Arrival Story

Last Monday we were blessed with the most beautiful baby girl in the world, Annalise Michele. The road was smooth in the end, but the few days leading up to her arrival were a little tough on Mommy and Daddy.

In a previous post I detailed our false alarm, which was a frustrating experience. Thinking you're in labor only to be sent home is a little embarrassing to say the least! Here is our last family picture of just the three of us...taken before James and I went to the hospital for aforementioned false alarm.

The following morning I began to experience some bleeding, which had us worried, but it tapered off by the end of the day. Sunday night I began having contractions every 10-15 minutes...things were really starting to happen! But when the bleeding started up again Monday morning I was worried and called my doctor, who told us to skip coming to his office and just meet him at the hospital.

We gathered Tommy's things, my hospital bag and loaded up the car. I was feeling really nervous so we went straight to the hospital and had Brian and Lisa meet us there to pick up Tommy. He joined us in the Labor and Delivery triage room for a short time and didn't really like being there. He kept saying "Don't want to cooperate" and became very clingy with me...must've been scary to see Mommy sitting in a hospital bed. He liked sitting on the bed with me and got crumbs from his snack all over the sheets.

The reluctant Big Brother.

So in triage they hooked me up to the fetal monitors and an IV for hydration, which promptly stopped my contractions! My doctor came over nonetheless and did an amniocentesis to make sure our baby's lungs were developed enough for life on the outside, which is standard in his practice for pregnancies prior to 39 weeks (I was 38 weeks, 4 days...so it wasn't really that necessary!) The results came back in the affirmative and since I'd already dilated to 4cm and was 80% effaced we got the go-ahead to induce labor a few days earlier than we had planned.

We got into the labor and delivery room around 2:30pm and I had my epidural and Pitocin drip in place by 2:45. Look how happy I was to be in the homestretch!

The nurse came in to break my water and was really surprised that no fluid came out...she chalked it up to Baby's head acting as a plug. When the doctor came in to deliver the baby a couple of hours later he asked "Why didn't they break your water?" so it looks like the nurse goofed a little. I probably would have had her an hour earlier if my water had been broken, though!

The doctor arrived around a quarter to 6 and after pushing through just three contractions, Annalise Michele Wedewer was here! She came out screaming at the top of her lungs and immediately peed on the doctor, which made us all laugh, including Dr. Joe. I cried, of course, because she was so beautiful. James commented that his little girl was absolutely gorgeous while the nurses cleaned her up. We all noticed what big feet she had for such a tiny little girl...sad to say she probably inherited Mommy's giant feet (I'm only 5'4" and wear a 9.5 shoe!). She weighed in at 6 lbs. 8 oz. and they measured her at 18" tall (turns out she's 18 3/4" tall upon being measured at the pediatrician Friday). Her APGAR scores were both 9, which means she came out strong and healthy. And did we mention just how pretty she is? Here she is with the wonderful doctor who delivered her, Dr. Joe Rojas.

After a few minutes we decided on her name. She didn't look like a Brooke or a Danielle, and Annalise really seemed to fit her. Her middle name, Michele, is for my favorite sister. The baby nurse who gave Annalise her first bath was named Michelle, too, and joked "Oh, you shouldn't have!" Here are her first photos.

Happy Mommy.
Happy family.

Tommy was out in the waiting room with Brian, Lisa, Dillon, Cameron and Cody. They all came in to visit along with Uncle Derick. Tommy didn't seem to mind Mommy holding his new little sister, but when Uncle Derick picked her up he was quite unhappy!