Part 2: The Delivery: "Push! Push! You're doing great!"

(Again, WARNING: Seriously, for reals: There might be TMI for people who really don't want to know TMI about me. Or TMI in general. TMI=Too Much Information. Like, a baby coming out of privates. Just saying. But if you want to know TMI about me [which I know a lot of you do]...continue on!)

I wanted to punch the doctor and nurses in the face for saying that.
For repeating it over and over again.
The nurse told me that whenever a contractions came along to hold my breath like I was going under water and push.

The nurse also told me to lift my legs up and put them in the foot holding things:
I don't think this nurse has ever had an epidural.
I tried with all my might to lift my legs!
I stared at my legs very hard as I tried to use The Force to move them.
Nothing was happening.
"I'm sorry, I can't move my legs." I told the nurse, and she helped lift my left leg up.
"Chris, do you think you could maybe lift my right leg up? I can't." And that was his work out for the day.
It must be leg day.

Believe it or not, its actually pretty hard.
Pushing a baby out. Of your body.
Even if you can't feel the pain.
It is exhausting.
In one of the pushing moments, I was holding my breath and pushing and they kept saying, "Don't stop! Keeping pushing!" But I could feel that I was running out of breath. It literally felt like I could drown.
I stopped pushing and gasped.
Then I said, "I'm sorry, I couldn't breathe."
I apologized to them, hahaha! I'm sure they got a laugh out of that too...I was too busy having a baby to notice though.
My knees were up in my face and a group of strangers were staring at my crotch.
I felt the complete opposite of glamorous...

But in all honesty, I didn't care that these people were strangers or that my legs were spread wide open for all to see.
I really thought that I would care.
I thought about it for 9 months and imagined myself throwing my gown in between my legs from embarrassment.
But when it came time to push Serena out of my freaking body I didn't care if News10 was in there recording the whole thing.
You lose your sense of privacy after/during having a baby.

I wanted to stop pushing and take a nap. Eat a pop tart. Read a book.
I wanted to do anything but push.
"Her head is crowning!" the doctor said.
That's nice, I thought, But pushing is exhausting and I would really like to take a nap.
The doctors and nurses kept cheering me on, but I just really wanted them to.....shhhh.

Then I heard Chris say, "I can see her head!"
I looked over at him, "Really?!" I asked. Yes, Sabrina, because Chris would joke about this right now.
"Yeah!!"
"Her head?!"
"Yeah!"
"You can see her??!"
"Yes!"
And that did it for me...I wanted to push.
Chris looked so excited to meet his daughter, and if that's not motivating, I don't know what is!
Chris is one heck of a motivational speaker (;
Just hearing it from him made all the difference in the world to me.

The doctor asked me if I wanted to touch her head. Whaaaaat? Nooo gracias.
Then she insisted I touch her head which was coming out of me at this time in my life.
Seriously, she was like, "Touch her head."
And so I touched her head. Which was totally weird.

I just can't express enough how weird it is to touch a head that is coming out of you.

When I reached down to touch her head I could NOT see where my hand was going.
I felt something hairy and quickly pulled my hand back...
I was certain my baby was coming out bald.
Turns out she has a lot of hair!
And the hairy thing I touched was her head!! (Whew!)

Sooo I continued to push and push and push.
It felt like 5 minutes, but it wasn't 5 minutes!
It was 26 minutes (total). Yup. Go ahead and read that again.
Started at 4:03AM all the way to 4:29AM. And all I felt was glorious pressure.

AND THEN we heard the doctor say she was here, but I didn't hear a cry...
"The umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck." the doctor said calmly.
Um, I just...I just felt like this is something that people shouldn't stay calm about.
I looked around the room to see if anyone shared my concern.
Really, I was just looking for someone to panic so that I could panic too.
But Mom, she looked calm.
Nurse? Calm too.
Doctor? More calm than if she were having a spa day.
Other Nurse? Calm as flat ironed hair.
Chris?? He looked at me like, Should I go over there and cut the umbilical cord or something?
Well, if everyone is calm, I guess I could be too. Darn you guys for not letting me panic. But really, thank you.
Seconds later the doctor had cut the cord off her neck and she let out a little tiny squeaky cry.
I looked at Chris. Our daughter!! That's her!!! Whaaaaat?!
And then I thought, We're parents now. For reals.

Goodbye sleep.

The Little Alien

Chris and I were both pretty much in our own little world when one of the nurses said, "Did you want to take pictures??" And Chris was like, "Oh yeah! Almost forgot!"








March 15th, 2014
Serena Lea Hamann 20 1/2 inches, 7lbs 7oz.


So it was over. The nurses and doctor left. I pushed her out and we laid with each other for hours. Nothing different than when she was growing inside me, except that I could see her. Her tiny long fingers. Her tiny little body. She is absolutely beautiful.



And I could feel the epidural wearing off...
Oh, crap.

