Our Hat Trick: The Birth Story of our 3rd daughter

My doctor said that I was one of those women that would have had 30 babies in the olden days and she would have died giving birth to her first.  I LOVED being pregnant and giving birth.  I had an unusual introduction to birthing which I will recount later this year around my oldest daughter's birthday.   It didn't sway me from having more children, in fact it encouraged me to go more and more natural as I did.  Last night it was my youngest's birthday and I said something about being so glad that she was born and started to recount her birth story.   Part way through it she said "And Kelsey was the one you were at the mall for", and I said "no, that was you!" and finished telling her the story about the night she was born.  She thought they put me in a wheel chair when I returned to the birthing center and I reminded her that that was Kelsey.  And so I have decided to write about my daughters' birth stories.  Not because I haven't told them before but because stories get mixed up.  Especially as we age.  Things get muddled and memories of sister's birth stories get mistaken for our own.  

Decorating the Christmas tree with Lindsay who was not quite
2 years old and about to be a big sister for the first time.  

Snuggling with my 4 year old Kelsey who was about to become
a big sister for the second time!  

As I told my daughter last night on her 12th birthday "she definitely wasn't a mistake because we always knew we wanted to have three kids but she WAS a surprise!"   And a very good one at that!  We were about to go away for an all inclusive wedding in Mexico and I thought to myself that I was supposed to be finished with my period before we went away and I hadn't even gotten it yet.  I said something to my husband and he thought we should wait for the morning at 6:00 A.M. when we were leaving for the airport because pregnancy tests work best in the morning.   I just couldn't wait.  Now that I thought I could be pregnant I had to know as soon as possible.  We took a test that night and even though it was night time and even though it had only been a few weeks it was positive!  We quickly plugged in the information about the date of my last period into a computer program and found out our newest baby was due on Christmas!   We were so excited and a bit nervous.  We already had two sweet girls at home, what would happen if we were delivering on Christmas eve, or Christmas day for that matter.  Turns out we had nothing to worry about!

At some point at an ultrasound they took some measurements and determined that her due date was December 23rd and not Christmas based on how she was measuring.  With our anniversary and both of her older sister's birthdays being on the 23rd it seemed meant to be.  When it was time we decided to find out what we were having.  We had wanted to be surprised with the first two but for some reason we wanted to know for this one.  This was most likely going to be our last pregnancy and I wanted to know how to plan for the nursery, if we should save baby clothes from our two other girls, or if we should start collecting blue onesies.  I also came from a family where we had one boy and one girl.  I wanted to know if I was having a son.  I wanted to get my head around the fact that I might not be.  I wanted to plan.   It turns out we were having a third daughter.  We were thrilled!  When we found out the news I turned to my husband, who is a huge hockey fan and grew up next door to the Hatch family of 3 girls, and said "Congratulations, you are getting your very own Hatch Trick!"  We were thrilled.  A little relieved because honestly we weren't sure we knew how to "do" boys.   We picked her name soon after.  With two girl names that already went well together,  Kelsey and Lindsay, we had to pick a third name that wasn't completely different.  We wanted to acknowledge her Christmas due date and the excitement we felt when we found out about our Christmas surprise 8 months earlier so we picked Haley Noelle for her name.  Even though they noted she was a girl at subsequent ultrasounds I was still known to say "They've been wrong before, it could be a Hayden!"  We painted her nursery purple (both of our favorite colors) when our previous nurseries had been more neutral and bought her the tiniest Santa dress and we waited.

We got Haley Noelle a tiny Santa dress in case she came before Christmas.   

I bought each of my girls an outfit to come home in on the day I heard their heart beat.
I had had a miscarriage before my oldest so hearing that heart beat meant the world to me.
I never shared that we were pregnant until that day and felt so much relief and excitement on that day
 that we were pregnant and the baby was ok.    

At a midwife appointment in December I happened to look at the calendar hanging on the wall in the exam room.  I noted how few weeks we had left in December and for the first time the entire pregnancy realized that this baby might not be born in 2004 like we'd always thought she would be.  In fact with midwives they will let you go a maximum of 14 days past your due date in order to let the baby come as naturally as possible.  I thought well that couldn't possibly happen but counted out the days to see what date was the last I could possibly be pregnant...January 6, 2005.    And Haley Noelle decided to wait it out, the whole 14 days.

