The Hatz Family: Brea Jean's Birth Story!

I am writing Brea’s birth story for myself. Giving birth to my babies have been the most painful and amazing days of my life so I want to try and remember every detail. For those that would prefer the short story it goes something like this. Pitocin started at 8:15. I was checked upon arrival and was still 3-3.5 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. Pitocin was increased throughout the morning but my pain remained a 2 to 3 and I wasn’t progressing. Dr. Martin came in and broke my water at 11:45 and I received my epidural about 40 minutes later. Epidural was glorious and felt practically nothing for the next hour even though I did throw up the popsicle I ate. At 1:30, I started to feel pressure…a lot of pressure. Matt paged the nurse who came in and checked me. Declared me complete and paged Dr. Martin. The doctor came in got everything set up for baby time…I pushed through 4 contractions screaming and complaining the entire time. At 1:51 pm, Brea emerged and was placed directly on my chest. I declared the baby a girl because Matt didn’t have the proper angle to see. And just like that, we became a family of 5.

The long version (for me so feel free to skip): As mentioned in my previous post, we scheduled the induction for first thing Wednesday morning. Secretly, I wanted the baby born on Tuesday June 16^th because it was Matt and my ‘dating’ anniversary ~ 15 years! So while I tried to induce labor on my own baby stayed put until Wednesday. I did have some contractions on Tuesday but nothing consistent. However, I did enjoy my last day as a pregnant person by hanging out by the pool. It was also funny going into the Y Tuesday morning and having the lady at the front desk ask me how much longer and I got to say tomorrow!!

We dropped the kids off at my parents’ house for their 3 day stay. We gave them kisses and headed home. Tuesday night was really quiet without the kids and while I hoped I could get some sleep I tossed and turned most of the night. 5:45 came early and we got everything together and headed for the hospital. We checked in and got set up in our room. This induction was a interesting thing because I knew the day that the baby was coming and it was so surreal to be in the hospital room knowing was about to come…the calm before the storm.

The birth of Brea Jean can be divided into 2 parts….before my water broke and after. We were in our room by 6:45 or so but things didn’t get started until 8:15 when my pitocin was started. Our labor nurse, Tiffany, was really great. I didn’t find out until later that she had been in orientation period as a labor nurse and as of 3 pm that day she was officially on her own! Although, since the birth center was so busy she was pretty much on her own with me throughout my entire labor. We discussed my wishes for labor and whether or not I had a written birth plan. My birth plan pretty much consisted of getting the baby out safely and an epidural ASAP. I will say, knowing I was getting induced and knowing the pain that was coming I was much more desparate for a epidural that would actually work this time.

Side note: Tiffany kept calling the baby a ‘she’ throughout the morning. She said she had to pick a gender because she couldn’t call the baby ‘it.’ I told her I wouldn’t be offended if she called the baby a ‘she’ if we ended up having a boy. I joked about how this was our ‘drama baby’ and she said ‘it’s probably a girl then’ J.

We talked about my fast labors were especially after my water broke. So Tiffany’s game plan was to get my pain up enough to get the epidural and then break my water in hopes that the epidural would work. I liked the sound of that plan but my body did not. My pitocin was increased throughout the morning and while my contractions got closer together my pain stayed at a 2 to 3. My cervix stayed the same as well. So even though this birth wasn’t that much longer than the other two it seemed to move very slowly. I texted my mom about the slow progress and she texted me saying ‘hope they break it (water) soon and get this party started!’ Not soon after, Dr. Martin came in to see me. She also asked about my wishes for labor and with my response she said ‘okay, well let’s get you comfortable and have a baby.’ Sounded good to me! She checked me (no progress) and broke my water around 11:45. I always thing that it is going to hurt but I didn’t feel anything until the big gush of fluid…still so gross!

Tiffany was on top of me getting me my epidural and had already paged the anesthesiologist. Dr. Baker came in and she was great!! Although she almost scared me half to death because I moved thinking the epidural was done. It.was.not. She placed the needle twice because she didn’t like the placement of the first one. The epidural didn’t really hurt…the hardest part of curling my back for that long with my big tummy. My ribs were so sore by the time it was over. The epidural was glorious! I had no pain from the contractions. The epidural did make me sick after eating a popsicle, which came right up. Tiffany was right there putting a cold wash cloth on my head and reassuring me that throwing up is actually a good sign because it helps move the baby down into position.

Dr. Martin stopped by to see how I was doing around 1:15 ish and I said I was fine. I had felt a little bit of pressure but nothing else. She told me to let her know once things started to feel different. She left the room and barely 5 minutes later I felt A LOT of pressure! So much that I started freaking out and had Matt page Tiffany. She rush in, checked me and declared me compelte and ready to push! Upon hearing the news, I.lost.my.shit! I hate pushing, I think it is the absolute worst and made sure that everyone in the room knew my feelings on the subject. Tiffany paged Dr. Martin and the baby nurse. Dr. Martin couldn’t believe I was ready to go so soon. She didn’t even have time to walk across the hall to postpartum to perform a circumcision. The bed was broken down and everyone got ready for baby. I did a half-ass push the first time around hoping the baby was ‘right there’ but knew by the way Dr. Martin was acting that was not the case. So I got my big girl panties on and really pushed. Tiffany pulled out bars at the bottom of the bed that I could reach and use to help me push. I pushed harder than I remember pushing with the other two. No cursing this time around but a lot of screaming! Baby’s head was crowing between pushes, which was awful because I had to wait until my next contraction to push. I remember saying ‘get him out’ just like I did with Carter J. So Dr. Martin gave me, and I quote, “the world’s smallest episodomy’ to help. Once the head was out, I felt a little less pressure but I remember having to push the shoulders out as well whereas I feel like the other two kids just fell out once the head was out J. Anyway, I only pushed through 4 contractions (10 minutes or so) and the baby was out and everyone exclaimed ‘here’s your baby!’ I was pushing so hard my eyes were shut so I didn’t realize the baby was here. I looked down and declared that we had a girl!! Matt wasn’t in a position to see so I told him this time around. I couldn’t believe we had another beautiful baby girl especially after everyone told me they thought we were having a boy J.

I did some skin to skin contact for several minutes while Matt cut the cord, I delivered the placenta and Dr. Martin stiched me up. I was apologizing to everyone who reassured me that I knew how to have a baby and did great. I never feel less strong or brave after trying to push a baby out J. Dr. Martin couldn’t believe that my labor had gone that fast saying ‘you went from a 3 to baby’ J. After some cuddle time, the baby nurse took her to get her stats. Imagine my surprise when she weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces!! That is a big baby for me…a pound more than Carter who, until then, had been my biggest. Dr. Martin said that if I had gone full-term the baby could have been 9 and a half pounds…thank goodness I didn’t go full-term!!

After getting cleaned off, the nurse asked if I wanted to try and breastfeed. I put Brea to my chest and she latched immediately. The nurse even joked ‘did you see how much work I had to do to get that baby to latch.’ She nursed for about 10 minutes on each side as Matt and I basked in the first moments after just having a baby. We discussed our names and decided on Brea (pronounced bree-uh), which was the one name that we both agreed on. We debated on middle names for a bit before choosing Jean, which is my middle name.

We texted our parents but didn’t tell them the sex of the baby until they came to see us…my mom, Carter and Isla came in first and everyone was surprised by our little girl. Both Carter and Isla were thrilled as they both wanted a baby sister. I was happy that they were happy.

So that is the story of our Brea Jean. It certainly was a magical day and we are so in love with her!!