Annie Elizabeth Cummins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s good to be home. I pushed to be discharged early so we were able to get home from the hospital Sunday early afternoon. If you read anything of this blog, read the impressions of Annie. After that is the birth account and it’s long and probably too much medical information. I can only think of less than a handful of you that would be interested in reading it. I just felt the need to have it all written down somewhere. The short version was that I was in labor for just less than 7 hours and pushed for only about 5 minutes.

First impressions of Annie:

• She’s tiny. Weighing 6 lbs, 14 oz. she is a full pound smaller than Jackson was at birth. She seems long at 19.5 inches. She has very long fingers and giant long skinny v-shaped feet.
• She looks a lot like Jackson when he was born. Her ears are much smaller and rounder. She has lots of hair, especially in the back. It’s almost “shoulder length” for her. It sort of a mullet.
• She is very calm and easy to sooth. She doesn’t like movement and would rather just be left alone in one position. She has a quiet cry. She likes to put her hands on her face. She loves to be swaddled, but doesn’t need it all the time.
• She’s wide-eyed awake a lot for a new born. She seems to be looking at things, listening to noises and trying to figure things out already.
• She’s a professional eater and could give classes to other babies on how to nurse. She so soft and sweet smelling, I find it hard to set her down anywhere or leave her to go sleep.
• I think because my labor was quick and with no medications, she seems to have had a much easier start to life. She doesn’t make noises when she breaths and seems very healthy even though she is so small.   

It has taken time, and will take more time, for Jackson to warm up to Annie. He was pretty scared of her for a while, especially when she cries. He’s interested in her now but doesn’t get too close. I can tell he is adjusting to the new situation. I’m so glad I had lots of family around this weekend to play with him so he wasn’t traumatized by having mom gone.

 

The birth account:

•  Friday, June 3rd, spent with my mom and entire family (all my siblings and their families) at the wedding reception of my sister-in-law’s sister. I danced to live Bolivian music with Colin. Went to bed having had only a few contractions that day compared to the many I’d been having the days previous.
• Woke up at 12:15 wet and confused as to why. Looked suspicious like my water had broken so decided to call my mom (staying in Bountiful) to tell her to come down. I was having only a few mild contractions. In the mean time, drove myself to the American Fork hospital (less than 1 mile away) to get checked to see if it was really my water that had broken. Colin stayed at the house with Jackson still asleep.
• As I was sitting in the “are-you-really-in-labor?” room at the hospital, my water broke all the way. Contractions started coming regularly about 5 minutes apart. Nurse checked me and I was dilated 5 cm, 80% effaced. Nurse went through admittance process with me.
• Not moved to my room yet by the time Carolyn got to the house and Colin made it to the the hospital. I felt hopeful that because I was already at 5 cm, and the contractions weren’t that bad, that I would be able to go without an epidural. The doctor on call from the office this weekend was Dr. Sean Hasskett. He denied my request to have only intermittent fetal monitoring (so I would be able to move around easier during labor). I had an IV, the fetal monitor, and the contraction monitor attached to me.
•  I alternated between sitting on the edge of the bed (instead of sitting back) and standing up to help with the pain and to have gravity help my labor along. Colin would rub my low back during the contractions. I found I was not a textbook labor case in that my contractions were not very regular and didn’t get longer and closer together. I would have a set of 2 or 3 short contractions, each only about 30 seconds long, every 5 minutes. Because of this, the pain was very manageable and I felt great.
• At 3:00 AM, I was dilated to a 7 and 90% effaced. We all expected that transitional labor would come soon and the baby would be born rather soon. Over the next two hours, my contractions seem to become less regular and frequent. When the nurse checked at 5:00 AM, I hadn’t made any progress. She suggested they give me a “wiff” of pitocin to get things going. Dr. Haskett at first denied that request and wanted me to do it completely “on my own”. After another hour of weak contractions, he finally gave the order.
• At 6:15, I was started on 2ml/hour of pitocin—half as much as they give women when they induce and start out slow. I noticed and increase in length to the contractions, but they were still 4-5 minutes apart. The nurse came in and asked if a paramedic student could watch the delivery. I said okay and remarked that he would learn more from my delivery because without my epidural, I would be more like the laboring women he might help—in pain.
• At some point the doubled the pit. Everything happened very quickly at this point. The contractions became long, close together and very painful. I was caught off guard. I could feel the pressure of the baby coming down so I asked to be checked. I was at an 8. I was alarmed at how painful the contractions were and terrified that it would be a long time before I could progress to pushing.
• I asked to be taken off of the pit. She said okay, but that the pit was such a small amount, this was all my body doing this. I asked if it was too late to get an epidural. The nurse said maybe and went to get the anesthesiologist. In the time it took her to go get him, I had the biggest, most painful contraction. I panicked and was screaming. The nurse could tell something was up, checked me, and in one contraction I went from dilated from 8 to 10 and the baby was coming.
• There was a scramble of activity to get the doctor in. I just had to push. Some people in the room were telling me to wait. The nurse said to do little pushes. I didn’t listen very good and snuck a few big pushes in between the little ones. The doctor came in and they got set up very quickly. He said I could push. I gave 3 big pushes and out she came. She was born at 7:10. The doctor put Annie on my chest immediately and they cleaned her up and cut the cord. He began stitching my my 2nd degree tear (1st being no stiches required, 4th degree being the worst kind) 
• They took her, cleaned her up all the way, and weighed her. She stopped crying and was very calm and alert. I was pleased they let her stay in the room with us a full hour and a half after she was born. The entire time she was awake and calm. I was able to successfully nurse her. Colin went with her to the nursery for her bath. I was moved to our room.