Anna's Birth Story

Since its Anna's due date today, I thought it would be awesome to post Anna's birth story. Enjoy! :D

The night of the sixth I woke up with contractions. They had been scattered and irregular all day so instead of waiting around for them to regulate, I took Alan and Aunt Ariel out for some fun. But these contractions felt different. They were stronger and were coming every three to five minutes. Knowing that I was not in full labor yet just possibly early labor, I convinced Lon to stay up with me and bake brownies. We baked two batches of brownies and ate about half of one batch lol. After that, my contractions were getting unbearable. I tried to go to sleep but couldn't so I knew it was time to call my midwife Karina.

I called her and she told me to go ahead and come in. My mother (the person who was to watch Alan while I labored) was still in Townsend, a four hour drive away, so I texted her and told her to start heading down. Then we got Alan dressed and up, and headed in.

My last belly picture ever!

We put Alan to bed in the rocking chair and waited for me to get admitted. I gave the nurse my birth plan and we discussed my options. Then she checked me and I was only the two centimeters I had originally dilated. She set me up for an hour of monitoring and told me to relax as much as possible. Lon and Alan fell sound asleep in the rocking chair while I labored and waited. I flipped channels on tv and Facebooked and did my best to distract myself. After that hour of labor, the nurse came back and said I could get up and either walk, take a hot bath, or sit on the bouncy ball to labor. I chose the hot bath first.

After sitting in the hot bath with the jacuzzi jets on for about a half an hour, I felt the need to change my intervention option. The bath was no longer helping me forget my contractions and meditation wasn't helping either. So I got up and started walking around the room. Lon woke up several times and was confused as to what I was doing, but I just told him I was just keeping things moving. Then I when the walking became too painful, I paged the nurse for the bouncy ball.

Lon sleeping while Alan hung out in the hospital room

The bouncy ball helped me out for about a half hour and by that time, it was time to get my cervix checked again. The nurse came in and I was only three centimeters dilated. I was slightly disappointed but it was shift change time and my new nurse reassured me that she had some ideas to help me. She said that why I was having real painful contractions but not dilating a lot real fast was because of Anna's position in my belly. She was head down but was on my left side and not straight with my belly button, which would further the dilation from the contractions. She also said I was tightening my body with each contraction and not allowing my body to dilate like it should. She had me lay on my right side and put a ice pack on my left side to "scare her feet off of that side." Then she had me wiggle my feet with each contraction, to hopefully stop me from tightening up my whole body. I was set up to monitor for another twenty minutes.

By that point, Midwife Karina had shown up. She checked my cervix again and told me that I had only dilated another half centimeter. I was pretty upset by this, but she assured me it was probably only because I was exhausted and was still tightening up. After a little discussion, we decided it would be best for me if I got a shot of Morphine and went home for a few hours to sleep. They also gave me some Zofran for my nausea. They had to monitor me for another hour before sending me home, just to make sure my body handled the Morphine correctly. During that hour, my mother got into town and picked Alan up for us. We were so grateful because it was close to afternoon at this point and he was getting rambunctious. She came at the perfect time lol! After that hour, we went home.

I slept the whole five hours I was at home, except for the half hour when I tried to eat a pepperoni pizza Lunchable. Let's just say, it didn't turn out good lol. Around six o-clock, my contractions started to get stronger and I finally felt like it was time to go back into the hospital. Once at the hospital, Midwife Karina rechecked my cervix and I was four centimeters. She offered the hot bath to me a second time, and I gladly accepted.

After meditating through my contractions in the tub for about an hour, I was really feeling some pressure in my bottom. So I paged Midwife Karina again. I was six centimeters when she checked me. But I felt that my contractions were starting to become unbearable and was worried about once again feeling the extreme need to push at only like eight centimeters, like I did with Alan. I was also worried about plateauing at seven centimeters until my water was broken (for some reason my water never naturally breaks) so after sharing my concerns with Karina, she offered to break my bag of waters.

Ugh, I really hate that part of labor. It is so uncomfortable! But I was grateful because after that my contractions sky-rocketed! I was all over the room trying to make myself feel better and not a lot was bringing me relief. My nurse noticed that I had stopped drinking water (Lon and I honestly didn't even realize lol) and told me it was time for the IV. So I screamed and cried like a baby through that (or so I thought, Lon says I was just fine) and then Midwife Karina came back to check me again. At that point, I had bypassed seven centimeters and was at eight. But I felt like I was already fully dilated and she was ready to come out. I was really having to "blow" through each contraction so that I wouldn't push subconsciously. Starting to feel panicked, I shared how I felt with Midwife Karina and she offered getting Stadol to get me through the last few centimeters and delivery. I was a little back and forth about it, until she mentioned this was the last call for any analgesics. I couldn't get anymore after eight centimeters. That made my decision for me lol, I chose to get a shot of Stadol and some more Zofran because my nausea was just crazy ridiculous at that point.

After the shot, everything was a blur. Nurses came in and out, checking up on me and making bets for when she would arrive. I quickly dilated to nine and a half centimeters but plateaued there. My time passed, then Lon's and then several of the other nurses. I just remember being stuck in bed, yelling in pain and wanting to move. Lon was beside me, holding my hand and stroking my head, looking really worried. I kept telling him how much I loved him and how happy I was that he was here for me. He just kept smiling and telling me it would be okay. I needed to stand up, wanted to so bad so I looked at my nurse and told her my wishes. She let me stand by my bed and finish laboring that way. I could have cried, I was so grateful lol. After a few short minutes, I was ready. I told Midwife Karina that I was ready to push next contraction, NO MATTER WHAT, and thankfully she agreed.

I pushed Miss Anna out in nine painful pushes. She was born at 11:58 pm on July seventh. The instantly laid her on my belly and I looked down at that beautiful girl. I remember asking if she was still a girl and how the nurses all laughed at me and said yes. I sobbed with happiness and Lon kissed me repeatedly. Then after they had dried her off, they quickly took her to weigh her. She weighed 6 pounds and 13 ounces (just a pound under her brother) and her height was 20 inches long (a half inch shorter than her brother). She was just perfect.

Anna being weighed

 I think this is a good point to stop for now, I will continue when I can with Alan and Anna's first meeting and my hospital experience. All in all though, I was a great labor experience for me. I am not unhappy with any of it. I love Saint Vincent's Hospital! :D