Read the last part here: Part 3: The Recovery: We did it!
I love you all, thank you for reading and enjoying the experience with me!
If you haven't read Part 1, you can read it by clicking here.

Sabrina, the Mom (officially)

Part 1: The Labor: I support drugs.

(WARNING: There might be TMI for people who really don't want to know TMI about me. Or TMI in general. TMI=Too Much Information. Like, a baby coming out of privates. Just saying. But if you want to know TMI about me [which I know a lot of you do]...continue on!)

1. My Mom was two weeks over due with me.
2. I was a giant headed 10lb 9oz baby.
3. I broke her tail bone.
4. She thinks of me every time she sits down (:

You're like, "Sabrina, how do you know all this? You were just a baby, you can't remember."
Weeeeeeeeell, I have heard the stories non-stop from everyone who was there, literally since I was born.

Now, with this in mind, I think we can safely say that I was a little bit...slightly...nervous. A tiny bit.
Baby Hamann was due March 8th (Saturday), but nothing exciting happened that weekend. So my doctor scheduled me for an induction for that Friday, the 14th.
I had very mixed feelings about going in to be induced. I did want to do it, I didn't want to do it.
I may have cried about it for hours (those hormones, man).
I wanted to go into labor naturally, especially for my first child.
But my fear of pushing out a giant baby really scared me.
I kept my induction scheduled and I felt very unsure of everything...
Until I got to the hospital.

We got there early morning on Friday.
I felt like a little kid full of excitement, holding my pillow like a portable hug as Chris and I sat down while the nurses checked us in.
Everyone seemed so calm, how can they be so calm?? Don't they know what is happening?
They walked us to our room, told us things (that I don't remember), then (my favorite part) taking off all my clothes and getting into that fabulous gown. Gosh, I felt like a princess in that thing! har har

That is a nervous soon-to-be Dad if I ever saw one!

They came in and gave me oxyclean (I can't remember the names of anything) or something to help my contractions along.
(Oh, PS I was already at 3 cm when I went in, but I had been like that for about 2 weeks.)
I was having contractions but not painful ones, and I got to 3.5 cm.
I was at 3.5 cm for a long while, when they decided to break my water since it wasn't breaking on its own.
They broke that, and that hurt. That was weird. So weird. Everything about having babies is just weird.
My contractions started getting stronger and more often. I thought, I may be able to do this naturally!
While I was on a trip back from the bathroom, a very painful contraction came. I stopped walking and said owowowow, and Chris was standing a little bit away and I had the sudden urge to murder him.
Really! I did!
He was going to walk over to me to help me out (because he is the sweetest), but I feared for his safety and told him (maybe yelled at him) to stay there. Because I really wanted to punch him in the mouth and kill him. The contraction stopped and I looked up at Chris with wide eyes, "I need that epidural now!"
I was only at 4 cm!
(Side note: I most likely won't induce again.)

I would say the hardest part about the labor was getting the epidural. But the nurses were right there helping me stay calm and relaxed and then it was over. I didn't get to see the needle, aaaand I didn't want to.

That drug though.

I became numb and I couldn't feel the painful contractions anymore, just wonderful pressure.
Wonderful, wonderful pressure.
And I looked at the ceiling.
And I looked at the walls.
And I looked at Chris.
Everything was wonderful.
I. felt. freaking. fantastic. I.F.F.F #ifff

As you can see below:

This is the boring part:
I napped.
Chris napped.
My Mom came, and she napped.
We all napped. We were just a bunch of happy nappers waiting for a baby.
Chris (left) and Mom (right)






The doctor said at the rate that I was going the baby probably was going to get here in the late morning/early afternoon (Sat. 15th).
I thought, Woohoo! All that sleep!

The nurse would come in every so often to check everything and that would wake me up, and I'd just go back to sleep.

AND THEN the nurse came in and looked at my monitors and quietly said while still staring at the computer, "It's time to push." and then rushed out of the room.
I was a little bit groggy from sleeping and my brain wasn't registering anything.
And then it started registering things.
What!? Where'd you go, you little nurse nurse?? You can't just leave me!
"Chris...Chris. Chris! Chris!!"
"Hm?"
"It's time to push. Wake up my Mom!"

The nurse came back and started doing weird things to my bed and foot things appeared where I could put my feet up. Then she pulled down a light from the ceiling. Where are all these things even coming from??

The nurse said to practice pushing until the doctor got there.
Um, I don't even know what that means, everybody.
I don't know how to practice push, I only know how to real push.
So I started to real push around 4:03AM.
So long, sleep! I will miss you terribly and never get you back.

The doctor arrived and said don't push.
These people are sending me mixed signals.

The doctor puts on her gloves or something and says, "Okay, start pushing whenever you feel a contraction."

Mixed signals, I tell you.
--------------------------

Here is Part 2: The Delivery: "Push! Push! You're doing great!"!!
(Part 3: The Recovery: We did it!)
This post is already too long.

I love you all!

Sabrina