My daughter Hazel was born Thursday, April 19th, 2018 at 4:50 PM. She weighed 6lb 11oz and was 20in long. I am finally getting around to writing her birth story.

Most of my pregnancy was great. No morning sickness, no major issues, good weight gain, etc. until the day of my baby shower. That day, March 11th, I went into preterm labor at 31.5 weeks. I was put in the hospital to try to stop it. I got steroids for her lungs and ended up being sent home three days later on bedrest.

I spent 5.5 weeks on bedrest trying to keep that baby in as long as possible. I slowly continued to dilate and efface even though I was on meds to stop it. Due to the medicine I was on, I started swelling badly. I gained 14lbs from swelling within two weeks. I started having problems with SPD and joint pain and quickly became miserable.

I had an appointment with my OB the day I turned 37 weeks. I had been uncomfortable all morning but didn’t really feel like I was contracting. When he checked my cervix that morning, I was 5cm and 90% effaced!! He decided to go ahead and send me over to labor and delivery.

I get to L&D; at about 9:30 AM or so and they get me in a room and start an IV and all that. They hooked me up to the monitor to check for contractions. I actually was having pretty strong contractions but wasn’t really hurting. They started my antibiotics for GBS and got the ball rolling. Once the antibiotics were done, they decided to start me on the lowest dose of pitocin to try to regulate my contractions. Contractions picked up starting around 11:15.

I labored for a while and was totally fine. I got to about 8cm before deciding to ask for the epidural. Had it not been for the pitocin, I believe I could have made it natural. Within about 30 minutes of getting the epidural, we were ready to push! We started pushing and then baby’s heart rate stopped showing up on the monitor during pushes. The doctor came in and was trying to figure out what was going on. It seemed like she was stuck in the birth canal because after every push, she would slide back up.

The doctor ended up using the vacuum to pull her out because of her heart rate dropping. When she came out we found out the problem was that she had a VERY short umbilical cord! It was so short that that is what kept pulling back on her. My husband cut the cord and then they laid her on my chest. I burst into tears immediately because she was so perfect!

I snuggled my sweet baby while they delivered my placenta and stitched me up. I had a second degree tear. Recovery has been relatively easy and we are just over the moon in love with this little girl.

She had some minor issues with being a little early. She got jaundice and had a hard time with latching to the breast. She lost a good bit of weight but has since gained it all back!

Here’s my sweet Hazel!!!