Scarlett Grace

Our beautiful Scarlett Grace Anderson is here! I figured I should write down her birth story before I forget everything. 

I woke up on the morning of Oct 10 and had some mild contractions. I had contractions earlier, but these felt different. I had some bloody show and my contractions started to increase, so I knew things were really progressing. My contractions were irregular throughout the day, but were getting increasingly more painful. Around 7 pm I told Kevin it was time to go to the hospital since my contractions were 5 mins apart. My mom was on her way from California and we met her in the hospital parking lot to drop off Ellie. Kevin hadn't eaten dinner yet and my contractions had become irregular again, so we stopped by the hospital cafe to get him something to eat. While he was eating my contractions were getting much closer together, so we headed up to Labor and Delivery to checkin. 

We arrived in our room just after 9 pm and I was checked by the nurse to see my progression. I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. I was about the same the day before at my doctor's appointment, so I was a little disappointed. My blood pressure was getting high, so nurse called my doctor to see what she wanted me to do. My doctor went ahead and admitted me, much to my relief because my contractions were frequent and extremely painful. I impatiently waited around for the epidural till about quarter to midnight. I was checked about each hour and progressed from 4.5 to 5.5 to 6.5 at each check. 

My water broke on its own around 1:30 am. Around 2:30 am I started feeling like I needed to push. My doctor was delivering another baby down the hall, so I had to wait. I just kept hoping she would stay in while we waited. I begged Kevin to get a nurse and she came and checked to see if I was really ready to push and saw the baby was crowning. My doctor finally came in, we got my legs in the stirups and after two contractions and pushes, baby Scarlett Grace was born at 3:06 am. Perfectly healthy and tiny at 6 lbs 11 oz and 18 inches long.

I had scheduled to be inducted on Monday, October 14, but I am so glad she came on her own. This delivery was so much easier than the 22 hours of labor and 1.5 hours of pushing I endured with Eleanor. My recovery has been much quicker, though I am still recovering. I am just so happy she is here! She is absolutely beautiful and is pretty mild mannered right now. Hopefully that won't change. :-)

Eleanor is adjusting to having a baby sister the best that she can. She wanted nothing to do with Scarlett at first, but she is more and more interested in her each day. I am excited to see their relationship grow.