, we are trying to watch movies and take walks and eat lots of ice cream. We'll do just about anything to distract from the fact that there is no baby yet (even continue going to work). I had another midwife appointment today, and she's in the ready position. I guess just not ready enough.

In the meantime, here is a cute picture of the crib for you to enjoy. My Grandma, Hailey's Great Grandma, made the blanket that's draped on the crib. Hopefully, next time I write I'll have one of those goofy- looking hospital mug shots for you!!!

Hair/Eye Color Chart

Here are all of the hair/eye color guesses.

Last Ultrasound

We had our last ultrasound today, and Miss Hailey is doing very well in there. I don't really have any pictures to show for it, but she was in the low 7lb range. The midwife says that there is nothing to worry about so now we just have to wait! So here is the calendar with all of the birthday guesses. Some of you have already lost...too bad.

All Systems Are Go!

Just finished with my midwife appointment. Here's the news: Hailey has indeed dropped, my cervix is very soft and thin, and we are 1 cm dilated. It feels weird talking about my cervix on the blog, but isn't that the important stuff? So, I think that we are ready to go. No contractions yet, but the midwife felt very good about my progress and thought that it wouldn't be too long now.

Map of the Belly

If you can't read the text next to the map, you might need to click on the picture above and zoom in a little. Enjoy!

Hair/Eye Color Game

It's about time for everyone to take a guess about Hailey's hair and eye color. We are talking final eye color so don't pick blue just because they are all born with blue eyes in the beginning. For those of you that can't remember, I have red hair and brown eyes and Luke has brown hair and blue/green eyes. I'm almost 100% Italian and Luke's some type of mixed breed. So, it's pretty much a toss up as to what Hailey is going to look like. I have a guessing grid all set up already so you need to select 1) Hair Color = blond, brown, black or red and 2) Eye Color = blue, green, hazel, brown. I will add your guess to the grid and then post the results next week so that everyone can see which were the most popular combinations.

Also, if you would like to select a birth date, I'm keeping track of guesses on that as well. Just remember that if you want me to continue to like you, I'd think long and hard about picking a date much later than July 22nd (her official due date). It's already 96 degrees here and I'm carrying around an extra 35lbs so every day matters!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

6lbs Already?!?!?!

At our big ultrasound this morning, we were very pleased to learn that Hailey is 6lbs 1oz already! We have 24 days to go until her due date so she'll probably pack on at least another pound or so. Unfortunately, I don't have any very good pictures from this time around, but we were able to see just about everything (and we confirmed again that she is indeed a girl). The most amazing images were of her toes (I think I saw a toenail) and her hair. Yes, she's a hairy beast, but that's just as we expected given her Mommy and Daddy. We also saw her "practice breathing" which I guess is a good sign that she's about ready to come out. I'm getting so excited to meet her. I think that I'm going to go out today to buy my red raspberry leaf tea and my evening primrose vitamins. Next midwife visit is Wednesday the 5th, but I might post before then with pictures of the nursery.

Midwife Update and Cord Blood Donation Rant

We had our appointment with Shelly, our midwife, this morning. I'm still measuring a little small so we have to do another ultrasound next week. She said that she wants to keep an eye on Hailey's development, but that she's probably just going to be a small baby. I'm not going to worry about it at this point because 1) there's nothing that I can do about it except to eat healthy and take care of myself (which I'm already doing); 2) I was a smaller sized baby; and 3) we're going to love her no matter what size or shape she is.

Also, Luke and I were both able to feel her little head through my belly. That was pretty cool. She's head down so no breech babies here. Good little girl...way to save Mommy from a yucky c-section.

Now, let me bitch for a minute about this whole cord blood situation. Luke and I have always wanted to donate the cord blood from any children that we might be fortunate enough to have. Our opinion is that if our biomedical waste can somehow save someone else's child, then that's pretty much a no brainer for us. Unfortunately, I've waited too long to sign up so now we can't do it. I realize that this is completely my fault for procrastinating, but I honestly did not know that there would be no local programs and that it would be so confusing. Apparently, our government, in it's infinite wisdom, passed a law mandating that all pregnant women be given information about the program, but then they didn't fund any additional donation sites. So, it's basically worthless. Sounds pretty familiar!

