Annie was born on Friday, October 3, 2008. Jon and I checked into the hospital just before midnight on Thursday. It wasn't until after 2 o'clock that the nurse gave me the drugs to induce labor. I slept, or tried to. I was very uncomfortable with the IV, the fetal monitors and the moaning lady down the hall. I was having contractions, but they were merely uncomfortable.
At 6 o'clock, Dr. Weaver came in and was unhappy with the fetal monitors. Anne was not cooperating. She kept moving out of the way so the monitors couldn't pick up any info on her progress. At that point, Dr. Weaver attached the monitor directly to her heart, breaking my water in the process. By 6:30, the contractions were so strong and so on top of each other, I was ready for the epidural. The anesthesiologist was on his way to Vegas. I was his last patient before vacation. He was obviously thrilled to have to stop by on his way out! (He was actually very nice) By 7:00, I was numb and very comfortable. I went to sleep.
My mom arrived about 8:00. I was able to rest a little bit, but the pain returned. They juiced up my epidural twice before Anne joined us. My right leg was solid numb, like a log, but the left leg never completely went under. It was a very strange sensation. At one point, my leg fell off the table and I had to ask my mom to pick it up :)
At 10 o'clock, the nurse wanted to see where we were at. She had me try to push just a little. Immediately she realized that Anne was ready. She called Dr. Weaver, my mom went to the waiting room, and we began pushing for real. Suddenly the contractions started to really hurt, even with the epidural. I pushed through two contractions, without knowing if I was actually pushing because I couldn't feel what I was doing. I felt nauseous and was sick. I couldn't push on the next one because my stomach was upset. When it settled a little bit, we were back in the game. The nurse asked me twice if I wanted a mirror to see. Sorry, that was not for me. Jon however, against our mutual understanding, watched everything. I didn't mind as much as I thought I would. Note to self though, always let the nurses know your birth plan. Jon didn't have much of a choice. They said, "come hold a leg dad" and they put him to work. There was no hiding the action at that point.
The nurse told me to stop pushing because Anne was on her way and we were still waiting for Dr. Weaver. When Weaver arrived at 10:30, I was ready to push again. I pushed four times in one contractions, and then they showed me my daughter at 10:33!
I was a bit shocked. That's it? We're done? Why is she kind of bluish/gray? Jon cut the cord. She got an 8 on her apgar score (for color), and then a 9 five minutes later. The nurse said she "pinked right up!" I wanted Jon to go tell my mom, but there were some minor complications and I was losing a lot of blood. It wasn't really the right time to bring my mom in. She was back in the room at about 10:45 followed shortly by my dad. I breastfeed Anne right away, we drank champagne, and savored the moment.
