Anna's Story

We are so loving on our sweet little Anna. She is staying true to being the third child and is pretty laid back about life. She really only fusses if she's hungry or wants to be snuggled a little more. She takes all of the attention from Catherine, Will, and Eli (the dog) in stride. And we're figuring out on a daily basis how life works with three. I wouldn't change it for anything!

Multiple people have asked for details about Anna's birth and I've been meaning to post, but usually only have one free hand. I have two hands free to type right now so I figured I would take advantage of the opportunity. If you're not interested in birth story details, feel free to skip this part :) although I promise I won't be too gross or reveal overly personal information!

Let's just start by saying that I was very, very ready for baby to come. This was my last pre-baby photo, taken at week 38. That was not a small tummy I was toting around! I was so exhausted and so sore that I was actually looking forward to labor.

Both Catherine and Will were born between weeks 38 and 39, so we were anticipating this baby making his/her arrival around the same time. I went to the doctor on Thursday, 3/25 (which was 10 days before my due date of 4/4) and I was 3-4 cm and fully effaced. We decided that if I had not had baby by the weekend, I would be induced on Monday, although we didn't think I'd make it that long. My birthday was the next day, Friday 3/26. I felt so miserable all day---extremely crampy and lots of contractions, although they were very irregular still (this had been occurring for weeks). Thankfully Jay's mom decided to come down to our house that day and she arrived around 4:30 that afternoon. About 5 mins before she got here, I lost my mucus plug and started having some bleeding, so I knew we were getting really close. When this happened with Catherine, I went into labor within 12 hrs. I figured labor would go quickly, so I was still prepared to share my birthday with baby if I needed to.

Baby decided to have her own birthday. Around 12:30am/1am I started having more regular contractions every 10-12 minutes. I sat in the rocking chair and timed them, trying to "rest" some before things got too painful. I always have this fear of going to the hospital and them saying that I'm not really in labor, so I figured I would just wait until contractions were a little closer together before waking Jay and going to the hospital. They had told me to come when contractions were every 10 mins, but that had been happening for weeks. By 3am, the contractions were every 7-8 mins, so Jay and I headed to the hospital. We got there around 3:30am and my contractions were now every 4-5 mins. When we got up to Labor and Delivery, they told us they didn't have a room available to check me in yet, so to wait in the Waiting Room. We waited out there for about 15 mins and my contractions were now every 2 mins. That's when Jay started to panic a little bit. He went and found the nurse and told her that this was our third baby and we didn't need to be in the waiting room any longer! She immediately took us back :)

When they checked me in I was only 6cm--not as far as I thought, although I knew I was getting to that transition phase. I felt shaky, nauseated, was sweating, could hardly walk or move. They asked me if I wanted an epidural and I said yes, thinking that it may still be a little while since I was only 6cm. The nurse started my IV and my antibiotics for the Group B Strep and took the blood samples they need to give an epidural. About 15 mins later though, I could tell something had changed. My water had not broken but I had the strong urge to push with the contractions. The nurse checked me again and I was 10cm--no time for an epidural now! At this point the contractions had been coming every minute with almost no break in between and were extremely painful. All I could do was sit in the bed with the lights off and tell myself to breathe. I didn't want anyone to touch me or move me. I just had to keep telling myself to relax and that my body knew what it was doing.

Once we knew I was 10cm, I asked the nurse to get the dr to break my water so that we could have this baby right now. She went out the door to get the dr and when she walked back in about 2 mins later, I pushed so hard with a contraction that my water broke on its own. Let's just say that it was disgusting--not the slow trickle I've heard about. Nurses were jumping out of the way....okay, I promised no disgusting details :) The dr came in right then and said we were ready to go and that he thought it would only take one or two more contractions for the baby to come out. So on the next contraction I pushed as hard as I could and felt the head coming out. That's when they realized how big the baby was and the dr told me it may take a couple more to get the baby out. I was so exhausted and hurting--I really can't even describe it--I didn't think I could push again at all. But the baby couldn't stay half in and half out. So I kept pushing for 3 or 4 more contractions until sweet baby came out--all 9lbs 5oz of her! She was born at 4:55am (less than an hour after they checked us in).

Yeah! She was here and was a girl! We had thought the whole time it would be a girl, so we weren't that surprised by the gender; we were just surprised by her size!! We had not decided for sure about a girl name. We had narrowed it down to Anna Frances or Elizabeth Leigh. I have always thought that we would one day have a brown haired girl named Anna, so when we saw her dark hair, we decided to go with Anna. Anna was Jay's great-grandmother and Frances was my great-grandmother. We are so thrilled she is here!

What was great for me was to see how God took care of us during every step of this delivery. My memory verse the past few weeks of my pregnancy was "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." My main anxieties had been figuring out the logistics of Catherine and Will while we were in labor, that Jay would be in an appointment and couldn't get home quickly, that we wouldn't make it to the hospital in time, and that I wouldn't get the antibiotics for the Group B strep. Well, obviously God is in charge. Anna came after Mimi was here to care for Catherine and Will; it was the middle of the night so Jay was at home and there was no traffic to slow us from getting dowtown on time. And even though I didn't get the antibiotics in enough time for them to be effective, God protected Anna and she is healthy. We are so thankful for His blessings and that He truly cares for us, even in the small things.