Annabel Elaine is born!

What a roller coaster of a pregnancy then labor and delivery. It all started out at our 20 week ultrasound when they found a 'soft marker' for abnormalities - an echogenic bowel. We were then given a level 2 ultrasound and told our chances of having an abnormal child were 1% ...long story short we opted NOT to take any further tests and trust God that our little one would be born fine.

So keep this in mind, this has been in the back of my head the entire pregnancy even though Corey and I both felt nothing was wrong with our baby. Last Friday I went in for my 39 week check up and was thrown a curve ball. Everything was looking fine until Dr. McGee listened to the baby's heartbeat - it sounded funny. So she hooked me up to a NST right away and heard an irregular heart beat. She said not to panic but head over to labor and delivery. So we call Grandma, she picks up Mia, Corey leaves work and picks me up and we head over to Northwestern. We are then told we need to go for an ultrasound to make sure the baby is growing properly. Ultrasound is fine, baby looks great. I get admitted because I had actually started to contract while in triage. So now the echogenic bowel scares is sorta in my head but now this heart irregularity has taken precedence! UGH the worries!

The run down is at 5pm I am about 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. We get admitted to the labor and delivery unit on Friday.

520 pm - They start my IV
625 pm - They start me on Pitocin to induce labor since it's not happening
850 pm - Dr. McGee breaks my water and lets me rest
1000 pm - I get my epidural - ANOTHER HUGE SCARE - they ask Corey to leave, come in and start my epi and my heart rate Skyrockets to to upper 100's I am freaking out. The doctor explains to me that they did a test run and must have went too close to a blood vessel, so they take it out and redo and my heart rate comes down. I was ready to say screw the epi I will deal with the pain. But glad the epi worked..
In and out of sleep all night, Corey is sleeping most of the night. My contractions are really strong but I can't feel much. I feel pressure and know the baby is coming!

May 8th (Corey's birthday!!)
630am we start to push
714 am Annabel Elaine is born, weighing 7lbs 4 oz and is 20 1/2 inches long. The pediatrician team comes down immediately and they exam her (she gets a 9 on her apgar test). She is then sent to NICU for further monitoring. They order a 24 hour holter exam and a sonograph on her heart. Corey and I visit her and spend time in our room (which felt like a hotel - the hospital was great, we actually had a lakefront room and I saw the sunrise).

Finally after waiting for the cardiologist to give the ok after all her tests, we are free to take our little girl home! Grandma brings Mia to the hospital and we take our girls home Monday afternoon.

Annie is doing great. I took her for her peditrician check up this morning and she actually gained back her weight loss (she was down to 6 lbx 15 oz on Sunday and now back up to 7lbs 2 oz). My doctor reassured me that the arrhythmia that Annie has is very common and newborns usually outgrow them within weeks. He said being Northwestern much of the tests were just overly cautious and that I shouldn't worry. We do take Annie back for another holter exam in a few weeks and am confident things will work itself out.

It was a crazy pregnancy from week 20 and through all the scares and hurdles I am so glad we have our healthy baby girl home with us. She looks EXACTLY like Mia as a newborn, it's too cute. Mia loves her and keeps asking why all she does is sleep. We told her just wait in a few weeks she will be more interactive. I can't believe we are now a family of 4 - it feels so much more complete now.

Annabel Elaine (Elaine is after Corey's grandma, Annabel we both loved the name, plus 'ann' is a family tradition on my side, we will call her Annie as a nickname)