Anna Louisa Morris is here!

We finally got to welcome our sweet baby Anna to the world on Friday, April 30! She came quickly and easily and was 100% healthy! Here's the story of her arrival. :)

I started having contractions around 5am and they weren't horrible, but were very consistently 10 minutes or less apart for about 3 hours, so we decided to head up to the hospital. We got there around 8 and were parked in L&D room 10 and, of course, my contractions slowed down to be very infrequent. However, I was about 4cm and fully effaced, so Dr. Galusha decided to let me stay and took some steps to induce my contractions. At about 10am, they gave me my first round of antibiotics for the group b strep and started the lowest dose possible of pitocin. They can't give me much pitocin because of my previous c-section. I guess if they induce things too quickly it increases the risk of uterine rupture. Then Dr. Galusha broke my water and that combination of events definitely worked. I started having very strong contractions every couple of minutes. I got an epidural around 11:30 or 12 (time gets fuzzy here :)) and once that kicked in, the rest of the process was a breeze. :) They checked me again around 1 and I was dilated to about 5 and Dr. Galusha said it would be a couple of more hours. I was perfectly comfortable with the epidural and was able to keep visiting with my mom and dad. Matt was in and out with the kids. At 2, they started my second round of antibiotics. Then at 2:45, the doctor came to check me again and said "oh she's ready! I can see her head right there. " So she left to go get her stuff and mom ran out to get Matt. Matt was downstairs having lunch in the cafeteria with Owen but he made it up there in a couple of minutes just before the doctor came back. I had to push through about 5 contractions (just 10-15 minutes) and she was here! She came out perfect, cried and they laid my precious baby girl on my chest where I got to see and touch her for the first time. They cleaned her up a little bit and weighed her in at 7 lbs, 14 oz and then gave her back to me so I could nurse her. She nursed for about 30-45 minutes like a champ! We got to keep her for several hours before they took her to the nursery for a bath and full assessment. Everyone who had been patiently waiting got to come meet our new angel.

Hopefully I'm not forgetting anyone, but here's who was there to welcome our Anna into the world:
Grami & Kenbob, Nana & Papi, Mimi, Aunt Bee, Aunt Boo, Ashli, Uncle Bumps & Kim, Uncle Nerdboy

Ashli was sweet enough to run over to Chick-fil-A to get me a chicken salad sandwich for dinner since I didn't get up to my room on the post-partum floor until past dinner time. I think it was around 7:30 or so when we finally moved upstairs to room 304 where we spent the next 2 days.

A little later in the evening, we had some more visitors:
Amber, Lance & Eli Otey, Aunt Tammie & Uncle Jordan, Uncle Nubbin, Grandpa Chester, Grandma Karen & Mary

The first night, Anna had some troubles spitting up and choking, so I opted to have her stay the night in the nursery so I wouldnt have to stay up worrying about her all night. She only had a couple of episodes and then was fine. Both of the first 2 nights, she slept for 4 hours straight! The first night, Owen & Matt spent the night with me and Ella spent the night with Nana. The second night both kids stayed with Grami and Kenbob and Matt stayed with me. On Sunday, we got to pack up all our stuff and Anna and headed home around 2pm. She was an angel in the car and a little after we got home, the kids arrived with Grami & Kenbob. As soon as the walked in the door, they went straight to our bedroom and were looking around saying "Where's Anna?" They finally saw her laying there in her bassinet and looked at her for a few minutes and then patted her and rubbed her head. They love her soft hair. :) I was so happy that they were so excited to see her when they got home.

That's the beginning of the story. More to come! :)