Introducing....

Hannah Karen Callister!!!

She arrived Tuesday, August 10th at 4:18 am. She weighed in at a whopping 6 lb 5 oz and is 18.5” long.

Do you want to know how it all went down? I’m sure you’re all dying to know.

Monday, August 9th:

Derrick and I celebrate our 7 year anniversary! Woo!

3:30 am—Big thunderstorms wake me up. I start having contractions about 6-7 minutes apart for 4 hours. I can’t sleep. I kind of start to freak out because I need to pick up my mom from the airport at 11 am.

7:30 am—Contractions die down.

11:00 am—Pick up mom from airport. Get lunch, go home. Have random contractions, but nothing regular.

2:15 pm—Doctor’s appointment. I’m dilated to 1 cm, but no other progress. Still planning on being induced on Friday the 13th. Still having random contractions.

6:00 pm—Derrick and I decide to go to dinner for our anniversary and leave Summer in Grandma’s hands. We eat at PF Chang’s (yum!). I have painful contractions throughout dinner, but nothing regular. Just enough for me to stop eating my Mongolian Beef and Great Wall of Chocolate for a few minutes.

7:00 pm—We go to Kohl’s and Target to look for a doll for Summer as a gift from the baby. People start to stare at me as I stop and have contractions in the parking lot.

8:00 pm—Come home and watch Bachelor Pad. Talk about scandals. Gonna be a great show! I am having painful contractions every 10 minutes. But they’re not as painful as watching how crazy Michelle is on TV. What a nutjob.

10:00 pm—Head to bed. I have a feeling I might not make it through the night so I finish packing for the hospital and go to sleep. I’m still contracting every 10 minutes but manage to doze in between them.

Tuesday, August 10

12:05 am—Start having more painful contractions every 3-5 minutes. I lay in bed and try to breathe through them without waking up Derrick. I impatiently wait for that magic 1 hour mark of close contractions before I can call the doctor’s office and see if I get to go to the hospital.

12:50 am—I tap Derrick and say, “I think it’s time to go!” He says, “Time to go where??” “TO THE HOSPITAL!!!”

12:51 am—He calls the office. They call a nurse. The nurse calls us back. The nurse then calls my doctor and then calls us back and says to head to the hospital. I pray we don’t get sent home.

1:15 am—Arrive at the hospital and get checked in. I’m dilated to 5 cm! Hooray! I get to stay!

2:10 am—They break my water, hoping to speed things up a bit. I continue to labor.

3:00 am—My nurse checks me and announces, “It’s time to push! I’ll go get the doctor!” I’m ecstatic. Mostly because I’m still feeling pretty good at this point. Like, really good. They get me into the stirrups and get all the equipment out and my doctor comes in and checks me and is like, “Uhhhhh…she’s only a SIX!”

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???? I wanted to cry. No wonder I still felt so good. I hadn’t even hit transition yet! So they put the table back together and I continue to labor. Apparently the head was sooo low it was all you could feel and see and if you didn’t check closely enough you thought the cervix was all the way dilated, but it really wasn’t. We breed tiny kids with tiny heads, whose heads fill up my pelvis and sit really low but don’t put enough pressure on my cervix to dilate it. Stinkers.

My doctor knows I want this over with so she puts me on a little Pitocin, which definitely speeds up the frequency and intensity of my contractions. I start groaning like a zoo animal (says Derrick) and start wondering if my plan for no pain medication is really worth it. (It was.)

4:00 am—My doctor comes and checks me and I’m only a 7. I start to get discouraged until she says I can push. Sweet! She helps my poor little cervix along and after 3 contractions worth of pushing….

4:18 am—Hannah is born! She came out crying and I got to hold her right away and admire her head full of dark hair. I love me some babies with hair! I started bleeding a lot so I got worked on while Hannah got cleaned up and Derrick snapped pictures like a champ.

She’s been such a sweet little girl and is such a snuggler, I love it. We came home yesterday, a mere 36 hours after delivery. I am feeling much better than I was after Summer’s birth. Guess once things have been through the wringer already there’s not much more stretching that can happen. :)

It’s crazy to think that we are now a family of four. I’ve been pretty emotional lately, but that, my friends, is its own post entirely. These darn hormones!