Annelise Maureen's Birth Story

She finally made it out!  I felt like there was the slight possibility that she might just be in there forever.  Nine days "late" we evicted her and here she is!

Before I type out her birth story, I need to say that having a baby is amazing.  The moment you get those two lines on a pregnancy test, that life is already growing.  That little person is forming amazing amazing systems and structures and them from early on.  They grow and grow and without you doing anything conscious to help that process.  Your body knows exactly what to do to spur on the perfect development of that little life.  Then, when the work is done, they come out.  After all those months, they leave their warm space and they thrive outside the womb.  Then, if you so choose, your body will create food for them to live on throughout the next year or so.  Say what?  My body knows how to grow a baby, get it into the world, then how to sustain it even once it's outside my body?  The whole thing is mind boggling and so impressive.  I'm in awe.

Anyway...

I would like to write out how Annie made her way into our world.  For the non-TMI crowd out there, I will give you a brief recap, if you want all the gory details, I'll spell it ALL out below.  Take your pick, but don't say I didn't warn you if you decide to read on. ;)

Cliff Notes: 

We got to the hospital at 7 am Friday morning, September 12th.  We got in our room and set up with an IV pretty much right away.  At 9 they started Pitocin.  By noon we had our epidural and after an intense 50 minutes, we had a baby by 12:50.  Bam.  That's pretty much how it went down.

More details?  See below...


Nitty Gritty: 

Her birth story is my favorite so far, I think.  It has a lot of character and while it was the second hardest labor (I don't think you often top your first labor in terms of UGH and suck factor) it was a cool experience and definitely unique.  It's a fun one to tell too.

Like the cliff notes said, we got checked in and all the preliminary stuff done between 7 and 8 am.  We were set up with an amazing nurse who I know I have had in the past.  She said she recognized me name.  You know you have had a lot of babies when the OB nursing staff starts to recognize you. :P  She was so sweet and caring though.  I've always loved my OB nurses, but she turned out to be one of the best.  After IV and all that, we waited.  My doctor had been in a c-section during our check-in and had another coming in.  There were also two emergency c-sections that happened during the first two hours we were there.  Busy! One c-section was a preterm labor, which was sad.  I heard lots of commotion and talk of "She delivered a 22 week-er...." and "Her last was a 29 week c-section."  Suddenly I felt blessed to be carrying a 41 week baby and in a non-emergency situation.  They were debating giving her magnesium to stop contractions versus delivering.  Shortly after that discussion, I heard alarms going off (likely the fetal heartbeat monitor) and a stretcher flying down the hallway.  Emergency c-section.  Ugh.  I can't imagine.

A baby nurse came in at one point and apologized that the nurse in charge of caring for my baby post-delivery should come in and set everything up and introduce herself.  However, this nurse was going to prep things because my nurse and most of the nursing staff was preoccupied with an intense preemie situation.  Oof.  It was an intense morning on the L&D floor.  I didn't mind any of it because obviously all that took top priority.  I felt blessed to be in such an "easy" feeling situation after hearing all the hustle and bustle.

That hour ticked by and at 9 am, my doctor (Dr. Y... the one I saw the most this pregnancy) came in and checked me.  I was at 2.5 cm.  Are you kidding me?  I felt like I was in early labor all week and I only progressed a HALF a centimeter?!  Really?  Bah.

2.5 is better than nothing though, I realize, and Pitocin was started at that point.  Easy contractions came, but nothing terrible.  I could talk to Jim and didn't need to focus or breathe through them.  It was very tolerable.

At 10 am Dr. A (who I really like but saw less this pregnancy because she's in higher demand) came in and I was at 3 cm.  She also broke my water at that point.  Contractions got a bunch stronger pretty much right after my water was broken, which is apt to happen.  At noon, they would check me again for progress.

