anna's birth story~

I haven't been the best at keeping up with the baby books. I actually did pretty well up until Noah. I'm so used to typing that writing things out by hand seems to take forever. I do keep a handwritten journal, but it's sparse compared to here, so while I'm on my blogging roll, I thought for the sake of my children and myself when I am older (and all the birth story junkies), I would write out each one's birth story. I'll begin at the beginning....

Glen and I had been married six months. We had bought our first house a couple of months before and were planning on "trying" to get pregnant in January. Well, due to a certain someone not been very diligent with her birth control pills, one mid-January morning, I received a very pleasant surprise!

My original due date was 14 September. It was later moved to 4 September after a routine ultrasound showed her measuring bigger. I had a marvelous, uneventful pregnancy.

Around six weeks before my due date, I was dilated to 2cm. I hung out there for a few weeks, and gradually, at two weeks prior to my due date, I was dilated between 5-6cm. Being young and uninformed in the ways of childbirth, I agreed to be induced. After all, it was my first baby and I had been waiting to be a mother my whole life!

The following morning I arrived at the hospital around 8am. It took awhile to get things going, but around 10am or so I was having nice, strong pitocin contractions. Out the window flew my natural childbirth intentions (I really had no idea). Everything progressed nicely, and our sweet, red-faced, black-haired baby was born a few short hours later with only a few pushes. My entire family was there. My Mom, my aunt, my sisters, and my mother-in-law. Oh, and Glen. We can't forget Glen. :o) I did have a 3rd degree tear, but all was well. (Why didn't anyone bother to inform me that after pains, stitches, and engorgement could all easily rival labor???)

Anna Rose Hutchison weighed 8# 10 1/2 oz. and was 20 inches long. We went home two days later and thus began my journey.

A few other things I want to remember~

I got to labor and birth in the secluded, very large room usually reserved for celebrities. Anna thinks this is pretty cool and it allowed for plenty of room for my family.

My great aunt and grandmother were also both in the same hospital as I was. We were each on separate floors and my other aunt kept running up and down the elevator to check on everyone. As soon as I was discharged, we walked back into the hospital (after the formalities of being wheeled out, getting in the car, the nurse making sure we had an infant carseat, and re-parking the car of course) to visit my aunt and grandmother. We had to go up the elevator, and across the verrryyy looong crosswalk, and down the hallway. Did I mention I had a lot of stitches? Again, I ask, why didn't anyone warn me? I can't hold my sweet husband responsible as at this point in time he still had no clue :o)

The following week, I took her to Vandy for a well-baby check. I had to park in the garage. Across the street. Go up the elevator and down a verrry looong hallway. Didn't think I'd need the stroller. (think young, naive, super-mom...or so I thought) Dropped the blanket in the middle of the road on my way back to the car. Had to take the stairs in the parking garage. Did I mention I had stitches? Like, a lot of them. By the time I got there, I needed the doctor more than she did. She was perfectly healthy. I, on the otherhand, couldn't walk for two weeks. We soon changed doctors.

I was a compulsive breastfeeder. Kept track of which side, for how long, watched the clock, and was obsessed with "learning" how to nurse discreetly.

I am so glad I'm not a new mom anymore. Whew. Those days were hard :o)