Anna Grace Smith

Anna finally made her appearance in the world on March 20, 2009, just two days after her due date. My contractions began at 11 pm on the 18th, but I was able to go to sleep...and slept a whole 2 hours by 1:30 am I was starting to get uncomfortable and unable to sleep. I waited until 5:30 am to call Dr. Klus and let her know that I thought I was in labor and was having pretty consistent contractions that were every 5-8 minutes. She told me to go ahead and come to the office at 8 am and we would see what was going on. So I went to the office that morning hoping me she would tell me to go on over to the hospital and they would induce me worst case scenario, but that isn't what happened. She checked me and told me that I was still only 1 cm dilated, but was now 90% effaced and that something was definitely going on. They put me on the monitor for a NST, scheduled and induction for Sunday night and sent me home. Dr. Klus told me to call her if anything changed. I left the office in tears thinking that I was never going to have this baby. When I got home my mom was convinced that I needed to go shopping and be on my feet all day and that would send me into labor. So my mom, my little sister - Elly, my mother-in-law - Debbie and I all went shopping. That didn't do anything, but make my contractions stop...now I was really frustrated. I spent the entire day up and on my feet, and of course as soon as I went to lay down and go to bed for the evening the contractions started again...this time they were a lot worse...I was in tears my back was killing me and these contractions were much more intense. So at 1 am on March 20, 2009 I was admitted to the hospital. Dr. Klus came in at 8 am and broke my water and I got my epidural. I was now 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. I was comfortable now and wanted to try to get some sleep since I had only had 2 hours of sleep in the last couple of days, but of course all the family was now at the hospital ready to visit as we waited for the arrival of Miss Anna Grace Smith. I began pushing around 4 pm and was holding my beautiful baby by 5:01 pm. She was much larger than I thought she would be; we were all betting in the low 7's on her weight, but she weighed a whopping 8 lbs and 5 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She was perfect in every way and I was so happy that she had finally arrived. I would change a thing. My labor and delivery was perfect, minus the fact that my epidural wore off right at the end and I got it re-dosed so I was completely numb for the first half of an hour of pushing, but oh well.