In the 11:00 hour I requested my epidural because the contractions were starting to, well, suck.  Around 11:30 the anesthesiologist did the epidural.  The first  epidural she did backed up with blood so before she could even get the medicine in, and she knew it wasn't going to work.  She did a second one and there was a bit of blood, but she didn't think it was blocked like the last.  She wasn't assertive though and seemed concerned.  She gave me a small dose of the meds and had my nurse stay with me to monitor how I did with the small dose.  Jim and my nurse did great through that.  Both put a hand on me through contractions and were positive, but not overbearing.  While we waited to see if the second epidural was successful, they were watching for all the scary signs that the epidural was in the wrong space.  I had no scary symptoms and my contractions did lessen in intensity so it seemed like we were golden.  The anesthesiologist came back in and gave me the full pump of medicine.  Full relief should come!!

(You will notice no photos were taken between now and baby arriving... there's a reason for that.  Things got busy, and FAST!)

At noon my doctor did come in and check me and I was at 4 cm.  I was happy to be undergoing the epidural process to get me through the rest of labor and while 3 to 4 cm isn't a huge jump, it's something.  The next check would be at 2pm. (HAHAHAHAHAHA, read on....)

We waited for relief from the epidural, but as the noon hour progressed, relief didn't come.   Pretty much as soon as the epidural pump was hooked up, and when meds should be flowing, I started feeling worse.  My pain had migrated down to about a 5 (a good epidural knocks ALL pain COMPLETELY out) and it started creeping back up.  WRONG direction on the pain scale!  The oddest thing was prior to this I was feeling the tightness in my belly and a very distinct feeling of cervical pressure through each contraction.  I explained to Jim in graphic detail what it felt like, but I will spare you.  Anyway, now?  Now I was feeling tons of pressure and pain in my butt.  Yes, you read that right.  My butt.  It hurt.  Like bad.  Really bad.

I quickly moved from having to focus through contractions again, to having to breathe through contractions again, to having to try different positions because, holy crap, they were not fun. Epidural?  WHAT epidural?  None.  There was essentially none.  I was convinced that the baby was posterior because she had been in weeks prior and feeling the pressure so far back (not back labor, but feeling pain in your butt didn't seem normal) pointed to posterior.

So at this point I am thinking, "Posterior labors can stall at 4cm and -1 station."  I was both.  Also, "Posterior labors can take longer and pushing can take REALLY long with lots of pain."  The amount of pain I was in, with the epidural not covering it, and imagining that pain for a long posterior labor was a bit daunting.  Very daunting.

Through the 12:00-12:30 block of time, Jim was watching my contractions and telling me when the peaked and when they were almost over which really helped.  Finally, my nurse came in and Jim told her the amount of pain I was in and she took a second to pause and asked me a question:

"Are you feeling pressure?"

"Well, yeah, but not that kind of pressure.  My butt hurts!"

Then she went somewhere I hadn't considered, "I think you are progressing quickly.  Let me get a doctor to check you."  Really?  I think my epidural sucks and my baby is in the wrong position, and... and...  but my nurse took the reigns and a resident came in and politely introduced herself... I didn't want introductions or pleasantries.  The pain was climbing, and quick.  I don't care who you are.  This sucks!  She checked me, 8.  I was 8 centimeters.  A half hour ago I was 4 cm.

I was progressing quickly.  My nurse was right.  My thought at that point was, "If I am 8 now, this baby will be out soon!"  I usually move VERY quickly from 6 cm on.  I was 8!  We are in go-mode!

A few minutes later my doctor came in to check me "You have a small lip of cervix left."  Not even 5 minutes had passed and almost 2 cm more progressed... wow.  (Especially when you consider that it took me from 10:00-12:00 to progress from 3 to 4 cm.  My body is weird.)

All of a sudden, the urge hit "I need to push!" I wasn't pushing... at all... but my body was bearing down and pushing was happening.  Not by me.  It was all out of my control.  I have never had that happen.  I've read about it, but never experienced the insane urge to push NOW!  The doctor said "Ok, we can push through the lip."  She got her garb on and a minute later checked me again, "She's complete," she said.  Ok then.

