annie claire

so this will be my attempt at trying to capture one of the top moments in life into words, impossible.
i sent molly off to church camp on sunday afternoon. i promised her not to have the baby until she arrived home on thursday. oops.
tuesday morning i got up, walked, took maggie to target and came back home. we fixed lunch and i paced around the house. i went upstairs and laid on the bed and turned on food network. i felt a little twinge, and then another. this had been happening all week, so no real thoughts of anything happening. then another. then one i had to breathe through. hmmmm... maybe? i called the doctor and they told me to head on over just in case. jeff called his mom and we waited on her while i had a few more.
he was skeptical, as was i. it was around 3 o clock at this time.
we loaded up in the van and i was getting a little more uncomfortable. when we got to the hospital, the nurse said i needed to go to triage, they would do a labor check on me.
i was 5 cm and contracting every 4 minutes. they weren't really painful, just there.
she called the doctor who gave her the go ahead to admit us.
yeeaaaahhhh!!
we were both giddy and nervous. she started my iv and took us to our labor room. it was probably around 5pm now.


time to call my parents and let them know their grandbaby was on its way!
jeff went down to get our luggage, i sent some emails and we just hung out waiting for the doctor.
dr. newby was on, she told me we could see what i did on my own, or start pitocin, place and internal monitor and get the ball rolling. i chose to progress natural for a little while. i did agree to her breaking my water, which would intensify things a little.
after an hour or so i was about 7 cm and ready for my epidural. they told me he was busy and it was now or never, so i chose to go on with it. it took him another hour to make it to me, but i was doing ok.
i got the epidural placed around 8 and by 10 i was complete.
the doctor had a c-section to do, but chose to let me push for a little while first, just in case i went fast. good choice. first contraction i pushed and out she came.
easy as pie. then they asked what her name was. we hadn't really nailed that down yet.
jeff loved annie claire, i like annie caroline or vivian kate. she looked more like an annie, so let him decide. she is spunky and i think the name fits her perfect.
the part i hope to never forget was watching the doctor pull her up and jeff yelling "its a girl" i thought he was wrong, i thought surely that was a boy in there.
i guess i secretly hoped for a girl because i was overwhelmed with happiness to find out that is what she was.


she was crying right off and i just wanted to soak up her pretty face, so perfect. my first thought was she was a mixture of maggie and molly. molly's hair, maggie's nose.
then i couldn't believe god had given us five perfect healthy children.


i cried, thinking i am not that good of a person to receive such gifts, how lucky we are.
after a long night in labor monitoring me for some little postpartum issues we moved over to mother baby. i didn't so much as close my eyes until that afternoon for an hour. i just wanted to soak up every second of her newness. to say we fell in love was an understatement. it never gets old, its just as amazing this time as it was with molly.


now we are home. one big loud, crazy, happy family. mom is tired, but blissfully happy.