Anna's birth story (don't worry - not gory)

So I don't have the best memory to begin with, and I understand that we will be a little busy in the coming weeks/months, so I thought I would write out what Anna's first 24 hours were like. Here we go:

Thursday, May 13 - due date, no baby, nothing all weekend
Monday, May 17 - doctor appointment in the morning. They did a non-stress test where they hooked me up to a monitor for 30 minutes or so and watched the baby's heartbeat and movements. I was having contractions every 10 minutes, but they weren't painful and they weren't getting more frequent. The doctor scheduled me for an induction on Friday the 21st, said I was about 3cm and 50% effaced, and sent us on our disappointed way.

During the day, I continued having contractions every 7-10 minutes, and they were a little stronger than in the past, but still not painful. At 4:40pm, they were consistently 7 minutes apart and I called the OB - before they closed - and told them the situation, also reminding them that I was going to need my 4 hours of antibiotics in labor for group B strep. They told me to come on in to the hospital, so we got here around 5:30pm and checked in.

They monitored me from about 6:00-6:30pm, and not much had changed. I was still about 3-4cm and 50% effaced. The day nurse told us to walk for an hour and they would reassess the situation. We did that, and ended up getting to about 4cm and 80%. The night nurse called the midwife, who arrived around 8:30...we kept walking around while waiting for her. She said I was about 5cm with contractions about 5 minutes apart...and we had 2 choices. 1. she would break my water, start pitocin, and get things moving, or 2. go home and come back when I started hurting more. I emphatically voted for #1, and Bob reminded her about the antibiotics...so she realized that I should be admitted for that. Thanks, Bob!

Soooo...I got the IV and first bag of penicillin. Around 9pm, Dr. V (who was not my friend at this point since he had no good news at the office earlier that morning) stopped by to say hello. He was on call for c-sections, etc. At 10pm, penicillin bag #1 was done and we were instructed to walk. At 10:15, I was ready for the epidural. Obviously, things had started moving quicker on their own by this point. So we started the epidural process (such a wonderful thing), though the very nice (but tardy) doctor was backed up and I didn't actually get the magic until 11:45, about a half hour later than I could have. That was a long hour and a half! But I eventually got it, my water broke on its own, and I got a catheter all within a very short time. Right after this, the nurse reported that I was 8cm. So I get to tell everyone that I made it to 8cm without an epidural...not by choice, though!

The epidural was not as wonderful as with Erin - we speculate that because my water had broken, maybe the contractions were a lot stronger or something. I had a little relief at the beginning when I got the initial bolus, then some at the end after several doses...but definitely not the same magic as last time, and I had it for less than 2 hours before she was born. But, alas, it was still worth it! Also, my blood pressure went a little low and I had to get 5mg of ephedrine to try to bring it up and I had to wear an oxygen mask. But I didn't feel bad (not related to the blood pressure, anyway), and it wasn't really that low, according to Dr. Bob.

So now comes the bad news. The nurse, who I had a love-hate relationship with, was insisting that I get the second dose of antibiotics before delivery. The second dose had to be 4 hours after the first dose, which meant the earliest it could start would be 12:45 with the 30-minute window. The reason for this was so that the baby would not have to have blood drawn and that they would consider the strep to be treated (we found out later from the pediatrician that only one dose is needed now to be considered treated...)

I was feeling like I needed to push, but we had to wait on the pencillin to be done, which was done around 1:15. The nurse, midwife, and two baby nurses came in and set up for the delivery.

I started pushing and 4 pushes later, at 1:31AM, Anna Kathryn was born! She cried right away and we saw that she was a girl (double 9 apgar score for our medical professional readership), and she was perfect!

All in all, it went very well, once things (finally) got started. We are so happy that she is finally here and healthy, and that Erin has a little sister to play with!