Annaleigh Marie Hill

We are at home with our lovely daughter, Annie. After spending just over 24 hrs. in the NICU she has made a full recovery and we were able to take her home as soon as I was discharged. She is such a little love, we are smitten. It's crazy how much she sleeps, but I guess I'm just making up for how little Judah slept at this age. Judah is doing amazingly well with her. He is so excited to have her around and so far we haven't had any huge meltdowns. He even decided to sleep in his big boy bed last night for the first time and slept through the night, wow!

Here is a play-by-play of Annie's birth for any of you who love the nitty gritty...

Well, we made it. Our daughter Annaleigh (Annie) was born on Thursday, December 11, 2008. She was 9lbs. 2oz. and 20.5 inches long. BIG girl! I had a successful VBAC and feel so amazing about it. After our last birth class on Monday my labor started to pick up and I was unable to sleep at all. Contractions continued through Tues. but they remained at about 5 minutes apart and the intensity didn't pick up until later in the evening. I had a regular appointment with Dr. Yin on Tues. morning and she said I was 1.5 cm, 90% effaced. She stripped my membranes and was hopeful that I would deliver the next day.
I think that I was a little unique in that I didn't feel comfortable at home for very long, maybe it was because I was a little scared being a VBAC. I decided to go to the hospital around 1:30am . When we got to the hospital, the nurse checked me and said I was 2cm, 90%. It was such a blessing, my admitting nurse was a new friend of mine from church and I really needed that kind of care, she even stopped and prayed for me as it was determined that I wasn't in labor yet... after 2 nights of no sleep... yikes. So Haupt gave me an Ambien and let me stay so that Dr. Yin could take over in the morning. I got about 3 hrs. of sleep and when Yin got there I had dilated another cm. We had previously talked about an epidural due to the exhaustion factor. So she told me I could have that at any time, but I really wanted to wait as long as possible.
I labored 8 more hrs. and was checked by a nurse and was told I was 2cm again. You can Imagine I broke down at that point. Dr. Yin's had overestimated when she checked me the last time. She was so optimistic the whole time and when she came back in about an hour she checked me and broke my water, which had light meconium. After that labor was really difficult, the contractions picked up immediately in length and intensity. I was having back labor as well. I lasted about 2 hrs. before I decided to get an epidural. I'm sure you remember my anxiety about having another spinal so the nurse gave me a low dose of Staidol before the epidural. Dr. Hack was amazing, I told him I was really afraid of the procedure and he did a great job calming my nerves. After that I was able to rest for a few hours while they started me on Pitocin. I got the epidural at 6:00 and by 11:15 I was ready to push. I was amazed! I didn't feel a thing until I was fully dilated.
Pushing was crazy, her head was already super low, so she moved down to near crowning fairly quickly. But there she remained for almost an hour, which is when I really started to feel things. It hurt bad, but it was great to know where to push. I almost gave up and Dr. Yin was very close to giving me an epesiotomy and finally Annie's head popped out. I tore pretty bad, so that has been fun.
Annie came out with the cord wrapped around her neck and had some complications due to that. They told us that it caused
hypovolemia and acid build up in her blood. So round 2 in the NICU for us. She also got a little meconium down past her vocal cords so they really wanted to monitor her and keep her on oxygen. She recovered so quickly it was really miraculous to us. It was emotionally taxing to again not have that initial bonding time with her, but knowing the NICU drill made it less stressful. She was able to room in with me on Friday and we brought her home on Saturday.
It was an amazing experience in spite of having a really long labor and a little scare when she came out. I was shocked that I never thought about having a c-section or wanting one at all. Having Dr. Yin there the whole time made me feel so safe and I was able to trust her completely even when her plan was not what I had expected. I loved delivering my girl! I was so worth it.

Thanks to all who prayed for us. We felt so blessed by all the calls and emails. Knowing that the Lord hears our prayers is a comfort in times of joy and times of fear. We are so blessed by a community who surrounds us with prayer and encouragement in the Lord. We hope to see many of you in the next weeks to come.