I had an exam on Monday January 4th, 12 days overdo.  Things looked good and they scheduled me to come in on Wednesday IF I didn't go into labor on my own before then.   The next two days I complained to Rod about how my stomach was itching and I felt like stretch marks were coming out of nowhere.   I was getting HUGE.  When they measured me at the appointment on Wednesday January 6th at 4:00 P.M.  they said that my water had tripled since Monday. It was time for this baby to come, whether she wanted to or not!   She said she was going to have to break my water and I joked with her about whether she had a change of clothes since she had just told me my water had tripled.  She said she did but that she had never needed them before.  After she broke my water we all laughed because she definitely needed to go change!

My belly was HUGE even before those last few days!

They told me that since I was showing absolutely no signs of labor that I should go to the mall down Route 9 and walk around till I was having contractions.  We went right to The Cheesecake Factory and ordered up some cheesecakes to bring back to the midwives and a meal to have that night.  While we were waiting for them to pack up the cheesecake I tapped Rod on the shoulder.  Our universal sign for "I'm having a contraction".  He looked at his watch and kept checking out.  Less than two minutes later I tapped him again.  He looked at me with wide eyes and said "Really?! But they are so close!"  I nodded.  When we left Cheesecake Factory he wanted to get going right back to the Birthing Center.  I insisted we still go to the Pottery Barn Baby for something I "needed".  The contractions continued and were never any further apart.  In fact they started to get closer.

On the drive back I was starting to get really uncomfortable.  I am an active laborer.  I like to walk around and move and have a hard time sitting still.  Sitting in the car was torture!  We made it back after one too many red lights.  When we walked into the Birthing Center they were hosting a Mom and Dad class in the main living room.  They introduced us to the class quickly as Rod and I walked through and to the back.   Our midwife stayed with us and soon realized how quickly I was progressing.  The midwife teaching the class came back to check on us after about 5-10 minutes and stayed because she realized I was about to have the baby.  I pushed a few times and out came our Christmas Miracle.  Haley Noelle probably would have stayed in longer if she could have!  She arrived on January 6th, "Little Christmas",   two weeks after she was due!  When the midwife went back to her class she said "Their third daughter was just born!" The class was shocked as we had literally walked in 15 minutes earlier.   They all requested to have our kind of delivery!  Short and sweet!

This picture was taken minutes after Haley Noelle was born.

Haley being weighed by our midwife.  I love how it looks like what a stork would carry a baby in!

Haley spent the first night of her life very unhappy and very red in the face.  She was not happy about her entry into the world.  Apparently she would have preferred to stay in my uterus, comfy and cozy! We were worried she would be a cranky baby after that first night but boy were we wrong.  She is active, and smart, and funny, and creative and she gets moody especially when she has her feelings hurt but she was the happiest, easiest baby and totally goes with the flow!  She was not born on the 23rd like her sister's but it was her due date and as we found out later it is also the year she will graduate from High School, 2023.  So somehow the number 23 had a way of becoming important to all of us!

She settled down later on that night with lots of close cuddling with mom.  

She is still my little cuddler to this day.  She slept in our bed on and off as a baby.  Even once she started sleeping in her crib for most of the night she learned how to crawl out at a very young age (she walked at 9 months-she was a peanut! and was crawling out of her crib at a a little over a year and stealthfully coming into our room in the dark and crawling into bed between Rod and I.  Sometimes we didn't notice she was there until morning.  When grandparents slept over she would crawl in with them too.  My father said sleeping with Haley was like traveling on a transcontinental flight.  She would squirm and turn and move in 360's but was always asleep herself, comfortably ensconced between us.  Haley is now 12 and definitely our early bird.  She is up by 7:00 at the absolute latest and as soon as she has an inkling that we are awake she will crawl into bed between us.  She likes nothing better than a double hug from Rod and I, being snuggled by both of us before bed,  and being in bed between us having our full attention.  She is truly Rod's hat trick as she not only plays hockey but LOVES it!

Our hat trick, then

and now! (Still our snuggle bug!)

She and her dad went to the Bruin's for her 12th Birthday!
No stick but she also wished for snow for her birthday which she got in spades,
even had to snow delay her party until tomorrow night!