Annie's Birthday!!

Warning- long, long post with lots of pictures. :)

So, the story of Annie's birth began about 2 weeks prior to my delivery date. I went to my 38 week appointment (technically it was 38 weeks, 6 days) and, of course, my blood pressure was elevated. I truly believe it was due to white coat syndrome (as it's typically high in the dr's office, but then usually comes down- but this time it didn't). 

So, my OB sent me down to labor and delivery triage, where they monitored my blood pressure, drew some labs (which were normal), and monitored the baby. Everything came back down to normal, but my OB didn't want me going back to work (the next day, Friday, was supposed to be my last day in clinic at work, the day I turned 39 weeks). While in triage, they did see that I was having contractions every 4-6 minutes (not super-painful, more like really strong Braxton-Hicks), and I'd been dilated 3 cm for the past 2 weeks. There was talk about inducing me that day or the following Monday, if my blood pressure didn't stay normal over the weekend....

So, home I went (actually, I went to church for a Foundation Group leaders' lunch!). During the lunch, I started to track the contractions again, because they were getting a little stronger, and were becoming 3-4 minutes apart.  

Mike and I headed back home from church, and I continued to track the contractions, then decided to take a nap and see if they persisted. One of the contractions woke me up about an hour later, so I continued tracking and they were still 3-4 minutes apart, but not super-painful. I called my OB and she said to come back to L&D, so back to the hospital we went!

I had the same nurse in triage that evening as I had earlier that morning! She hooked me back up to the monitors, checked me again, but I hadn't progressed (still 3 cm, baby was way high up). We decided to stay another two hours to see if I would make any more changes and then decide if we should induce vs. go home and wait it out. 

Two hours passed, and no change. We decided that we wanted to go ahead and induce, since we were already there, Lucy was taken care of, and the surgeon that was going to also do an umbilical hernia repair while I was still in the hospital was in town and pre-booked an OR for two days later (we had called her while on the way to the hospital, thinking I was going into labor). 

Well, come to find out, L&D got really busy during the two hours we waited and there was no room in the inn for an elective induction. So, home we went again, thinking that surely I'd be going into labor on my own in the next day or so.

And Mike and I promptly went to Matitios to have the Bob Armstrong dip. :) Then I took an Ambien that the doctor gave me and I slept really well that night. 

We kept Lucy at my parents' house for the next two days, and Mike wouldn't let me leave his side that Friday for fear of me quickly going into labor, so I joined him for a couple of meetings he had scheduled as well as tried to be as active as I could (climbed lots of stairs, walked a lot, etc).

This baby did not come for the next week and a half! 

Week 39 and 40 came and went, Easter came and went, and I saw my OB at 40 weeks, 4 days (a Monday). I had progressed to 4 cm, still having occasional bouts of regular contractions, but they would fade away. The decision was made to schedule an induction for the middle of the week (Wednesday), due to the baby not having much more room, and the surgeon rescheduled the hernia repair for the Thursday after I would deliver. 

Well, the next day, Tuesday, was my last day as a mom of one, and I wanted to be super-intentional with Lucy. So, we played inside, painted, colored, just had a fun morning at home. We played outside with our neighbors and I pulled the little girls in the red wagon up and down the driveway multiple times, hoping it might bring some labor on. :) 

We came inside from playing around noon, made Lucy some lunch, and put her down for her nap. Around that time, I noticed some contractions and was feeling uncomfortable. I thought to myself, if this is really going to go into true labor, I need to eat something because they're going to starve me in labor and delivery, so I made myself a quick lunch and started timing contractions again. They started about every 5-6 minutes, and then became stronger. At this point, I texted Mike that I was starting to count contractions. I called Mom, and asked her if she could come and watch Lucy if things progressed. In the 10 minutes or so that I'd been calling and texting Mike and Mom, the contractions were getting stronger and became every 3-5 minutes, so when Mike texted back, asking if he should wait at the office or come home, I texted back, "come home!" and called Mom and asked her to come. 

One last pic of the belly (40 weeks, 5 days)- taken in between contractions, while Mike was loading the car to go to the hospital.
We measured my belly a couple days before- it was 43 inches around!

My parents live 10 minutes away from us and Mike's commute is about the same, but in that 10-15 minutes, I started to get worried that we weren't going to make it to the hospital in time for me to get an epidural! These contractions were getting painful! This was how I remembered going into labor with Lucy! Very quick and very painful!

As soon as Mike showed up, he started loading the car. Mom showed up about 5 minutes later, and we left!

When we arrived at Presby, it was about 2:00 pm. I checked in the front desk and the front desk attendant called the charge nurse, telling her I looked like I was in pain and this was my second child (code for "she might deliver fast!"). Well, all the rooms in L&D were full (again!), so while we waited for one to get cleaned, I had to labor out in the waiting room, with three other women who were also in labor. I got moved up the wait list because my contractions were so close together. 

After about 10 minutes of waiting (it felt like longer!), they moved us into an observation room, because that's all they had open. I changed into a gown and waited for someone to come back and get my IV started, because I knew I had to have a bolus of IV fluids before an epidural, and I was still scared that I would be too late for an epidural. The contractions were every 2 minutes, lasting about a minute, and I was in so much pain- couldn't talk through them, was not breathing correctly and was feeling tingly from exhaling so much CO2. 

Let me just say here that anyone who has a natural delivery without any drugs is amazing in my book- there is no way I could do it!

Ok, so we're still waiting for someone to come in and get my IV in- I ask Mike to go out to the nurses' station and find someone to come and start my IV. A sweet nurse came, got me hooked up to the monitor, got my IV started (on one attempt!), checked me (I was 6 cm) and then we waited for an L&D room to get cleaned. 

