to remember…

Just a few silly things that I want to remember from Hollin’s birth….

*Matt and I were sitting on our bed, him trying to convince me to call the doctor, me trying to remember how close the contractions are supposed to be before you call… We got my phone to look up the clinic’s phone number on the internet. I typed in “Madison Women’s” (for Madison Women’s Clinic) and my phone autocorrected it to “Madison Wieners”. We were laughing so hard! And it hurt to laugh during a contraction.

*Matt was on call, of course. We heard a pager during the c-section and I asked Matt if it was his. He said, “Oh, well if it is! They’ll just have to wait.” Turns out it wasn’t his…luckily!

*Matt asked me during the surgery how I was feeling and I said, “I’m fine. I’m just in a strange mental state.” That cracked us up for some reason.

*My doctor told me to feel free to talk to her during the procedure, so at one point I asked her if I had a lot of scar tissue. She said she wasn’t that far yet, but she was sure there was probably just a normal amount. Matt said (sarcastically), “You’ve just got a really average uterus, Sarah.” Dr. S said, “Oh, I’m sure your uterus is extraordinary!” I don’t know why (maybe the strange mental state?) but I said, “That sounds like a great facebook status! ‘Doctor says that I have an extraordinary uterus!’” We all got a kick out of that!

*The first thing I said when they held her over the drape was, “She’s so SQUISHY!”

bringing baby home…

 

On Tuesday we got to bring our sweet little girl home! Initially my doctor said that they routinely keep patients three or four days, so we would probably stay until Wednesday or Thursday.

On Monday morning at 7am we were awoken by a jack hammer in our room. Ok, it wasn’t actually in our room, but it was so loud that it sounded like there was a lawn mower or something INSIDE our room! There was construction going on and it was so loud that we couldn’t even talk to each other. (Wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that we have to go back on Wednesday and have her hearing re-evaluated in her right ear?) When Dr. S came by, she said that since this wasn’t our first baby and we were both medical professionals, she would let us go home on Tuesday as long as everything was going well with me and the baby. Hallelujah!

Our stay at the hospital was actually GREAT! Everyone was SO nice. The nurses were great and so, so helpful with getting me and Hollin comfortable nursing. We had a big private room with a bathroom, and Matt even had his own bed. There was a “family kitchen” down the hall with free snacks and drinks available 24/7. I wouldn’t have minded staying longer if it weren’t for the horrible construction noises. Then again, it felt SO good to be home and to see Zane.

Matt said that it felt so different driving home with a new baby this time. He said he had never been so nervous behind the wheel of a car, as the day we brought Zane home. Everything has just seemed more calm and normal this time (including the baby!).

This is the dress that she came home in. Her DeeDee made it and it’s so precious. Funny: Matt and I put it on and buttoned it up the back….We later learned we had put it on backwards. We’re goofballs. Either way, she looked like a little angel. She also had on her Razorback socks. It’s weird to me that we had a baby in Wisconsin! She’ll always have Southern roots, though.

Zane meets Hollin

Is that not the sweetest face you’ve ever seen? Matt went home Sunday morning to tell Zane that his new little sister was here! They both headed to the airport to pick up his DeeDee and then came straight to the hospital so that he could meet Hollin. When he first walked in the room, he came straight to me and asked if had a boo-boo. I still had an IV in my hand, so he was a little concerned with that. I told him that it had medicine in it that was making me better and that baby Hollin was there to see him. He said, “Her not in you tum-tum no more? You tum-tum not big anymore?”He was very excited to hold her and gave her lots of kisses. He said, “She so tiii-ny.”Then, just as any good puppy dog would do, he gave her a nice lick on the nose.And he thought it was hilarious! Here’s a close-up.We asked him if it was ok to feed her pizza and he said, “No, her don’t have any teeth.” Is it ok if we bite Hollin? “No, she not so tasty.” Funny kid. Matt dressed him in his ‘Big Bro’ shirt and then he insisted on the hat and boots. And DeeDee made him a ‘Woody vest’ for Halloween and obviously he had to wear it immediately!

Here’s our first picture as a family of four.Her actual due date was November 5th and we had planned the delivery for October 28th. My mom had booked her flight for the 26th, and Matt’s mom & dad hadn’t booked their flights yet, but were planning to come the beginning of that week, too. So, obviously none of them were here waiting for her arrival when we headed to the hospital on the 15th! We were so lucky that they flew up here on the first flights available! DeeDee left Little Rock on a 6am flight and was here by noon!Nana Beth was at the hospital by 10 that night. They were so disappointed to miss the birth and so anxious to get their hands on this baby that you would’ve thought that they waited a year! They both met her before she was even a day old and she will never know the difference.Here are a few of the only pictures I’ve gotten with her eyes open. They were taken on Tuesday, our first afternoon home.   

Hollin’s Arrival

 

When I got home from work on Saturday night, I told Matt that I had mixed feelings. I knew that it would be bad timing for us to have a baby right then (he was scheduled to be on call all week and we didn’t have any family here yet), but at least I was 37 weeks (term baby) and I was miserable and wanted this baby out of me! Little did I know….

I went to work on Saturday, telling myself that I just had to make it through four more shifts. We were pretty busy and I hurt all day, which was really nothing new. Once I got in my car, I realized that these were a little more painful than normal, so I downloaded a contraction timer app for my phone and started timing them.

Matt had made vegetable soup for dinner and it was yuuummmy! I ate dinner and (secretly) kept timing. After about two hours I realized that they actually were pretty regular, at six minutes apart. I showed Matt my app and he said we needed to go to the hospital. I was worried about ‘crying wolf’ but he talked me into having the doctor paged and she thought it was best if we met her at the hospital just to check things out.

One of our friends, Kirsten, saved the day and came to the house to stay with Zane while we went to the hospital. I was pretty confident that I would be monitored for a little while and then we’d be back home. Zane was already in bed, watching TV and when we got ready to leave he said, “No, You make me weally weally sad! Don’t weave me!” Matt told him he could watch TV as long as he wanted. Z looked at me and said, “Dada say I can watch tt!” Kirsten said he was asleep about 30 minutes later.

Once we were hooked up to the monitors at the hospital, my contractions went from 6 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart, and I went from 1cm to 3cm, all in about an hour. And, just as I remembered, contractions are painful, annoying, and don’t stop. By a stroke of luck, my doctor was on call that night and let me know that they were going to start preparing the OR for the c-section. I got a little upset then, just thinking about how we had a waiting room full of about 40 people when Zane was born and this time it was just me and Matt. Even though that wasn’t the ideal situation, I feel like it brought us even closer together because we only had each other. I was also relieved because I wasn’t going to have to be pregnant any longer, excited to meet the baby, scared to have surgery, guilty for leaving Zane…so many things.

At 12:34am on Sunday, October 16th, 2011 we welcomed our precious baby girl! Hollin Elizabeth weighed 6 lb, 14 ounces and was 20 inches long. (Zane was 6 lb, 15 ounces and 20.25 inches. Almost exactly the same size!) We feel very blessed to have her!  

Hollin Elizabeth Bell

 

October 16, 2011 @12:34am

6 pounds & 14 ounces, 20 inches