Harper Elizabeth Hempkins is finally here!
She was born Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 1:20 pm. She weighed 8 pounds even and was 20 inches long.
We went in to be induced on Thursday morning at 7:30. I was 4 centimeters, so they gave me pitocin and said we'd wait until 5 or 6 centimeters for the epidural. Right away, she asked if I'd been feeling contractions. Even though I hadn't felt them, it turns out I'd been having contractions for quite a while. I assumed it was just Harper moving into a very uncomfortable position. Oh well. Within an hour, I began to have much more severe contractions. She went to turn the pitocin down and realized that I had jumped from 4 to 6 centimeters in 1 hour. So I went ahead and got the epidural. Now-let me just say-that epidural is sweet. It doesn't hurt (they numb you first) and it makes the pain go away. Why you would choose to suffer through labor with no pain relief is crazy to me. But anyways, so by now the family is starting to arrive. They wanted to come visit, go grab lunch and come back in the afternoon. My sweet nurse, Jessica, thought I'd be delivering somewhere between 3 and 5. But by 11:30 am, things changed very quickly. A nurse came in saying that Harper's heart rate had dropped too low and they were going to try and move me around to figure out what was going on. We sent the family to lunch while they were adjusting me. Within 2 minutes, I suddenly had 5 nurses surrounding me trying to get Harper's heart rate back up. They just couldn't figure out what it was. So they checked, and suddenly I was 10 centimeters and 100% ready to go! It had only taken 1 hour to get from 6 to 10, which is very quick. This sudden change was what was stressing little baby Harper out. So we sent word to the family that she was coming and started pushing. I pushed for about 10 minutes and took a break. Then the doctor said that if I couldn't push her out in the next set of contractions, they were going to have to use the vacuum (a cone head baby!) or take her by c-section. So I started pushing again and within 10 minutes she was born! What a relief! Funny enough, I didn't even have to push her out. The doctor told me to push and then said, "Nevermind, she came out on her own." Such a big girl! Then, NICU checked her and she was absolutely perfect. She just didn't like all the sudden changes (she's way too much like her mama).
Here are some pictures of her birth day.
My labor and delivery nurse, Jessica
Getting her first bath (not such a happy time!)
Well hello beautiful blue eyes...
Sleeping with Daddy - the first of hundreds
What a beautiful girl!
My sisters Carleigh and Taylor hanging out in the waiting room
Her door sign made by Marcie Hatfield
Our church has taken care of us SO well. We love FBC Lewisville!
My sister Kristen got to meet her first. She was only 1 hour old!
Never knew how much you can fall in love in an instant. My sweet baby.
So pretty. Baby and Mama.
She has all ten fingers and all ten toes.
Our sweet little family.
The family all came to visit.
My parents and sisters
Cody's parents
My sister and brother in law, Kristen and Brian
All the girls in the family (missing Michaela).
Aunties
Crazy uncles Eric and Dane
They drove up from Austin to meet Harper and had to drive back 3 hours later
for breakfast service of Short Bus. Such great uncles!
Grandpa Gary (or Padre or PeePaw or PopPop...we'll see)
My parents, Mark and Kathryn
My parents, Gary and Kristi
All the kids missing Michaela and Grayson. We'll have to paste them in.
Kristen planted beautiful pink flowers in honor of Harper's birthday.
I hear Brian even helped with his pink gardening spade.
The KU boys with Harper and her new KU beanie from KK.
Sadly, this is as close as she'll get to KU since she's going to A&M.
Gig 'em Ags!
Next Blog will be Harper's 1st week - it was definitely entertaining and a learning experience. It includes tons of love, poop, and burning the midnight oil!!!
Don't push your daughter into a decision about her future college just yet. she may be a little jayhawk:)
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