Anna's Birth Story

Anna's Birth Story:



I woke up early on Sunday June 25th, 2006 with heartburn and nausea. I took some Tums, but it didn't seem to help. I had some cramps, and I was trying to decide if it was gas, or contractions. I knew I didn't feel well enough to go to church, so I told Jason we weren't going to church. A little while later, I was pretty sure what I was feeling was labor, so Jason called my parents so they could come pick up Benjamin. It wasn't long after they arrived that I was wishing we were already at the hospital. Contractions were moving along so quickly and getting more intense by the minute. If we had waited for them to be 5 minutes apart for an hour before going in, we would have had Anna at home!

We got to the hospital around 11:30 a.m. and they took me to triage. I really just wanted to go straight to labor & delivery! I wasn't in triage long, they checked and I was 6 cm dilated and moving along well. I wasn't in labor & delivery long before I was in the "leave me alone" "get down to business" stage of labor. The nurse asked if I wanted the doctor to break my water, but I didn't want to be messed with, so I didn't answer her. In fact, the nurse came in a lot and asked questions, but I just let Jason answer because I was too busy with contractions. I had written out a birth plan (as I had done with our first child, Benjamin), stating what I wanted/didn't want. I had chosen to go without pain medication this time as well.

A while later, I got the first urge to push, so they checked my cervix again and I was fully dilated to 10 cm and ready to go. They hadn't gotten everything ready for the delivery yet, and they still needed to break down the bed, but the nurse told me I could push if I wanted to. The next contraction, the urge was stronger, so I went with it. WOOSH! My water broke, all over my legs, my socks, the bed, and even the nurse who was standing at the foot of the bed!! She said that was a new experience for her, she had never seen that before. It felt very strange to me too! After the water broke, they hurried to get everything ready for delivery and then I was able to get down to pushing Anna out. I pushed for a while, but I started getting so exhausted at one point I said to Jason "Are we done yet?!" the nurse, sensing my discouragement, allowed me to feel Anna's head -which was crowning. That's all I needed for that extra "boost" to keep going. 18 minutes of pushing, and she was born. It was such an amazing experience!

Anna was born at 2:00 p.m. on June 25th, 2006. She weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 22 inches long.

The first thing I said after she was born is "IS it a girl?" because the ultrasound wasn't 100% conclusive, though we were pretty sure we had a girl. I asked it a couple times before someone finally answered that it was a girl. They put her on my chest and I held her for a long time. In fact, they didn't even bother cleaning her up right away. After her tests, my perenium tear was stitched up, and the "crowd" was gone, the nurse let me breastfeed Anna. As soon as I got a room, I was able to take Anna with me. She still hadn't had her bath by the time everyone came to visit!

My nurse was so proud of how beautiful and alert Anna was too! She told the other nurses "Mine is prettier!"

Benjamin's Birth Story

Benjamin's birth story:


I went into "real" labor on February 16th, 2005. I labored at home all day and waited patiently for the contractions to become regularly 5 minutes apart. They didn't really come that close together, but I knew I wouldn't sleep AT ALL that night. I had spoken with a nurse who suggested, if I didn't think I'd sleep, to come in to the hospital and they'd check my progress to see if we were a "go" or a "wait". So, when my husband got home from work at 10:30, I told him I wanted to go in to the hospital and at least have them take a look and see if we really were in labor.

We arrived at the hospital about 11:30 p.m and they kept me in triage for about 2 hours with monitors to check Benjamin's heart rate and my contractions. They checked the progress of my cervix and determined that it had made enough progress to admit me. I was taken to a labor and delivery room where we continued to labor until about 6:20 a.m. I chose not to have any pain medication because I wanted to see if I could do it "on my own", wanted the best for Benjamin, had heard horror stories about epidural headaches (that I, who was prone to migranes, would most assuredly get), and also, I was just plain afraid of the doctors sticking a needle in my back!

The doctor came to rupture the membranes around 6:20 a.m., which was actually kind of uncomfortable (compared to labor, I wouldn't say it hurt, but it sure wasn't "painless"). After that, the contractions got more intense (the first contraction after the bag of water was ruptured resulted in me vomiting). Around 8:30 I had the urge to push, but was still only 9cm dilated. The nurse told me not to push, and that was the hardest part of the whole labor & delivery process because the push urge was SO strong! After a few more intense contractions with the urge to push, I had dilated the rest of the way and then I was allowed to push. Benjamin's heart rate went down, and the doctors wanted to hurry the pushing to keep Benjamin out of danger. So, a flurry of doctors, aids, nurses, and students all came in while a nurse put a monitor directly on Benjamin's scalp, a catheter was inserted (didn't need to, I had already emptied my bladder earlier) and then removed, and I was given an episiotomy (they started cutting me before the anesthetic took hold) and they used forceps to help Benjamin out with the next contraction/push.

Benjamin was born at 9:17 a.m. on Thursday, February 17th. He weighed 10 lbs even and was 21 inches long. I wanted to hold him right after he was born, and they put him on my chest just long enough for Jason to cut the cord, and then the nurses whisked Benjamin away from me. They wanted to be sure he was ok after his heart rate had dropped in-utero, but I really missed that first "introduction". He had some bruising from the forceps, which caused jaundice, so he needed to be under the bilirubin lights (his "magic lights") until we were allowed to go home. He also had a fractured right clavicle (collarbone). The doctors didn't elaborate on that, but I think he must have been somewhat stuck (because of his size) and the force of being guided out with the forceps caused it to fracture. The doctor that delivered Benjamin did say that if I hadn't gotten him pushed down as far as I had on my own I would have had to end up with an emergency cesarean because of his falling heart rate and size. I'm so thankful that didn't have to happen.

After we had been home a couple days, we had to bring him back to the hospital, this time to the NICU, so that he could have more intense bilirubin light treatment and so they could re-hydrate him (breast-feeding had gotten off to a rocky start, the rocky part being my rock-hard breasts...ouch!).

Anna's Gallery

A photo gallery of Anna:

20 Week Ultrasound

Birth-day, June 25th, 2006

Just home from the hospital (2 days old)

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

Almost 9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months

Two Years

Benjamin's Gallery

A photo gallery of Benjamin:

20 Week Ultrasound

Birth-day, February 17th, 2005

1 Month

2 Months (with Daddy & Mommy)

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

Almost 6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

12 Months

13 Months

18 Months

19 Months (with Daddy and Anna)

Two Years

Three Years

Halloween

Here is a picture of the kids in their ghost costumes from the Halloween party at Dan & Becky's (their uncle & aunt) house:

The kids & I were ghosts and their Daddy was a Ghostbuster (Ray Stantz). It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad the rush to get everything done in time is over! Next year: something simple!!