Daniel Lazarus' Birth

Home, the car across the street from the Quick Trip, the hospital, and now the elevator - apparently I have a way of experiencing a lot of birth locations.  I had joked a few times with friends about where I might give birth this time, and I had even mentioned the hospital elevator, but I never actually thought our 5th child would come out on the ride up to the 3rd floor of the hospital.  So, here's the story:

   I thought I was in labor the evening of Saturday, September 30th.  I began having regular, strong contractions, I was shaky, cold, nauseous, achy.  It sure seemed like things might be moving quickly.  Justin bet me a cheesecake that I was truly in labor as I debated it.  Contractions began to fizzle out overnight.  I felt physically horrible.  Took my temperature... I had a fever.  I was sick.  I was not in labor.  I enjoyed my piece of cheesecake once I was able to get out of bed a few days later.

  I had contractions on and off throughout the next week.  The evening of Saturday, October 7th I began having regular, strong contractions again.  My mom spent her 2nd night at our house in anticipation of baby's arrival.  She woke in the morning to find we had not left for the hospital.  Contractions were spaced out.  I had one or two strong contractions per hour.  Mom went home.  I continued to wonder.

Sunday, October 8th at 7:30pm I began having those (can you guess?) regular strong contractions again.  Didn't bother Mom yet.  Put the kids to bed.  Went to bed.  On average the contractions were 12 minutes apart.  Their strength was almost more than I could bear, but this had been going on for days.  I went to bed.  Around 3:00am I decided it would be wise for my mom to come to our house in case we needed to leave for the hospital.  I got up to walk around and the contractions got closer together, but they would only last about 30 seconds and were super mild.  When I lay down they might only come every 15 to 20 minutes but were extremely overwhelming.  I kept trying things to help baby get into a better position, thinking that this strange labor pattern may be because of poor positioning.  This was the first labor ever where it felt good for Jusitn to press down on my lower back during contractions.  Perhaps all these days of contractions weren't doing anything because this little guy was stuck in an unproductive spot.  I was so tired emotionally and physically.

The best part of this labor was putting on some headphones and taking a starlit walk around my yard at 3:30am.  It was quiet and still.  I hoped the baby was working his way down and out, but I still wasn't sure.  

Everyone started waking up around 7am.  I got out of bed and talked with Justin about what to do.  We hoped to go into the office so I could get checked out to see if things were progressing.  They didn't have openings at the office so we decided we'd better just go ahead over to the hospital.  I got in the bath first, just to relax a moment before we left.  I sat there for 10 minutes with nothing happening.  Then a contraction came that nearly brought me to tears.  I got out of the tub and threw on a gown (what I consider my labor gown).  Justin tossed our stuff in the car and I said goodbye to all our kids.  8:10am.  I began sobbing.  "I can't keep doing this," I thought.  "I'm so tired, and I just don't know what I'll do if nothing is progressing."  My last labor had been so pleasant (for real), and this one was just so confusing and difficult.

It was pouring out.  I had two contractions on the drive to the hospital, and I did all I could to just breathe... breathe... Justin asked if he should drop me off at the door, but I said no.  I couldn't fathom having a contraction next to a group of strangers standing by the entryway without him next to me.  We finally found a parking spot in the last row.  We began trudging through the downpour towards the hospital entrance.  A contraction began and I hung on Jusitn's arm, grunting, pushing without meaning to, sobbing.  I looked down into a puddle in front of me.  "This is not a good place to have a baby," I said to myself, "Get inside!"

I did everything I could to propel myself forward and into the 3rd golden elevator on the right.  I collapsed to my knees in the back right corner, grabbed the handrail, and my body was pushing whether or not I wanted it to.  A man and woman joined us on the elevator (I never saw them... I wouldn't have known exactly who was there except Jusitn told me).  My water broke between floors 1 and 2.  The doors opened for the man to exit the elevator.  He paused, "Do you all need any help?" he asked.  The woman, her wits about her, firmly responded, "No, please just get off," and she tried to get the elevator door closed and moving again.  I could feel the baby's head coming down and I held it in my hand as I pushed.  The door opened to the 3rd floor and Justin tried to get me to move off the elevator.  "No."  Could I just scoot back a few feet? "No."  The woman called out into the lobby that I was having a baby in here; she held the door open and it buzzed the remainder of the time I was in there.  At some point she reminded me to just take a deep breath; this calmed me considerably and I tried to refocus myself on easing baby down.  Soon we were surrounded by nurses and an obstetrician.  When the doctor arrived, baby's head was out.  One more push and she helped pass him forward to my arms - 8:34am(ish).  We unwrapped a cord from around his neck and rubbed his back to get a good cry.  The doctor was about to clamp the cord and I asked her to please not, since I value delayed cord clamping.  "Whew," I said, "Ok, now I can get up." And I stood up and carried our baby to the gurney they had waiting for me.

I later found out from one of the nurses present that they were all super impressed with me.  Not because I had given birth in the elevator, but because I stood up and walked to the bed right afterward.  Ha, that part was the easy part.

We had to stay in the hospital at least 48 hours because I'm GBS positive and didn't get antibiotics during labor.  After losing nights of sleep prior to the birth and then having hospital interruptions for two nights, I was (still am) beyond exhausted.  I missed being with my other children terribly.  Most difficult for me was a new rule at the hospital that they have to draw blood from the baby if you delay cord cutting more than 2 minutes.  I had never heard of such a thing (and disagreed with the procedure, but tried to be a 'good patient' and give them what they wanted).  After they did two blood draws that failed, we finally put our foot down and declined any further attempts to draw his blood (poor guy).  Once they tested him for jaundice on the 2nd day and saw that he passed with flying colors they finally left us alone about it.  I'm including this part of the story here because I am passionate about parents being educated and aware of choices to be made, and I sure wished I had known about this new protocol beforehand!  So in the chance that you are expecting, try to find out if your birthplace does such a test if you plan to delay cord clamping so you can discuss your options. (update: after bringing up this issue with my birth team, they worked with the hospital to change this standard of testing baby's blood after delayed cord clamping (yay!)... I haven't checked to see if all was finalized, so wherever you are, it's good to ask.)

Daniel Lazarus Hart Winter  October 9, 2017   6lb 8oz 19 inches 

Prior to the birth, we had not settled on a name.  Looking down at his tiny, adorable face, I just wanted to call him Daniel.  The name has been on our long list over the years since I have a wonderful Uncle Danny and have always liked the name.  Our only daughter, Vera, had wanted to name him Lazarus, so we made that his middle name along with it being his baptized name in the Orthdox church.  So, you are welcome to call him by either name :).  Hart is my mother's maiden name and one of my middle names.  

The kids are loving their new little brother and think he is SO cute.  They have been so patient as Mommy rests and tries to regain some form of a feeling of normalcy... though that may still take a while.  I'm thankful Daniel Lazarus is here!  I'm thankful we are all healthy and well.  I'm thankful my days of contractions are done!  And I sure look forward to all the adventures these 4 boys and 1 gal will have for years to come.