More Shower Fun

Here is the belly at 35 weeks...pretty impressive, huh? Surprisingly, I'm still pretty comfortable on a day-to-day basis. Of course, I can't slouch or bend down. The most annoying thing is just the constant hiccups that she seems to have. It's such a bizarre feeling, and there's nothing that I can do about it except to wait for them to go away.

Anyway, last Sunday was our family and friends baby shower in Nashville. It was a couples shower, which was a little different but really fun. Hailey got lots of beautiful presents. Almost our entire registry was filled. Mom was here for the big event and then she spent the rest of her time washing all of the clothes and getting the nursery together. It looks pretty good now. Thank goodness for Moms. My next appointment with the midwives is Wednesday and then I'll have to go every week after that. I'll try to post again right after my appointment.

Babies Are Such a Good Deal

Little Baby Hailey is not even born yet and she’s already costing Mommy and Daddy a fortune. Call it the nesting instinct or just pure insanity, but over the weekend I decided that we absolutely had to redo Hailey’s closet immediately. She has a lovely walk-in closet with a window in it, but it
only had one shelf and bar that went all the way around the top. It was just the wire shelving crap that the contractor installed, and it would never do for our precious little one. So, off we go to Target, Home Depot, and finally, Lowes. Several hundred dollars later and poor Luke is forced
to put together multiple shelving units, which I insisted upon. Unfortunately (or fortunately for Luke I suppose), we couldn’t fit all of the shelving units that I wanted so she only has a corner piece and one 30” piece. Plus, she has tons and tons of bars for hanging clothes. Needless to say, this little project didn’t exactly get finished over the weekend. Thank goodness that my Mom arrived today to help put things in order. Maybe I’ll try to take a picture when we’re finished so that you can see the finished work in all of its glory.

On another note, I’m pretty sure that my belly has grown quite a bit since my last trip to the doctor. The only way I can really gauge the growth is by how stretched out my belly button is getting. Let’s just say that it’s gone from being an innie to an outie to a flattie. Yikes.

Hailey Weight Update

I just got back from seeing the midwife, and she says that Hailey is a little small weight-wise (in the 45th percentile). Plus, I'm measuring a little small on the outside. If my belly doesn't grow enough in the next 3 weeks, we have to do another ultrasound to make sure there are no growth problems. I hate when they say crap like that. Now I have to spend the next 3 weeks wondering if she's growing in there or not!!! I'm fine if she doesn't weigh that much (I was only 6lbs 11oz), but why worry me with thoughts of “growth problems” (which, by the way, is too vague a term to even Google).

Ok. In the midwife’s defense, she did say that it’s probably nothing to worry about because Hailey may just be a small baby. But still, she clearly does not understand the epidemic of worrying that runs in my family. I’m probably setting off a worrying chain reaction of seismic proportions just by writing this. So, let’s all calm down because there is nothing that we can do about it but wait until our next appointment on the 21st. Well, nothing except try to eat healthy and measure my own belly every night like some crazy psycho.

Baby Shower and Weight Game

Here are the ultrasound pictures from last Monday.

Luke and I came home to Buffalo this weekend for our family baby shower. It was lots of fun and Hailey received some beautiful clothes and other useful things. We are flying home today. Thank goodness this is my last trip until after Hailey is born. Flying has really become quite a pain in the butt (or gut as the case may be).

Anyway, we've had some requests to have a game for guessing Hailey's weight. So, leave comments with your guess, and I'll summarize them all in a future blog. Then, we'll see who is closest. Don't forget that at 31 weeks, she was 3lbs 11oz so you can figure it out from there. Happy Guessing!

