Welcome to the World, Hazel Madeline Benoit

On Thursday, June 12th, 2008 Hazel Madeline Benoit made her grand entrance into the world. Labor was long, hard and not at all as we had planned, but in the end we have the most beautiful little girl and we couldn’t be happier.

On Wednesday, June 11th I had just come home from a serious bout of mall walking with my mom and sat down to watch Oprah (because that’s what 9 months pregnant ladies do at 4 pm on Wednesday afternoons). As I sat down I had my very first contraction. Throughout this pregnancy people have told me that “you’ll know” when you’re in labor. I thought I would be blissfully unaware, but, people were right- I knew, right away that I had had a contraction, and that if I had any more I’d be in labor. From there things went lightening fast. I started having contractions every 5-7 minutes for about a minute at a time. Jered and I had planned to stay at home as long as possible, but pretty much as soon as we got upstairs to try and labor in bed the contractions started coming on very very quickly. We called the hospital around 5:45. By 7 pm we were at the hospital and checked in- I was at 2.5 centimeters and 90% effaced, baby was at -2 station. We were excited and could hardly believe that this was it!

I labored using the hypnobirthing methods we learned from 4 pm until midnight. I managed to keep ahead of the contractions and was doing really well. By midnight when I was ready for some relief, I had dilated to 5 centimeters and was almost completely effaced. Although we had planned to have a medication free birth, after 8 hours of med free labor I was getting tired, and I knew that we still had 5 more centimeters to go and that it could be a long time. I asked for relief- a bit disappointed, but as soon as the epidural took effect I knew that I had made the right decision!

For the next almost 3 hours I had pain relief and was able to doze on and off and relax as I visualized working the baby down. Around 3 am I started to feel the catheter that had been inserted- I thought this was the pressure the had described to me, so I had our wonderful nurse Judy check me. I was 7, almost 8 centimeters!!! The pressure, however, was not from the baby moving down- it was my epidural wearing off. 

Over the next hour my pain went from bearable pressure to unbearable, earth shattering, thought I was going to die of pain. I had back labor and was moving through “transition” with no pain relief. For nearly 4 hours I labored without pain relief from 7-9 centimeters. That’s where things got stuck.

Around 6:30 am our nurses finally were able to call the anesthesiologist back to figure out what was going on with me. It turns out my epidural went into the wrong space, or so we thought. A second epi was put in, and slowly I started to get relief again. An hour and a half later, I was still in pain, although it wasn’t as excruciating as the pain I had had earlier. It was shift change time and we went from two wonderful nurses to two nurses who couldn’t have cared less about what was going on. By 7:30 am we were on a pitocin drip to try and speed things up (something we did not want). By 8 am, the doctor was telling us that if the baby’s heartrate continued to fluctuate we would be having our baby “up top” (which I’ve since learned is doc speak for C-section). The baby was still at -2 station despite me having progressed to 9 centimeters. I was stuck and so was she. 

Hazel held up like a champ until nearly 9 am when her heart rate started to go crazy, into the 200’s and then down into the 80’s. We were headed for an “up top” deliver. After coming to terms with this (it was a very teary, anxiety producing moment)- Jered got a set of scrubs and I was wheeled to the OR for prep. I was placed on a table and they started to load my epidural with a stronger dose for the C-Section. To make a long story short, 30 minutes later there were very large parts of my stomach that were not numb at all. I was headed for a true “emergency” c-section under general anesthesia. I have never been under general anesthesia in my life, I was absolutely terrified, and I knew that Jered couldn’t be in the room with me. I counted down from 10-8 and woke up groggy, shaking and disoriented a few hours later. 

Hazel Madeline Benoit was born at 9:28 am on Thursday, June 12th. She is absolutely perfect and worth every contraction, every medical intervention and every bit of fear and anxiety we experienced in getting her here. My mom and Jered got to meet her shortly after she was taken out, and 3 hours later, around 12:30 I finally got to meet our little girl. 

Was delivery what we hoped it would be? No. Did hypnobirthing work for us? Yes. Without the relaxation techniques and the calming support of Jered, the night nurses and my mom, I don’t know if I would have made it. In the end, does the delivery matter? Yes and No. I tried my best to have Hazel naturally, it didn’t work out, but at the end of the day (actually, at the beginning of the day) we have a beautiful daughter, and that is worth whatever it takes. We are so in love.

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Filed under Pregnancy by esther |