Two weeks ago yesterday, just after 5:00 in the morning, we brought our sweet Annie Kate into the world. Born at 35 weeks, 4 days gestation, she weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces, and measured 18 ¾ inches long.
Annie’s arrival was unexpected. We were planning an induction at 37 weeks because my blood pressure had become a little unpredictable. I had been dealing with hypertension throughout the entire pregnancy, in addition to gestational diabetes, advanced maternal age (eye roll), and my history of preterm labor. Because of those risk factors, my pregnancy required a lot of appointments, ultrasounds, and twice-weekly non-stress tests among other monitoring. My last two pregnancies prior to this one were also considered high risk, but the hypertension was a new issue this time around.
On November 17, I was at a “Friendsgiving” lunch with dear friends. I felt totally fine, but I happened to glance down at my feet, and they were very swollen. Swelling was not normal for me, and with my high blood pressure, I knew that I probably needed to keep a close eye on things. When I got home, I had Luke check my blood pressure, and it was running high. We checked it a few times over the course of an hour, and it kept getting higher. When it reached about 175/100, we knew we needed to go to the hospital and see what was going on.
This is not a good sign, just FYI.
When we arrived at the hospital, neither one of us were planning on staying longer than a couple hours. We didn’t even bring our bags. I think we thought I would get some IV medicine and be sent home. However, when my blood pressure reached nearly 200/100, we were given the news that we weren’t quite ready for — we were going to be induced that night.
This created quite a panic in me. I found myself extremely emotional. All of a sudden, I felt very worried and my mind was racing. Was she big enough? Were her lungs developed enough? Would she be OK? Would I be OK? I thought of the other kids and how I didn’t get to spend quality time with them that day. I wanted one more special day and night with Leo as my baby, and now we wouldn’t have that chance.
Once I was able to calm down, Luke ran home to tuck the kids in bed and get our bags. During that time, they started me on magnesium. Anyone who has experienced IV magnesium knows how terrible it is. Instantly, I was overheating and sweating profusely. The room temperature was set on 55 degrees, and it still felt too hot. Magnesium is supposed to prevent seizures when you have high blood pressure. It also relaxes your whole body, which means you can’t get out of bed. Because you can’t get out of bed, you are catheterized (the worst). Also, to avoid blood clots in your legs, you have to wear the sequential compression sleeves (SCD) around your calves. With the blood pressure cuff on my arm and the SCD machine on my legs, I felt shackled to the bed. This was certainly not the way I had envisioned my labor experience.
Me, trying to put on a brave face as we began the induction process.
When Luke returned, they started pitocin. I hadn’t had pitocin since I was in labor with Noelle, and I just remember screaming for the epidural 5 minutes after it was administered. I hadn’t yet made up my mind about an epidural this time. I always try to take it one contraction at a time and see how I feel. I do have a history of very quick labors, so I can’t wait too long or an epidural simply won’t be an option. I was worried that having pitocin was going to force me into getting an epidural, but I decided to see how things went before making a decision.
Because the magnesium relaxes your muscles and the pitocin contracts them, the two medicines work against each other. I progressed a little slower than normal, but the contractions also didn’t really hurt that bad. When I would have a contraction, I actually prayed the Hail Mary, which timed out perfectly. As soon as the prayer was done, the contraction was over, and I felt very calm. At about 1:00 in the morning, I turned on some of my favorite music and let it play on repeat, and I slept for about 3 hours.
At about 4:30 in the morning, my doctor came in and checked the progress. I was dilated to 4 cm, which is extremely slow for me. In fact, I have never even gone to the hospital at less than 7 cm for any of my other deliveries. We decided to go ahead and break my water to see if that would speed things along. With Leo and Shiloh, they were born literally minutes after my water was broken, so I knew it would definitely get things going.
Here’s where the fun begins. My water was broken a little before 5:00 a.m. I was 4 cm dilated. Annie’s official time of birth was 5:09 a.m.
You do the math.
Yes, I went from 4 to 10 cm and birthed a child in about 9 minutes. The contractions became extremely intense within seconds of my water breaking. I tried to keep my cool and breathe through them, but I knew this was some next level stuff. To my knowledge, I was still at 4 cm, so I was worried about enduring hours of this pain. Also, keep in mind I was literally strapped to a bed and not allowed to stand, walk, sit on a bouncy ball, or really change position at all. This was not good for pain management. I told Luke I needed an epidural, but then shortly after, I felt a wave of nausea. I knew from reading about childbirth that sometimes when you feel like you are going to throw up, that means the baby is getting ready to be born. I told Luke to get my doctor because I was ready to have the baby. He didn’t quite believe me, but he got her to come in the room anyway.
Sure enough, it was time to go, and within minutes (probably seconds), Annie Kate was born.
The NICU team was in the room for her delivery because they knew she might need some assistance. It is equal parts reassuring and scary when you have several extra nurses and medical staff within arm’s reach in a delivery. I knew why they were there, and that was comforting, but it also reminded me that we could have a baby who might not be able to breathe very well or who might need a medical intervention.
When Annie was laid on my belly after she was born, she didn’t make a sound. I could tell that her color looked good, but I longed to hear that cry. She was in a little bit of shock from the quick delivery. They were rubbing her down and stimulating her, but she wasn’t really responding much. The NICU team began suctioning out the extra fluid and gunk from her mouth, and finally after what felt like an hour (but was probably just a few minutes), I heard her make some noises.
They held her up so I could see her, and I was overwhelmed by her beauty and by how tiny she was. Our smallest baby before Annie was Shiloh who weighed 6 pounds, 5 ounces. Annie weighed nearly a whole pound less than that. She was so dainty and sweet, and I couldn’t wait to hold her.
I was allowed to hold Annie for a few minutes before they took her to the NICU for further evaluation. She looked so much like her big sister, Charlotte, complete with light brown, almost blonde hair. This made me so excited because Charlotte had been praying for a sister who “looked like her” since she is our only blonde child.
Luke went to be with Annie while I began the recovery process. I was still going to be on magnesium for 24 hours following Annie’s birth, which made me sad because the best part of not having an epidural is the way you can just get up and “return to normal” immediately following delivery. I was still catheterized and not allowed to stand or walk, which was frustrating because I wanted to literally run to the NICU to be with my baby.
Initially, we didn’t realize how long Annie would be in the NICU. We thought maybe she would be there for a few hours, or maybe even 1-2 days, but we were told she would at least be there until she reached 36 weeks gestation, which was 4 days away at that point. In my mind, I was thinking that 36 weeks would be the magic number, and she would go home on that day, but unfortunately, I was wrong.
All in all, Annie spent 9 full days in the NICU and was released when she was 10 days old. I am going to write about her time in the NICU soon. Nine days is not long in the grand scheme of things, but those 9 days might turn out to be the most transformative days of my life.
Annie is our 5th child (4th baby girl), and we are just as enamored by her and this newborn stage as we have been with each of our older children. It just can never, and will never, get old… the snuggles, the new baby smell, the sounds newborns make, the way you are their entire world, and the way they are yours.
We are so thankful to experience this miracle again.
