As your pregnancy progresses you try to imagine what this little baby you carry around is going to be like. Who will he look like, what will his personality be, how in the world will I have enough time for all 4 of them? Then your baby is born, laid upon your chest, and all the answers come: He looks like Isla with Palmer’s brown eyes (most likely), has the personality of Leo, and I won’t sleep until I’ve had one on one time with each one of them every day. Hart chose his birthday to be Saturday, November 17, 2012. Our tiny 7lb 8oz. baby boy was born that morning at 6:05am and measured in at 20in long. To say he is the sweetest baby ever would be an understatement. He is our “SweetHart” for sure and we are so very much in love!
The fact that we have 4 children still doesn’t seem crazy to me at all…it feels so natural and just what was meant for our family. We get comments all the time, practically every day, about how we “sure do have our hands full” and “how in the world do you do it?” To be honest, while yes I do have my hands full most of the time, I love every second of it. It is my life and I wouldn’t change it for the world. There have been some days where I think I might lose my mind if bedtime doesn’t get here soon, or wondering where the day did go and why I still haven’t showered, but from the time I was a little girl, this is what I dreamed of becoming…a Mom. And I’m so blessed to say that’s what I do for a living.
Friday, November 16 It started like any other morning. I fed, dressed, packed lunches, and dropped Isla and Leo off at school. Once home, I broke out the mop and went to work on the kitchen. That should have been my first clue that this was labor day. Palmer and I then hung out in the living room until it was time for my Dr. Appt. At 10:45 I had my appointment with Dr. Greene. He checked my cervix and said that I was already dilated to 2-3 cm. but then he went ahead and swept my membranes since I was almost 39 weeks pregnant. He said there would be a 50% chance that I’d go into labor that day. After the appt. I met John at Chic fil A for lunch. Palmer had a blast playing in the children’s area while John and I talked about the fact that baby could be coming today. I started to have some pain at lunch but just thought it was all in my head. Palmer and I picked Leo up from school and went home for naps. That afternoon we picked Isla up from school and played in the front yard with our next door neighbor friends, Ben and Avery. We decided to have our Friday night dinner down by Nocatee and do a final walk through of our house together since it might be the last time I could do it before having the baby. We picked John up at his office and ate at Napoli's, our new favorite Italian restaurant. I had eggplant parm. because they say it can put you into labor. After a very nice, party of 5, dinner we went to our house and I spent my time walking up and down the staircase to get things started. We drove home, put the kids to bed, and contractions started around 9pm. I knew from the first painful contraction that this was it! I’ve done this enough times to know when it’s time to head to the hospital. I called my mom at 9:30 right after my Dr. told me to head on in. John and I packed up the bags and the car and arrived at Baptist Beaches Hospital at 10:30. April, the same nurse I had for Leo’s birth, was assigned to us. That immediately put me at ease because we liked her so much with him. She checked my cervix and I was already at 5cm. She said it was a good thing I came in when I did because labor was moving fast. After that cervix check, the contractions were right on top of each other and Painful!! We were admitted into room 4 and I kept focused and did my breathing exercises I had learned for Palmer’s birth until I was able to get the epidural…which wasn’t until 1:15am. I was checked right after and was dilated to 7cm. April left John and I to sleep and while he caught some z’s on the couch I lay in bed just anticipating the birth and soaked in the feeling of him wiggling around in my belly for the last few hours. At 4:30am I was checked again and was an 8-9 and my water still hadn’t broke. April said that if he was born in his bag of waters, they say that means he’s a prophet. Dr. Bing came in at 5:30 and broke my water though but I still think he’s our little prophet. I was so excited that Dr. Bing was on call. She’s my regular Dr. and delivered Isla and she’s been such a great Dr. and friend throughout all my baby having years. They left the room again and all of a sudden I felt the need to push and felt all the contractions (epidural had worn off). April had me do some practice pushing until Dr. Bing came back but with the first push, baby boy crowned. I had to basically hold him in while April and John urgently paged Dr. Bing. She ran in, scrubbed up, and with one more push by me caught him. Then my moment came, my piece of heaven. The moment I get to hold my newborn on my chest. This time I got a good 10 minutes of snuggling and kissing my slippery little boy. Oh how I adore that moment in time. I’ll never forget it with each and every one of them.
Hart Edward Halman is here and completes our family. We are living the dream!
(Dr. Bing)
Let the journey begin!
