Emily's soccer game (a few weeks ago)

Sweet Abby

 Every night Abby chooses a book to look at in bed (or I hand her one).  Last night when I peeked in on them, I noticed a book laying by Annie.  I asked, and Abby confirmed that she gave Annie the book.  So sweet!

Funny things around my house lately

*Ellen has declared that she will call Annie "Anne" or "Anners" sometimes.
*Abby is still declaring "Baby out!" in glee.
*All three girls fight over holding Annie.
*All three girls are fascinated with my pumping.
*My girls often pat one another on the back so they can burp.
*Ellen's boobs originally contained milk and juice, but now they have snacks.
*If you hear a squawk from Annie's room, it will often be followed by a stampede of six little feet hoping to help.

A couple more pics from our trip home

Annie & her sisters

Phone pictures

 Ellen and Abby loved my bed, and the fact that you heard the TV through the remote.

 Ellen was very excited to change Annie's diaper, and she really did a good job.

This is Annie at probably less than an hour old.

 The girls were also thrilled with my food.  Granted, so was I; it was honestly some of the better food I've had, especially for a hospital.

Emily looks so old here!

 Jon took a "before" picture of me.

Annie's story

Warning--this is an "all details included" account.  

On Saturday at lunch, I lost my mucous plug.  Or I was pretty sure that I did.  I was afraid to get my hopes up, but it really couldn't have been anything else.  I let Jon know; with Emily I lost it about two days before labor, with Ellen it was about 18 hours later that labor started.  So, we were on small alert, but nothing big (we put my bag & the camera in the car before we headed to a friend's party, but that was about it).  

I really did expect to wake up in labor sometime Saturday night (especially since our Grand Opening at church was on Sunday morning), but no luck.  I was starting to wonder if I was wrong.  Then at church I had bloody show.  Put Jon on half-alert again, but I wasn't even having Braxton-Hicks contractions.  After church I tried taking a hot bath and even a nap.  I tried pumping, but just ended up with 2 ounces of milk and no contractions.  The girls and I walked to the park, and I walked laps while they played.  Still nothing.  I decided to lay down and watch TV, thinking that maybe relaxation was the answer.  I had a few consistent BH, but they were still just that.  Between 8 and 9pm, I had two or three contractions that actually felt strong, but still weren't too painful.  

Jon came home from youth group, and we went to bed.  At 10:10 I had a contraction that made me say "Ow."  Jon had his hand on my belly to see how strong it was, and he left it there.  Eventually he moved it, and another contraction started.  I glanced at the clock to see that it was 10:20, and gave him a hard time about his hand keeping contractions away.  It was another painful/strong one, and right in the middle, I felt a huge pop and gush as if a water balloon had exploded within me.  Water was gushing all over my newly-washed sheets.  I started exclaiming, "Oh my word, my water just broke! It just broke!" and Jon started teasing me for wetting the bed.

We called Kim and the hospital and I put in a sub request for work.  We gathered the last few things we needed for the hospital.  I had a few strong contractions kind of close together, and I was worried that things were going to move quickly.  We ended up leaving the house about 10ish minutes before Kim got there--I was sure the kids would never notice.  We got to the hospital around 11:30 and got all checked in, IV started.  The on-call doctor (who I had seen in the office on Tuesday) checked me, and I was 5-6cm.  They called the anesthesiologist and I got my epidural. 

We then just waited and watched TV.  The nurse kept telling us to nap, but I kept thinking things would go quickly, so I was afraid to sleep (I usually have a "15 minutes of stupid" when I wake up, and didn't want that to happen during birth).  I was also a bit excited.  I remember changing positions a few times to keep things moving, and by 1:20 I was 8cm.  I thought for sure I'd have a baby by 2.  This is where things kind of just stalled.  I was trying to sit up vertically, thinking it would bring the baby down, but apparently that didn't work.  At 3am I was complete except for a small rim of cervix, and she was still high.  At around 4 the doctor came and wiggled the baby's head around to see if that would help, and then they had me lay on my side.  

Instantly I felt a very, very painful contraction--it was as if I didn't have an epidural at all.  After one more of those, I asked for a bolus/boost of my epidural.  I was told the effects would take about 20 minutes (famous last words--I knew this would mean baby in less time).  Sure enough, a contraction or two later made me feel "the pressure."  The nurse was moving my legs into stirrups and saw hair, and the doctor happened to walk in right at that point.  The doctor wasn't ready at all (gloves, gown, draping, etc), but on the next contraction sat right down and declared, "We're having a baby right now!"  At this point I was told to push, but I was feeling what I would say was 100% of the pain--so my brain knew to push, but my body said "breathe through the contraction, it hurts, but it's almost over."  I finally made the connection that pushing = pain = birth = it's over, and pushed twice and she was out.  That was very painful, and I'm not sure how women do that after feeling labor.  Yikes.

They put Annie on my chest and started to wipe her off, then had her skin-to-skin with some snuggling blankets.  Like any good baby, she peed on my pretty quickly.  It was so nice to be able to hold and snuggle her right away.  They said I could have two hours before they'd like to weigh her and do the other nursery "business."  I laughed because I wasn't sure how we were going to give people the good news without stats OR a name.  "We had a baby at 4:54! That's all."  When she was measured, she turned out to be my biggest: 8 pounds, 4 ounces (beating Ellen by 4 ounces).  She was 20 1/4 inches long.  She was born at 37w5d, just a day later than Abby.

We chose the name Annie because we liked it, and we know some good Annies.  Christine is my name, my mom's middle name, my aunt's name, my cousin's middle name, my grandma's middle name, and my great grandma's name.  Yeah.  It's definitely in the family.  

At 8am I went back for my tubal.  That was one of the stranger experiences of my life.  The only "surgery" I've ever had was having my wisdom teeth removed, if that can count.  It was strange to lay on the table with my arms sticking out, feeling and wiggling my feet and arms, but having my torso be completely numb.  It was strange to feel pushing and pulling and the doctors & nurses talking, and know that they were cutting and digging around in my body.  I was also completely relaxed and utterly tired after being awake for 26 hours at this point, and I just wanted to sleep.  Luckily, that's what I was able to do in the recovery room.

Aside from some pain in different areas and starting out flat exhausted, this has been a nice recovery.  The benefit of having a baby early in the morning is that it counts as your delivery day all day long, and I didn't have to go home until Wednesday.  It was nice to rest and relax in the hospital, and they had surprisingly good food.  We are all happy to be home, though.  The girls have been tremendous helpers, and my mom will be here in a week.

Annie Christine

 Here are some pictures from Annie's first day--I'll post the story in a different post.