I can hardly believe that my little girl is finally here. The last few weeks of my pregnancy seemed like they would never end. This is the story of how my pregnancy ended and my little girl's life began.
As you know Annabelle was breech for most of my pregnancy. On Friday March 1, 2013 we went into the hospital for her version. It couldn't have gone better. They monitered her heart rate for about 40 minutes before and gave me a shot of Terbutaline to relax my uterus. It also makes your heart race like crazy! The version itself took all of 3 minutes and was not painful at all. They had an ultrasound on her the whole time and the doctor slowly massaged her head down into the right place.
Conor said it was one of the coolest/weirdest things he had ever seen. He said it looked like the doctor picked her up and he could see the whole outline of her body.
She handled it well, and her heart rate was monitered again for about another hour before they let us go home.
The following Monday I had an appointment with my midwife and we discussed the option of inducing. I was all for this, since I was becoming more and more uncomfortable and already showing signs of labor. My midwife scheduled an induction for Sunday but predicted that she would see me anytime that week. I was 3 cm and 70% effaced.
Conor told me that I had to hold off until after Wednesday at 5:00. He had a mid-term test that night that he couldn't miss. Wednesday night around 7:00 I began feeling more consistent contractions so I downloaded a contraction app on my phone and started to time them. They started out at 10 minutes apart and then got to about 8 minutes apart. We decided to head to Target to walk around and pick up some things to see if we could help things move along. When we got back from the store my contractions were to 7 minutes apart. So I gave my mom a call and told her to be ready in the night if we called her since things were starting to progress.
Unfortunately around 3 AM everything came to an abrupt halt. I was so frustrated and disappointed. The next few days were SO long because I kept expecting things to start up again and go into labor. By the time Saturday afternoon came around I gave up wishing and just knew that the induction was how this was happening.
We dropped off Liam at my parents house on Saturday night and went home to get a final night of sleep before adding another baby to the mix.
At 6 AM I called the hospital to make sure that there was room for me and they told me to be there by 7:30. We got showered, dressed and fed, and then I had Conor give me a priesthood blessing. Then we headed to the hospital. We talked about how different it felt this time and how less nervous we were.
We got all checked in and I had 2 great nurses. They did an ultrasound to make sure that baby was still head down and I had my Pitocin started at 8:30 and was dialated to 4cm and 80% effaced. The contractions were totally bearable and then my midwife came in and broke my water at 9:30. Then they started getting more intense. By 11:00 I decided I was done with the pain and opted for the epidural. I was really nervous to get an epidural again this time because of my experience with Liam. I just wanted it to work right, and I didn't want any weird side effects like double vision or shakes like I had before.
My anesteiologist was wonderful! He talked to me so much more than my last one and even came in to check on me twice after he gave me the epidural. And he couldn't have given me a better one. The pain was completely gone but I could still feel and move both my legs and lift my butt off the bed. I could feel when a contraction was coming on, but felt no pain. It was seriously a dream!
At 1:00 I was dialated to 6cm and by 2:00 I was almost complete. My nurses and midwife started getting everything ready and got all gowned up. They turned off my pitocin and epidural and took out my catheter. They I had just a lip of my cervix left and it would go away during a contraction and then come back. This ended up taking longer than we thought and I had to keep changing positions to try to get her to move down more. Finally at around 3:00 I began to feel pressure and at 3:15 my midwife told me it was time to push.
( Funny side note: since it had been an hour since my catheter had been removed and I was still being pumped full of fluids, this resulted in my midwife barely missing being peed on by me when I first pushed. Good thing she had such quick reflexes!)
I pushed through about 6 contractions and that took about 15 minutes. At 3:33 P.M. on March 10, 2013 little Annabelle Jane was welcomed into the world.
We were so excited to see that she had tons of dark hair! Conor kept saying how he pictured her with hair and I was so happy that he was right! She came out so calm and didn't cry at all. She just got to lay there with mommy for a little bit and then they took her to get her stats and clean her off.
She weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz and 19 inches long. She is an absolute doll and we just adore her already!
After a few hours of bonding time and a few visitors her daddy got to take her to the nursery for her first bath. I know he loves this part and I am so glad that he had got to do this for both of our kids.
She got all cleaned up and of course needed a pretty little bow to complete her look. I loved seeing her hair all washed and poofed up! So adorable!
We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights (
well I did, I sent Conor home to get some real sleep). Tuesday morning we got all cleaned up and headed for home. Let the adventure of raising to kids begin!
