156 Hours

 

It's 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night and it has been 156 hours since Aubree and I arrived at Baylor Medical Center in Frisco.  Hazel was a week late and it was time to induce labor before she went too far past the due date.  The contractions started a little after 9 a.m. and were predictably mild for a few hours.  We would roam the hallways and watch Netflix on the iPad...looking for ways to pass the time until things started to kick into high gear.  Time flew by at a surprising rate and by 11:30 p.m. it was time to start pushing.  It was not exactly the way you see it in a movie or TV, you know, where the water breaks, she pushes really hard aaaaaaand there's the baby!  Our situation was more typical of real life and after two hours of hard work, Hazel finally made her entrance into the world.


October 12, 4:45 a.m. - Aubree is in our room and Hazel is screaming in the nursery as I stand by for her first bath.  She hates it.  But what would you expect from a newborn?  I snap a few pictures to show Aubree and decide to get a few hours of sleep since I had been up for nearly 23 hours.  Being a parent of an actual human and not a baby bump is a BIG difference.

October 12, 7:00 a.m. - Nursing shift change!  Nurses don't care what you're doing during shift change...it's time for them to pass the baton and introduce you to your primary nurse for the next 12 hours.  Don't get me wrong, the nurses are great and care a lot about the women who give birth and the newborns who are under their care.  We were fortunate enough to know a few of the nurses from various classes took at the hospital.  It makes a big difference to see a friendly face in a new environment.

October 12, 7:30 a.m. - The on-call pediatrician comes to our room to introduce himself.  This is when our typical labor and delivery experience got turned on it's head.  We learned that Hazel was in the NICU after her blood sugar levels dropped and that her eyes are cloudy.  I don't like to talk down about people, so I'll just say his bedside manner was.........lacking.  The news was not well received and we felt very alone all of a sudden.  Can she see?  Is she in pain?  Is this common?  Will she need surgery?  What can you tell us!?  A million questions enter your mind and all you know is that you know nothing.

It is a strange feeling to go through a full pregnancy with the office visits, classes, preparation and have it shattered in a 3-minute meeting.  I don't know how to describe how it feels in that moment.  Shocked is probably the best word.  Shocked + Afraid + Sad + Hopeless...whatever that is...

 

First Picture with Hazel & Dad

 

Next Time: Life in the NICU