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.
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 :)
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!!!
Here are all of the hair/eye color guesses.
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.
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.
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!
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!!!