At this point it was about 12:45 and I was pushing while they broke down the bed.  My nurse came to one side and Jim manned the other... pushing continued, I couldn't help it.  This is the point too where quiet-calm-polite-laboring-Susie was gone... my eyes were closed.  I was inside my body, breathing, pushing, bearing down.  I was loud, staying silent wasn't happening.... during the contractions I grunted along with the push.  So painful.  So active.  All I could think about was the pain, such intense pain, and what my body was doing and that my baby was coming and then back to the pain.  At some point there was prayer, prayer for accompaniment.  I needed God with me through this.  Then there was the reality of more pain and pushing.  And more grunting and again the realization that the baby was on her way.  This all overlapped in mere seconds and minutes.

I could tell she was crowning early on... I could feel the tension of her head, the seemingly slow passage, then the release of her head being delivered, and a momentary break.  Pushing began again and I could feel her shoulders one by one wiggled out, then the familiar plop as she was placed on my chest.

12:50pm.

My initial thought besides, "Thank God that is over!" was about her hair.  She had light hair.  None of our kids come out with light hair.  She was beautiful.  "She's tiny," I said.  "No, she isn't," said the nurses.  We gazed at her as she let out her first cry and got rubbed down and suctioned out.  It's amazing meeting your child for the first time.  It's really interesting to put a visual to the being that you have felt for all those months.

"How long were we pushing?" I asked the doctor.

She replied with "Under 5 minutes" and the nurse replied with "2 contractions."  She was my fastest overall labor and fastest to push out.  I'm not going to lie, that kinda makes me proud.  I got her out quick.  Go me.  Next, they took her away to get cleaned up and weighed.  9 pounds even.  21.5 inches.  Big girl!! She wasn't tiny!

It took another 5 minutes before the placenta was delivered and I was checked out by the doctor.  No tears, no damage.  9 pound baby.  The doctor did a thorough check since she was delivered so quickly and then we were left to snuggle with our newest peanut.

Jim texted who needed to be texted and then the name debate began.  People wanted to know a name.  I didn't know.  We had been set on the first name for months then the night before our induction Jim sprang another name on me... a name I had loved in the past.  We discussed and decided that she is our Annie.  Annelise Maureen would be her formal name.

She squacked a bit and settled to nurse.  She was a champ nursing right out of the gate.  No issues latching or sucking.  We marveled at our newest little girl and soaked in the fact that it was over.  The pain and the rush and the hustle of birthing her was over.  We welcomed our fifth little life into the world and feel so blessed to do so.

After the fact, I was amazing to think about what my body did.  Whether the epidural didn't work because I was actually already in transition by the time we got it, or the pain was just too low, or the epidural wasn't well placed, it didn't really matter.  What matters was that my baby was in the right position.  My body knew what it was doing.  The pressure and pain I was feeling was rapid dilation and decent of my sweet girl.  My body was doing exactly what it was supposed to do and it all went easily.  I even appreciated the pain afterward because it was so short and I was able to really feel her coming into the world.  I would have taken an awesome epidural and no pain too, but pushing out a 9 pounder in under 5 minutes was worth the pain and cool to be such an active participant to her birth instead of staying numb to it and having her come effortlessly, like she would have if the epidural worked well.

Now we are adjusting to having Annie in the house and learning to work as a family of seven.  The kids are absolutely in love and so interested in her.  It's amazing to watch a sibling be added to the crew.  They are always welcomed with open arms and warm hearts.  I love becoming a mama again, but I love even more watching the kids and that bond.

I know things will get busy and crazy and there is always always a pretty tumultuous adjustment behind the scenes as time goes on, but for now I'm thankful for a healthy pregnancy, smooth delivery, and a sweet sweet healthy baby girl to take home and love.

Welcome to the world Annelise!  :)  We are so glad you are here. :)