Anna June Olsen

So here I go. This is going to be my attempt to capture the last 48 very eventful hours into one post. First let me just say that as I type this, I am listening to my husband and son run around the living room playing some crazy cars and legos and I am sitting in our bed watching a Harry Potter marathon on TV and staring at the prettiest little girl on the planet snuggled up in all pink on my lap. (I appoligize in advance for how long this post is but I just dont want to forget any a second of it! I am obviously an oversharer but I cant imagine not keeping all these memories for us!)

I guess the story of our delivery all started a couple months ago at a check up with our Dr up in Bellevue. With both our pregnancies there has been complications and a lot of anxiety on my part and I am pretty sure I could never had made it through without our amazing Dr, Dr Wall. My whole family laughs at what this man has had to put up with during my pregnancies and how well he has dealt with all of my craziness. He offered to deliver us and I was ecstatic! So from that point on I was determined to make it near term and to somehow plan it so that we could make it all the way to Kirkland to deliver at Evergreen Hospital with Dr Wall.

As 39 weeks approached I hoped that maybe Dr Wall would induce us and relieve me of the fear of being in labor on the freeway in rush hour. So a few weeks ago the date was set... February 16th would be our little girls birthday!

The day approached and I secretly prayed I wouldn't go into labor until our magical day we had planned. We had an appointment set for Wednesday morning and so with the kiddo at grandma Ruth's and the dog all settled away we packed our bags and headed up north. We saw Dr Wall on Wednesday morning and everything looked great... we were to see him bright and early the next morning when we check in to the hospital. Joel and I headed off to a day of fun to enjoy a day alone before our big day. We went out to lunch with some old friends and even hit happy hour at the Red Hook brewery. I was excited to get settled into the hotel that night and wait for the early morning call.

So at 4:30 am I woke up and quickly dialed Labor and Delivery as I was instructed to see what the plan was and where to go when we got there at 7:00... but there was some bad news. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was excited about seeing their baby that day and they were full from overnight check ins. I was delayed a couple hours and after the nurse officially calling and cancelling on us we had packed our bags to head back to Olympia completely devastated. Dr Wall was going out of town the next day so had there been no room we would be sent home with no plan on our delivery. Needless to say I spent the entire morning crying and praying for a miracle.

At around 11 the nurse called back and said that they had worked some magic and they were ready for us. I was soooo excited and we headed out to meet our girl puffy red eyes and all.

We got to the hospital and I quickly apologized to the receptionist for crying over the phone so many times that morning and she said they had many cryers that day... hehe apparently they had had double the amount of babies they usually had and the nurses were all on required overtime... we felt sooo lucky to get in as they had turned away many elective inductions that day.

That is when we met our nurse Sue and were shown our room. The room was huge and I was so excited to hear we would be there until discharge. I was also pretty excited to hear that we didn't have to share our nurse and within minutes Sue, Joel and I were preparing for our little girls "birthday party". Sue was determined to have the baby born before her shift was up at 11 pm and I had no faith in that guess at all.

We started the pitocin at the lowest range and I was off walking. They encourage the moms to get out and "walk the baby out" and I was proudly pushing my IV around at a swift pace thinking "man this isn't bad at all I could do this all day until she arrives!" The Dr came in at 4:30 and broke my water. I was happily reporting how I was "uncomfortable but handling it well" ... boy was I not ready for what happened next.

My pitocin was still really low but for some reason our little girl took this all as a clue to get out and she was determined! To say it lightly, I was immediately in complete agony. They made me walk the halls again and I think I used some choice words at this idea... but got up anyway. I only made it about a half hour and I was pretty sure I was going to die. How anyone could make it through this process without an epidural is completely insane to me. It was for sure the longest 2 hours of my life and I am sure I wasn't much fun for anyone around me either... including poor Sue, the lucky anesthesiologist and my supportive hubby.

After the epidural was placed I think I almost kissed the Dr and I was feeling a lot better. But then they informed me that all that pain had done the trick and it was almost time to meet our baby girl. I waited about another hour and Dr Wall came in to check on how things were going around 7pm. The Dr stayed the whole time with us and I am pretty sure I wont ever forget our Dr, nurse and Daddy singing to American Idol as I tried to pushed her out.

I couldn't have been more happy with the Dr and Nurse that helped us welcome our little girl. It was so special, joyous and I might even admit a bit of fun. Around 8:32 (just as daddy had predicted) after about 30 minutes of pushing our Anna June came out screaming and we were delighted! 

The first time I saw her all I could think was "oh lordy, that girl looks just like her big brother!" She was amazingly beautiful with dark hair, dark eyes and all the features of her big brother. They gave her to me right away and let me visit for 30 minutes before weighing her and making her all pretty. She weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz (a lot smaller than I had predicted) and 19 1/4 in long. She had great apgar scores and was looking picture perfect from the first second!

I honestly dont remember anything after getting our little girl in my arms... I just stared at her, in utter disbelief that they were going to let us keep her. As a worried Mama, I searched and searched for any flaw and have yet to find one.
Our first look...

A few hours later Grandma & Grandpa Olsen came to visit and give her her first bath. She loved it and I must admit she was just getting cuter by the second all wrapped up, clean and with a cute hat our nurse made. She started breastfeeding like a champ and we settled in for our first night with our newly born daughter.

She slept ok that first night, mostly in moms arms and by early morning everybody was on the mend. I could not believe that after spending the first 6 weeks of Bennetts life in the hospital they were actually talking about discharging us that next day.... and boy were we ready to get our little girl home!

The day was great we had many visitors and the first up with Big brother Bennett! He came with Grandma and Grandpa Jones and I could tell as soon as we walked in he was a bit nervous about being at the hospital. Anna gave him his present (a Diego view finder) and he was sooo excited. I asked him if he wanted to take Anna home and he said "no I want to take my Diego toy home" He bounced around the room laughing and snacking and really not even seeming to care he had just become a big brother... but being three I guess we will let it slide... he has many many years to enjoy his baby sister.

Auntie Jania and Dane and Shar came by that afternoon and we were set to head home around 9pm.

We arrived home around 11 pm and settled in as a mom and dad to a little daughter! 

I couldn't be happier with our special day and our special little girl... I sit here dreaming of years to come watching her grow into a little lady. She is perfect and sweet and we couldn't be happier.

Here are some pictures in our room... Our sweet girl less than one day old...