Maybe 10-15 minutes passed, while I'm still having these terrible contractions, and another nurse comes in, says she will be our nurse and says our room is ready and she will wheel us down there- as I opened my eyes from the contraction that just finished, I see the nurse is the same nurse that I had a week and a half ago in triage- I was like, "Hi!" She goes, "I remember you! I'm surprised you hadn't had your baby yet!" 

And off we went to our L&D room.

About 10 minutes after getting in the room, the wonderful anesthesiologist comes in with his magic cart to put in my epidural. I was SO GLAD to see his face!! They gave me a little fentanyl to take the edge off the contractions and relax me while he was getting the epidural in- he was super-fast and got it in the first time, and it started to take effect and I felt GOOD. Praise the Lord for pain medication.

Feeling good after the epidural!

So, epidural is in, I'm feeling pretty good, at 6 cm dilated, baby is still up high. So, we wait it out. 

I played on my iPad, Mike read a book, I watched the news, he watched a movie...we chilled. 

The OB on-call came in to say hi.

Around 5:00 pm, we switched nurses because my original nurse, Amy, had another patient about to deliver. She was so awesome, and we had bonded over my previous two trips to L&D triage a week and a half ago, so I was sad to see her leave. But, our new nurse, April, was so sweet and wonderful! We chatted, found out we had girls about the same age, talked about parenting, etc... She checked me again, and I was 8 cm, with the baby moving down.

Around 6:45 pm, Dr. Woodbridge came in and checked me and said I was complete  (10 cm) and the baby had moved all the way down! My water still had not broken completely, although we thought the fluid was leaking, so she left the bag intact.

April came back in the room and we started pushing at around 7:15 pm. By 7:50pm, I was about ready to deliver. Because L&D was so packed, we had been put in a very old room, one that hadn't been re-done yet. When my nurse went to pull out the stirrups to push, we found that the right stirrup didn't work; some of the lights in the room weren't moving correctly, and some of the supplies were missing.....it was one of those days. :)

Last pic before we started pushing.

We made it all work eventually. The CRNA came in and gave me one last dose of meds via epidural, since it was wearing off a little. Dr. Woodbridge ended up breaking my water completely, and I pushed a couple more times (total pushing time was 40 minutes, as compared to 3 hours with Lucy!), and out came sweet Anne Grace at 8:01 pm!

She was 8 pounds, 7 ounces, 20.75" long. I could not believe how much she weighed! 

My initial thought when seeing her was, "Man, she looks like Lucy!" And, "how did she get blue eyes?!" (not the muddy blue eyes, but lighter blue eyes that I think will stay blue!)
They placed her on my belly and then she started to cry and pink up a little.
Mike cut the umbilical cord, then they cleaned her up a little and we were able to have some skin-to-skin bonding time for about 30-45 minutes. So sweet!!
Also, unlike her older sister, she took to nursing like a champ! So very thankful for that blessing!

Daddy cutting the cord.

Getting checked out

Proud Daddy!

Love my girl!

Anne Grace ("Annie")

Could not believe how big she was!

After we had our bonding time, our parents both came into our room and got to meet sweet Annie! 

The paparazzi taking pics

After about 2 hours in our delivery room, we were moved to the postpartum floor and got settled in for the night. The nursing staff was great in clustering our care, so that we had minimal interruptions at night and we also sent Annie to the nursery at night so that we could get some sleep. Well, Mike got some sleep. I could not sleep that first night- too much adrenaline pumping from delivery or something. 

The next two days, we basically hung out, laid low, enjoyed our (mostly) quiet room and had a few visitors. A lot of our family and friends were sick, so we didn't have a whole lot of visitors this time. (Thank you for sparing your germs!)

Hanging out in the hospital

 My parents brought Lucy up both days to meet Annie. Her first reaction to her was so sweet- she knew Annie was her sister and wanted to sit on my bed and point out all of Annie's body parts. We had gifts for them to give each other, which I think helped. Lucy was very gentle with Annie, but after about 10 minutes, she was done and wanted to see other things in the room (play with the gloves, sit on the couch, go for a walk down the hall, etc). She was totally freaked out by any person coming in the room or in the hallway dressed in scrubs. 

Sisters!

On Thursday afternoon, I was able to have the scheduled umbilical hernia repair (I got the hernia from my pregnancy with Lucy, but didn't realize I had it until I was pregnant with Annie). I think most of the nurses thought I was crazy for scheduling surgery two days after giving birth, but we felt that it would be the best option for us, to maximize the recovery time. I was sent home with basically c-section restrictions (no lifting anything over 10-12 pounds for two weeks), so we wanted to take advantage of having Mike and home and family around to help take care of Lucy while I couldn't lift.

The surgery went smoothly (I'd never had surgery before, so it was a first for me to be on the patient side of this). We opted to stay one more night, since the surgery was late in the day, and I was having some post-op pain. After some morphine, though, I was feeling much better. :) 

Due to hospital policy of the baby only staying two nights, Annie was discharged to us Thursday night, even though I was staying the night, so no more sleeping in the nursery for us. 

That last night was a little more sleepless for us both, not to mention I had to wear those leg compression devices to help prevent blood clots after surgery, so every time I had to get up and nurse, I had to call the nurse to come and take them off and put them back on after I was done- definitely not my favorite thing.

By Friday morning, I was ready to go home and get some rest. 

We were discharged Friday morning before lunch and headed home to start life as a family of four! 

All ready for the ride home! This is the same outfit Lucy wore home from the hospital!