Anna's birth story

The days leading to my due date, I had random cramping about once a day that felt like gas pains. Same kind I got with Eli only more random. On my due date, I went to my chiropractor in the morning and my sister, Holly, came into town that afternoon. We had decided prior to her arrival that if Anna had not arrived, we would go get a pedicure together so we left Eli home with grandma and headed off to the nail salon around 2pm. The pedicure was great and I felt great! No issues or signs that she would arrive on her due date!

After the pedicure, we went to pick up Chipotle for dinner...yum! While eating Chipotle at home, I started to feel a little queasy and just not hungry. This was around 5pm or so. At around 6pm, I started to feel what could have been contractions...or just indigestion since I couldn't eat my dinner...it was hard to say! They weren't strong or painful, just uncomfortable. They came about every 20 minutes or so, were short & not unbearable so I was unsure if it was true labor or not. I decided to call Eric at work to see how his night was going and to fill him in on the contractions but told him not to come home as they didn't seem bad enough to go to the hospital. Around 7:30ish, I decided to ask Eric to come home "just in case" since they were still occurring, yet still nothing too strong or consistent yet.

The contractions continued to get closer together, but were still not too painful, but I thought that this must at least be the start of labor, but with Eli, he took 12 hours to arrive once they became painful, so I wasn't in a hurry. I updated facebook often and thankfully, Holly and my mom were here to help entertain Eli, who had NO idea what was going on :)

Eric arrived home and I decided to finish packing my hospital bag and asked Eric to pack his. Eric also put Eli to bed and we watched "The Bachelorette" off and on in between packing and contractions. Also, Eli had developed a strange rash, so I was doing research online for that! I was pretty distracted nonetheless :)

Contractions continued to get closer together, a little more painful, but I could still talk through them, so I wasn't too concerned. Then around 10:30ish, I got one REALLY painful contraction and they were about 8 minutes apart, so I decided we should head into the hospital. Eric packed the car, we said our good-byes to my sister and mom and gave directions about Eli and headed out!! We even have a picture of Holly and I right before we left and I was smiling!

Upon arriving at the hospital ER (after hours so I had to go through ER), I waited about 10 minutes for someone to help us and while Eric parked and brought in our luggage. I still was unsure if we would be admitted, but I was wheeled up to the 3rd floor in a wheel chair just in case! I went to triage, did the whole work up, and was checked by the triage nurse....I was already 5 cm dilated!! I was admitted at 11:15pm and the contractions were coming pretty good by that point. We walked to our room, got all situated, my midwife was called, and I was asked if I wanted an epidural. I thought I would wait it out so I said no. The contractions then picked up really fast, one on top of the other, and I said I needed one. My midwife arrived, she talked about how unique it is to go into labor on my due date, and then the anesthesiologist arrived for my epidural.

The epidural took a little while due to my scoliosis, and he even commented that it was one of the harder ones he's done. But, it took and I immediately felt better! My midwife came back in, she checked me and I was 7 cm dilated. By now it was about 11:45pm. My midwife broke my water, thankfully it was clear and good. We chatted, I felt good, and wondered if Anna would arrive before midnight, but was pretty sure not :)

Then around midnight, I felt A LOT of pressure. I was checked and in 15 minutes I had gone from a 7 to a 10!! Anna was on her way! The room was set up for delivery and I began to push. The first pushes were hard to feel due to the epidural, but I eventually got better at them. I was able to feel her head crown and when her head came out, I was SO ready for the rest of her to arrive that I just kept pushing!! 26 minutes after starting to push, Anna arrived!! I immediately held her on my chest and she looked so much like Eli, except she obviously had girl "looks". I was so happy, felt great, and was NOT exhausted like I was with Eli. It was great!! After about 5 or so minutes, I was curious what she weighed so they weighed her....8 lbs. 8 oz. 21 in.!! Bigger than her brother!! Then they put on her hat & blankets and immediately brought her back to me to nurse. She nursed SO well and it felt amazing! I was so relieved that she knew what to do and there was no pain or latch issues....yay! She nursed off & on for a good hour, and no one rushed us at all. It was really nice & relaxed and I was so thankful for that. I was calm, awake, and elated. Then once she was done nursing, the nurses bathed and clothed her while I ate some food. We were wheeled over to post-partum around 3ish in the morning and we tried to sleep. I had a hard time sleeping and Anna slept okay, but we would try to nurse again around 4:30am, so it was hard to sleep for me....too much excitement I guess and just wanting to be with my little girl :)

Here's video of Anna right after her arrival. There aren't any "inappropriate" shots due to the bright light but you can see my midwife taking out the umbilical cord. Pretty awesome!!:



Anna's first nursing sessions shortly after delivery:



The hospital stay was great, I felt good, had little issue getting up and around, and Anna was awesome. We kinda "co-slept" as I would nurse her on the boppy pillow and just keep her there and fall asleep with her. I kinda cheated and when the nurse would come in I would say she was still nursing as they would not allow "co-sleeping" :) Eli met Anna the next day and it was too cute. He was so happy but kinda shy, too, and kept saying "Anna's here?".

My birth experience with Anna was so much more relaxed than Eli's...and fast!! I was thankful to not be in labor overnight and to feel rested and with energy to deliver her. Looking back I probably didn't need the epidural since it was only really used for 45 minutes!! But, it was nice to be pain free for those 45 minutes I guess (well, not during the pushing part!!).

So, there it is. Pretty fast, nothing fancy, and thankfully nothing complicated! Now we have our sweet Anna and our family of 4!!