Harrison

Introducing our new little baby boy Harrison Timothy Dozier. Weighing in at 8 lbs. 7 oz and 21" long, Harrison was born on April 11th. Here's the story...

On Thursday, April 9th, I had my weekly doctors appointment. I had been dilating about a centimeter a week, so already being at 3 1/2 cm and 65% effaced, at 39 weeks, I thought for sure that after checking me I'd be so far along that my doctor would be like hey lets head over to the hospital and get this party started! But no...all progression had stopped...I was the same as the week before. I burst into tears! I was sooo ready to have my baby! So for the rest of the afternoon I was grouchy and convinced that I would be pregnant forever! I went to work on Friday and told my boss she didn't have to worry about me leaving, I would just be in a constant state of pregnant for the rest of my life! (dramatic, I know) So Friday night, in an attempt to take my mind off of my giant pregnantness, my sister Melissa, Ginny & I went to see the Hannah Montana Movie :) I was secretly hoping that the excitement of the "Hoe Down Throw Down" would put me into labor :) But no...still no labor. So I went home. Colin and I went for a walk around the block (it was my last desperate go into labor attempt). Then Colin and I got ready for bed, we talked about what I was going to do on Saturday since he was working, and blah blah blah. I drifted off into dream land...and then...

4am Saturday, April 11 - Pain woke me up. I was a bit confused. For the last few weeks, over activity would cause contractions. When I would stop my crazy cleaning, fast walking, or ladder climbing, they would stop. But this time I was sleeping! Just laying there and then there they came. Could this be the REAL THING??? So I sat there until 4:30 and then decided that Colin needed to be in on the action. He was his delusional self when I woke him up from his deep sleep. I'm pretty sure he just thought I was being dramatic because he still mentioned going to work...and I was like uh no! If I'm in real labor, you're not going anywhere!! (I'm glad he's so dedicated to his job!) I decided I needed to take a shower..."just in case". I got in the shower, contracting the whole time, and my sweet hubby sat in the bathroom, half asleep, asking me if I was still ok. I lied and said yes :) Once I got out of the shower, we decided that we should probably start timing how far apart my contractions were. Eight minutes. I started to panic a little...I'm pretty sure we were supposed to go to the hospital when they were ten minutes apart. Colin called my mom and told her that we were getting our stuff and coming to their house so we could be closer to the hospital. With soaking wet, unbrushed hair, I got dressed and got in the car. Six minutes. They were getting closer together. I'm very surprised that there aren't any claw marks in my car. The contractions were starting to get pretty intense. Every time I had one I would practically climb up the back of my seat. I told Colin to call my parents and take me strait to the hospital.

It had been raining the night before and the freeway was wet. I didn't care! I kept telling Colin to drive faster!! He was thinking a wee bit clearer than I was, so he kindly told me that he couldn't because we needed to get there in one piece. I'm glad he's sensible :) When we FINALLY got to the hospital, he asked me if we should park in the parking garage...I believe my response was NO! GET ME IN THERE!!! (or something to that effect) So he pulled up to the little round about by the doors, left the car running, and ran in to get someone with a wheelchair. I was in tears at this point. Not like boo hoo sobby tears, they were just running down my face, uncontrollably. I hurt and the contractions were coming fast and hard. I had no doubt that this was the real thing!

Once we were inside, they took me back to a little room to hook me up and check me. It was around 6 am at this point. The nurse that took me back was a girl that I played volleyball with my junior and senior year. She had me strip down and put on a gown...looking back...that's a bit awkward... When the other nurse finally came in and checked me, I was dilated to 6!! That made me cry real boo hoo tears! It was happening so fast! And it hurt like h-e-double hockey sticks! So they finished the admitting process and a nurse came from labor and delivery to get me. She brought a wheelchair. HA! My contractions were four minutes apart at this point. She took one look at my contraction face and said "we'll take you in the bed". I officially love her! They wheeled me, bed and all, into the elevator. My parents and Colin were in the elevator too. I wanted to say hi parents, glad you're here parents...but I was too busy kung foo gripping the rails of the bed every four minutes!!

Once upstairs, they skooched me into the labor and delivery bed. The nurse checked me...dilated to eight!!! The mad dash began! There were probably a dozen nurses in my room hooking me up to things, bringing stuff in, and asking me questions. The wonderful nurse that let me stay in the bed asked me about an epidural...I think I just kept repeating please please please please. She assured me that I would get one. Even though she kept saying don't worry...I was thinking in my head "So this is it. I'm going to give birth naturally. I wonder how bad it's going to hurt?" Then I heard her yelling in the hall WHERE'S DR. SO AND SO??? She's my hero! He came right in and they sat me up and I hugged the heck out of a pillow while he did his magic. I had been generally grouchy up to this point...what can I say? It hurt! I wasn't really in the mood to tell anyone my social security number or to have my hand poked or even have my husband trying to talk to me...I was too busy clinging to the bed rails! But then the wonderful epidural kicked in. I was calm. I was smiling. I was pain free and happy! I was dilated to nine and fully effaced.

Things slowed down. Every time they checked me they warned me that it might break my water. Nope. I laid there for a couple of hours in epidural bliss. I could feel the pressure, but NO PAIN! After a while the nurse had the doctor come in and break my water. I was then fully dilated in no time. And then she said, let me know when you feel like you want to push. NEVER was my thought. I started to panic! I told her not yet.

With Connor, I was in labor for twenty-four hours...I pushed for FOUR HOURS! It was the most painful, exhausting thing I had ever done. Towards the end I was begging the nurses to just pull him out (they wouldn't of course...just kept calling me a "trooper"). The thought of doing that again terrified me. I did NOT want to start pushing. I put it off as long as possible. I kept telling myself ok, this is going to hurt and it's going to take a while...you did it once you can do it again. So we decided it was time to start. The nurse hopped up on the table, it was go time. A couple pushes into it they told me he had lots of hair! She called for the doctor and we kept pushing. He came in right as I was having another contraction. While he put on his gloves he told me to just "breathe through this one". Ya right! My mom said I gave him a really dirty look :) Breathe through it...whatever! He sat down, a contraction started, I pushed and out came Harrison! Good catch doc! I only pushed for TEN MINUTES!!! It was 10:20am. Only six hours from start to finish! It was awesome! (compared to 24 hours!!!)

More pictures - coming right up :)