Introducing......

CHANNING AVA HARTZHEIM:
Born, April 23, 2011 @ 12:40 p.m.
8 lbs 6 ozs., 19.5 inches long

We are so glad our little girl is here. I wanted to share about our experience of when her birthday began and how she arrived, mostly for my own records, but for those of you who are interested as well.....
On Friday, April 22, 2011 my water broke around 9:30 p.m. As with Ella my water only ever just trickles out, so I called my mom and figured I had plenty of time until she got here to go into the hospital. So as we waited we called over a friend Ryan Cotten to help Ragnar assist in giving me a blessing to make sure things would go smoothly during my delivery. The kids were obviously asleep and when my mom arrived, we left and got to the hospital around 11:30 p.m. I did the paperwork and they sent me to a waiting room area to make sure I was truly in labor since my contractions had not begun. I told her my water broke, she checked me and I was dialted to a 3 and she said that she still felt the sack and wasn't sure that my water had indeed broken. I explained how I knew for sure it had broken because it happened the same way it did with Ella and my body doesn't break the water completely. Anyway, needless to say in the middle of the night she wouldn't call the doctor, she just made me wait for a couple hours to see if anymore amnionic fluid would come out so she could "proove" that my water had indeed broken. Anyway, so she was about to send me home when I insisted saying, my water did indeed break, Ragnar and I both had seen it happen and I was not comfortable going home. So...she called the dr. and I had to walk around the hospital to see if they could collect a "sample" to test to make sure my water had broken. At this point I was so frustrated because she totally was looking at me like I was crazy. On my third kid I think I know how my body works, but I did as I was told and walked around for about 30 minutes when I sat down with Ragnar and we decided whether I should just give in and go home and come back in the morning. We then sat here:

This is the area we decided to pray to see what we should do. Thankfully there was no one around in the middle of the night. Anyway, we said a prayer that somehow the rest of the water would break, that they would admit me and we could get going on getting Channing here. Anyway, Ragnar said a short prayer and literally we got up feeling defeated and like 30 seconds later more of my water broke...enough that they had a sample and I was admitted at 2:30 a.m. I was so grateful for the quick answer to such a simple prayer. Unfortunately I had the same nurse until 7:00 a.m. shift change and she swore she no longer felt the sack and so I said then why am I still having water trickle out? Anyway, big mess, but no contractions because indeed when the next nurse came in, my sack was not completely broken, so she broke it, put me on pitocin and then the contractions began. I got the epidural and waited. After all three children you would think I would get my own doctor to deliver one of my kids, but of course it was the weekend and so I had the on call Dr. Boyd who I like as well. Anyway, I was stuck at an 8 for a while and they were not very busy at the hospital but they were not coming in very regularly to check me. They just kept asking if I had felt pressure....I was like lady....I can't feel anything! Anyway I had been nauseous during labor and the nurse said she would come back and check me in just a minute. So...I had to vomit again and as I was leaning over to throw up and I accidentally just pushed Channing out myself. I was throwing up so I couldn't say much, but I had her head in my hand and I was freaking out thinking I killed her. Thankfully the nurse really did come back in...saw that I was panicked. Opened my blanket and there on the bed was my baby. The doctor ran in and without gloves had me push the last part of her body out. She came right out on the bed and it was the weirdest feeling. I kept saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" because I hadn't meant to push her out when no one was ready and I wasn't sure what was going on. Thankfully she was fine, I was enough over on the bed that she hadn't fallen on the floor and she cried right away and she was perfect. The nurse just said...it looks like a red head! Ahhh! I wasn't ready for that news. She is mostly blond but it has a strawberry tone to it. She weighed 8 lbs 6 ozs and was 9 days early. I am glad she didn't make it any longer or she would have been huge! Anyway...that is the VERY long version of what went on, but there you get an idea of how labor went. As with all of my kids it only really takes one push and they are here, so I am so grateful! I wonder if I could contest whether or not I should have to pay the Dr. for delivering me since I delivered my own baby! We will see :)

Here she is!

Our first family photo!

Daddy and his look a like daughter!

Cavin absolutely loves her

Silly hats :)

After not sleeping all night, I was so glad she FINALLY was here!

First picture with Grandpa Speers

First picture with Grandma Speers

YAY! We got to go home. Since it was Easter weekend I had to use the on call pediatrician too and she wouldn't release Channing until 48 hours, so I was SOOOO ready on Monday morning to leave!

Channing's proud sister, Ella

Here she is now...one week old! She is a great baby! Only wakes up once a night and is always happy. I hope she isn't teasing us and that she will stay an angel baby! As for me, I feel pretty good. Like I always say...I much prefer my children on the outside, not the inside and am so grateful not to be pregnant anymore!