Blog Slacker

Forgive me Blog Friends for I have sinned. It's been 2 weeks since my last post! I can't believe that two weeks have passed. We are at 32 weeks today. We had our last ultrasound on Monday. Of course, I have a few pictures to show off, but I'm waiting for Luke to scan them into the computer. Hailey is looking good. She weighs about 3lbs 11oz now. Luke thinks that she is going to be above 8 lbs, but I'm thinking she'll be in the low 7 lb range. Let's just hope that she doesn't have a giant head like her daddy did when he was born. Anyway, she yawned while we were watching her, and she's already got her head down. She also has one foot sitting right at my ribs on the right side. No wonder she gives me a swift karate kick up there from time to time.

In other exciting development news, Hailey's begun experiencing the hiccups from time to time. That's a really odd feeling. She also has some hair on her head (I can't wait to see what color it is since it's really a crap shoot with us). I think that fingernails and toenails are also there. She's just like a super-miniature person at this point!

Whack-a-mole

We have a new game at our house. Luke and I play it right before we go to bed. Usually when I lay down, Hailey starts kicking over on my right side. The other night we realized that we can actually feel her little feet (or what I think are feet) when they stick out. I'm pretty sure that she was thinking it was a fun game to kick and feel Luke's hand sort of nudge her foot. It seemed like she was playing with us because she kept doing it over and over again for what seemed like forever (from the standpoint of the kickee, that is). She was probably just trying to get comfortable somehow, but it's really fun to think that we are sort of "interacting" with her while she's inside my belly.

Today is the beginning of week 30! Only 12 more days until our next ultrasound!!!

Random Funny

This is our cat, Anubis, trying to catch the fish that are swimming across the computer screen!

New Belly Shots

Take a look at that outy belly button! Yikes! Next week we'll hit the 30 week mark. I can't believe that there will only be 10 weeks left.

Hailey has been very active lately. She's starting to get a schedule going so I know when to anticipate the heaviest kicking. Plus, when she kicks I can feel her little body parts in there if I just press down a little bit. It's really weird. I wish that I knew what I was feeling. I'll probably figure it out as she gets bigger.

In other exciting news, random strangers are now commenting on my pregnancy. So, I guess that I'm finally beyond the point where people are too scared to ask. Making it to almost 30 weeks without openly "showing" is quite an accomplishment I would say, but now it's getting hotter out and I should be garnering a little more sympathy. I can hear it now, "You poor thing. You must be so hot and uncomfortable. Here let me carry those groceries for you." Excellent!

Colors and Themes

Let me begin by saying that the one thing that makes me a little more confident in this whole baby raising endeavor is the fact that we have very supportive family and friends behind us. That's why this blog is a little awkward to write. I hope that no one takes offense because Luke and I will be completely grateful and thrilled with anything that anyone wants to provide for Baby Hailey.

With that said, a few people have asked me for some direction on purchasing things for Hailey and the nursery. In terms of clothes, I'm guessing that we don't need a ton of newborn clothes because it's going to be extremely hot when Hailey arrives so she's probably going to be either naked or swaddled, depending on the temperature of the a/c and how fussy she is. We didn't really register for any clothes because they are all so adorable that part of the fun is going to pick them out!

We've decided on a Winnie the Pooh theme for the nursery. Luke's probably going to paint some characters on the walls for us. We are going to try to keep thinks lavendar and green because neither of us are big pink-lovers. I'll try to take a picture of the nursery as it looks right now so that we can get a before and after comparison.

Big Hailey Development News

According to our favorite book, Hailey's lungs are now capable of breathing air for the first time. I don't think that means that she's would be viable outside of the womb, but it means she's getting close. She also has eyelashes and eyebrows now.

I can't believe that I'm at 27 weeks already. The last 4-5 weeks have just flown by. We have our 28 week checkup on May 1st, and then our 30 week ultrasound coming up after that. It seems like the first 20 weeks were so slow and now time is just flying by!