It's a Wonderful World: Anna Elizabeth Carlson

Anna Elizabeth Carlson made her debut into the world at 1:43 a.m. on Sunday, July 31, 2011. Technically I was 3 days overdue as I was due on July 28. Saturday was like any other day. We slept in, had a late breakfast and lunch and then went to the park later in the afternoon. Greg ran some errands. In the evening, we bathed Meredith and put her to bed. Like any other evening, I like to sit in bed after Meredith goes to sleep and play around on my iPod. Shortly after I sat down in bed, I thought I felt a contraction. But I couldn't really tell as it felt very similar as to when the baby would push out on my belly. Here's how things happened:

9:00 p.m. - thought I felt the very first contractions. But I wasn't sure so I timed them for about an hour. I felt one every 10-12 minutes or so. At 10:00 I told Greg that I thought I was having contractions. I figured I had all the time in the world since labor with Meredith lasted 24+ hours. Little did I know that labor would last a whopping 4 1/2 hours from start to finish.

10:15 p.m. - Decided to call my mom and have her come up. Again I wasn't sure but better be safe than sorry. Plus, it takes her about an hour to get here. At this point, contractions were every 6-8 minutes and getting stronger. I took a quick shower and got some of my stuff together in a suitcase.

11:15 p.m.-Mom had not arrived yet. Contractions were every 4-5 minutes so I called the OB office and they paged the doctor to call me back.

11:20 p.m.- Mom arrived. We talked real quick and I went upstairs to finish packing.

11:32 p.m.- doctor called. I told her I think I need to go in. Contractions were really strong and somewhat painful and about 4 minutes apart.

11:45 p.m.- Got stuff out to the car. As I was in the garage, my water broke. I told Greg he better hurry it up because either I peed myself or my water broke.

11:55 p.m.- Greg dropped me off at the ER and I went up to labor and delivery. Filled out some paperwork and got changed and settled into my room.

12:20 a.m.- Nurses checked me and started going over the epidural paperwork. I was 4 cm dilated at that point. Was told the anesthesiologist should be up in about 15-20 minutes. That seemed like forever.

12:45 a.m.- still waiting on the anesthesiologist. Apparently he was down in surgery. I was about 6-7 cm dilated at this point. We were thinking he wouldn't make it in time so the nurse gave me a shot of painkiller to help with the pain.

1:05 a.m.- Anesthesiologist finally made it! I was so happy. I got the epidural when I was about 8 cm dilated.

1:15 a.m. - Epidural was helping a little but it was a lot different than my epidural with Meredith. I felt nothing at all and couldn't even move my legs with my epidural with Meredith. This time, I could move my legs. I could still feel pain. Especially on one side. The nurse had me roll over to help with the one side.

1:25 a.m.- was still having really painful contractions. I really think the epidural was only working 50%.

1:30 a.m.- was 10 cm dilated. Still feeling lots of pain but what can you do? It was time to push. I pushed through about 3 or 4 contractions (10 minutes maybe) and out she came!

1:43 a.m. - Welcome to the world, Anna Elizabeth Carlson.

Fresh out of the oven here.

After looking seriously craptastic in all my pictures from Meredith's birth, I was bound and determined to look better for this one. But I look just as craptastic. I guess that's what happens when you go through labor in the middle of the night both times. This was moments after the cord was cut.