Elsie Baby

Well the big day finally came! We are very excited to have her here. But, let me tell you, from a man's perspective that childbirth is one scary experience, but it is all worth it in the end.

I will tell a little of the story, but Aubrey is the one that we really need to hear from to get the whole story. That picture was of when we were first admitted. It was exciting! We thought her water was leaking and drove all the way up here to make sure. The nurses and doctor seemed doubtful, but when they looked under the microscope they found that indeed Aubrey was leaking fluid. They told us, "You are here until the baby comes." We were excited because we had previously convinced ourselves that it was a false alarm.
They have these cool crosses above every door. The Hospital was started by nuns long ago and it still carries some Catholic overtones. We loved it.
Here is aubrey not eating solid food. She loved the broth, but hated the world because, little did we know, we still had many hours of labor ahead. Aubrey got really ornery because she was starving and was worried about her mom making it on time. Of course, she still smiled for the photos.
After 6 hours, her mom arrived and they let her eat a solid dinner. Her mood changed instantly.
The contractions were moderate: 3 min. apart and not very intense. We were up and about. We were doing laps around the floor. The nurses loved us. They even let us leave the floor and do laps around the hospital. Still, no progression.
Aubrey was given some Cytotek, a pill that facilitates natural labor. It does not force the body to react, it just encourages dilation and contraction. We got a half dose at 4 pm when we weren't progressing fast enough on our own. They gave us another half dose at 8 pm. They monitored her for an hour and then we did more laps. The contractions did not hurt as bad when we were up and walking. Well, we did not sleep any because we were not tired and it was day time (we entered the hospital at 10 am on the 20th). But now it was getting late. We had not dilated very much at all (one centimeter) the entire 12 hours of labor! Aubrey was getting very discouraged.
They poked her with this,
Just in case she needed this:
And she looked like this when she had to go potty while being monitored:
For a long time the monitor looked like this: Contractions about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes apart.
So they decided to let us sleep through the night and not give us one more dose of Cytotek...but the effect of the labor-inducing drug was already working. They gave Aubrey some pain medication because she was experiencing hard Back Labor. Not fun. It hurt much worse than the contractions and it would not let up between contractions. Poor girl. She took a shower and went to the bed, but not to sleep. A hard contraction hit causing the bag of waters to really come surging out. Every two minutes she was in lots of pain, and the pain kept escalating.

It was midnight, the doctor went home and the nurses thought we were asleep in our room, but there would be no sleep that night. Thanks to Aubrey's mom, I was able to try and sleep a little while she stood by Aub's side, but every two minutes I was awakened by the sound of my beautiful wife in lots of pain. I tried to stay put in bed, but to no avail. I would rather be by her side being useless but at least trying to help than to be in bed being useless. Either way, I was not going to be able to sleep.

The contractions got unbearable about 4 am. I wanted to cry for her. She was in so much pain! She said if she had one more like the last one than she would die. She said she was at a 10 on the pain scale. But then she would endure one more, and then another. She was amazing. We thought we still had hours to wait, so we started contemplating an epidural. We pushed the button to call for the nurse. Right then, she said, "I HAVE TO PUSH!" And we were thinking, "well, you still got a long way to go kiddo." The doctor came in, for some reason she came back to the hospital. She heard aubrey say that, and checked her. To everyone's disbelief, even the doctors, she was fully dilated. We were having a baby! It was 4:30 am.

Doctor Todd said, "well just wait until we get set up alright?" The room got busy with excitement. Nurses flew into the room and started getting things ready. Aubrey still had a long way to go. Each push got the baby's head a little bit closer. We could see little hairs on Elsie's head, then she would slide back in and disappear. After 30 minutes, the contractions stopped. The uterus was just plain tired. It would not contract. We hooked her up to pytocin and gave her just a little bit so that the uterus would help her push the baby out! At 5:24, she came out! Here is a picture of her just one minute after she was born into mortality.
The Doctor was amazing. The cord was wrapped around Elsie's neck when she came out, but the calm skillful hand of the doctor pulled the baby and freed her from possible mental retardation caused by the cord. Elsie took a big Gulp of her own bowel movement, so she had to have her stomach pumped quickly after the birth. But she was fine, healthy, and PINK! she still has really pink skin.
Me and baby:
Baby Elsie in arms of mom:
The new Hatch Family:

Mom and the first "Hatch" grandbaby

Lorrie Ferguson came to visit and brought us flowers!

Daddy loves her!

In the nursery. Little pink body. This is right before her first bath: