Hazel's Birthday

Every time one of our children enters this world there seems to be a large audience present. This is not because I have invited loads of people to come and participate but because some unusual thing  is going on!  

With Piper I was being prepped for an emergency c section because she was stuck.  They wheeled me into the operation 'theater' right as they decided to give the forceps a try first.  Luckily that worked but not before the surrounding medical staff had been ushered in and seated to watch the show!  

Julia was so ready to join us in this world that the nursing staff were frantically trying to get me to NOT PUSH as we waited for the Doctor to arrive.  He came dashing down the hospital hallway, scrub gown flying behind him just in the nick of time to bring us Julia.  Lowell, Mom (view Bon's blog), 4 nurses and a Dr were there to greet Julia as she made her grand entrance.

Chloe was greeted by her 2 sets of parents and her biological grandmother plus the usual medical entourage.  It was amazing to get to be at her birth and be an observer!  Thank heaven for small favors!

But Little Hazie Jay takes the cake-by far-on the number of people involved in getting her here in one piece.  Hazel was born at the U of U hospital in SLC on September 24th after my now infamous helicopter ride.  

I got to the hospital and was immediately bombarded by people trying to get me admitted so they could do the c section.  Our favorite nurse of the entire experience joined our little journey at this point.  It was actually really funny, even at the time.  It was just so odd that we had to laugh. I will just refer to this nurse as 'the mumbler' and our conversation went something like this:

The Mumbler: "hutithurullmane?" 

Miss Jen:  Umm...sorry?  What was that?

The Mumbler "hut ith ur ull mane?

Now...let us pause to remember my state of mind at this point:  blood pressure off the chart, expecting a baby with serious spinal birth defect, big scary helicopter ride, nearly had bladder removed by my catheter....I'm scared, irritable, tired and let's not forget pregnant and hooked up to 8 machines.  This is not the time to set me up with a nurse that seems less than capable.

So after this odd exchange I glanced at my mom, she glanced at Lowell and he shrugged.  I decided to take a stab in the dark and said  "Jennifer Stewart??"  Well, apparently 'hutithurullmane' means: "What is your full name?"  The conversation went on like that for about 30 minutes while she got all my information.  I was exhausted before I got to her and absolutely useless after that.  Where do they get these people??

At some point it was time for the main event and I was so ready!  I was nervous but still ready to turn the page into our new life and get on with whatever that was going to mean.   The c section was really surreal and uncomfortable and strange.  The surgeons were babbling away about all kinds of nonsense (ie sports and girlfriends) while they did the c section.  I was freaking out and really nauseous.  Thank the Lord above for the anesthesiologist that gave me some kind of 'happy meds' the minute they got Hazel out.  For one thing it totally chilled me out about the c section and it totally chilled me out about the fact that they whisked Hazel away to another hospital to try and get her stable so they could do her back repair surgery the next morning.  I didn't even get to see her, they passed her thru a window to the NICU the minute she was born.

As soon as they got me put back together they brought her in in the incubator that they use       transport her to the other hospital.  I reached out and she held my finger, I was so releved that she looked so good.  I don't know what I was expecting but other than the giant bandage on her back she looked totally normal and fine.  She was just 4 lbs 13 oz so she was tiny but still she looked so good.   I couldn't hold her or pick her up at all because of her back.  That was a heart breaking moment but as I said, the meds really helped me thru that it.