Announcing the birth of our daughter, Hayleigh Antonetta McCann Part One

Hayleigh just born

Hayleigh 6 days Old

So, now everyone can see why I haven't been on here for a while. I was waiting to post the 37 wks  post on Tuesday, after my doctor's appointment, to post what I had found out. Last Tuesday, at work, I started not feeling soo hot at 6:30 am, I was dizzy and was just plain yucky feeling. I checked my blood pressure with the little wrist blood pressure monitor we have there at work, and it gave the reading of 139/87, which is higher than mine has been this whole time. I called Allen at home- lucky he did not take the load he was to take to St. Joe Missouri, to tell him to come and pick me up, since I did not feel like driving home. I called my mom, and asked her if I should go ahead and call Sandy, my midwife, but, since I already had an appointment scheduled for that morning at 10:10am, we decided to just wait. I came home with Allen after work, and laid down until it was time to leave. Luckily, we had halfway packed an overnight bag for me for "just in case". We made it to the clinic, weighed- I had gained the 2 lbs back- bringing me back up to 20lbs, and one of the OB doctors checked me- I was dilated to 4 already. I asked the question of could I get out of work for the rest of the week, and just how long she thought I had until the baby would be ready. She replied that she would go and get Sandy. Sandy then comes right back, and asks me how I feel about having a baby today....UMMMMM I replied, I just wanted to get out of work for the rest of the week, so, we left the clinic, and went straight to the hospital. Both Mom, and Allen were with me this whole time, and were getting soo excited. Allen told me I turned white as a ghost when Sandy told me what was going to happen. I know I was shaking and about to cry. I wasn't ready! I still had stuff to clean in the house, and wanted to have time to relax before this! Anyway, after dealing with this is really happening now, both Allen and I called everyone that was "on call" and our works to let them know what was going on. I got checked in to the hospital, and put right in a room- the biggest room they had, since we were the only ones in there that day. I got hooked up to the monitors, and sat on the bed, thinking everything was soo surreal. Mom  got to put my IV in, since the nurse blew my vein. I was then put on pitocin to induce labor. I sat there in the bed, while Allen and my Mom ran around getting everything I/we needed that was not packed. I sat and sat and sat. Sandy came and checked on me, and I had a few visitors- Allen's grandparents and a few of our friends. I had my water broken at 4:30 pm- it really hurt bad! It wasn't until about 7:30 that I started to really need some pain relief, with contractions every minute and a half apart. I got a drug administered to my IV to help take the "edge" off. I was soo delirious that I could barely keep my eyes open halfway. I once asked my mom if she needed more light to finish Hayleigh's baby quilt, I told her we had a baby wipe warmer with a light she could use.  The medicine worked great for an hour and a half, then the contractions started rolling in again. My mom sent for the nurse to get more of the same drug that I had in the IV- it did not help at all. My mom was rubbing my back every few minutes with bath and body works Christmas lotion - I don't know what I would have done without her. Then, my blood pressure cuff kept pumping up - it did this for 3 minutes straight. The nurse had previously changed the cuff 3 times. I had a melt down with the blood pressure machine in the middle of a really hard contraction. I was bawling my eyes out, calling the machine everything I could think of, begging anyone to take it the "F" off of me. I finally made it through the contraction and the blood pressure machine was stopped for a minute. My dad, and his wife, and her daughter had witnessed all of this and had stayed for the previous 2 hrs to help out. My dad and step mom decided to go ahead and leave, but, my stepsister, did not want to leave when things got really hard for me and thought everything was really interesting to watch.  My mom then called for the nurse to check me, and see about getting an epidural to help me rest. I was dilated to 8 and we called for the epidural. I could only have one person in the room with me at the time, even Sandy had to step out. I had my Mom stay. She had been my support for the last 4 hrs of pain, I wanted to have someone who could help me keep my focus there. Allen stood out in the hall with Sandy and talked about how they just "knew" I wouldn't make it through that week without going into labor. The epidural did not really hurt. Every video I had seen or tv show I had watched with a person getting an epidural, had made it out to hurt really bad- not in my case. The epidural helped sooo much! My epidural ended up running out and getting pulled out of my back, I was soo out of it, talking about Cameron Diaz and a truck blocking a drive. Everyone had been laughing, and I didn't even know it. When my mom asked what I was talking about, I replied that it was stupid and never mind. I pushed and pushed- I thought I was not making any progress, I couldn't believe how hard this all was to get Hayleigh's head out. Once her head was out, I could not hardly take it anymore. Then, the shoulders were the worst thing for me. I handled it all feeling like I was dying- I never cussed. Finally, at 6:28 am, Hayleigh came out into the world. I was soo exhausted when they put her on my belly that I didn't realize what was happening right then. I had been up for over 24hrs at that point. I rubbed Hayleigh and started crying, or tried to cry- I was almost too exhausted to cry. I kept asking what I needed to do, and they just let Hayleigh lay on my belly. Allen cut the cord, and Sandy was remarking about how big the umbilical cord was, and didn't know how she was going to clamp it. The nurses took Hayleigh over to the warming station, and checked her out. While she was there, I sat there and cried, realizing what had just happened. We finally were here. A family of 3 now. Allen and my mom were by my side, Allen kissed me and told me how great I had done. I told him to go over with my mom and hold Hayleigh. Sandy worked on getting the placenta delivered, and then started to repair the very minor damage I had- she said I could go without stitches, but, she would just give me a few just to make everything heal a little faster. Amazingly I had no injections to numb for the stitches. I asked Sandy if I had a bm while delivering Hayleigh, she replied, "NO". NOO! I was soo happy! I got to sip on a sprite while they took Hayleigh to the nursery to check her out, with Allen by her side. I went ahead and asked to go to the bathroom, since I could feel my legs really good. One of the nurses helped me to the bathroom, told me what all I needed to do to take care of myself, and helped me back to my bed. I got back to the bed, and they brought Hayleigh back to me with Allen. We had a full waiting room just for Hayleigh, Allen told me, and then everyone come in to meet our new family. They all held Hayleigh and just went on how beautiful she was. I had a renewed energy, sitting there soo proud of our new family, thinking of how long we had waited for this. After a while, everyone filed out, and let me rest- I just sat there beaming, holding Hayleigh. I got some lunch after a while, and decided I felt good, I had made it to the restroom 3 times by myself, and started straightening up the room, and myself. A nurse came in and asked if we would like to be in the commercial that they were filming for the hospital, I told her yes. That evening after many visitors, we filmed the commercial. Hayleigh wasn't even a day old! Allen went and got us take out from the steakhouse, and we sat and bonded with our new little girl. My mom and dad were soo proud of Hayleigh. I have never seen my dad act the way he did, and still does now. I will have a few more parts to this to catch everyone up on where we are now. Everyone is doing great, we are home, and my heart aches every day from having soo much love I didn't even know I could have for my mom, dad, and our new family. I know I now have a deeper bond with my mom. I couldn't have done this without her by my side. I never knew that I would feel soo much love like this. I kind of feel like the Grinch - my heart grew 10 times bigger that day, and I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything in the world.