The story of the day our little peanut was born:)

Happy 1st Birthday, Mia:)  We love you so much!

Since Mia was born, I have been wanting to write down the story of the day she was born, but have just never sat down to do it. At the time when she was born, it was very scary and surreal-then, time got away from us:)

However, in honor of her first birthday, Shane and I decided to write it down-

before we forget:) 

(I should probably warn you....all did not go according to plan...)

So...here we go-

Mia was due on Tuesday, January 18...

but January 18 came and went...so did the 19, 20, 21, 22...

The doctor had decided if the baby was not born by the 23rd, we could head into the hospital Sunday evening at 7:00 to be induced.  Well, after watching the Bears lose to the Packers to go to the Super Bowl, we headed to the hospital.  (Omen, maybe??)  We checked in and they sent us to a ginormous room and the nurse came in and started an IV and cervidil.  Shane and I both went to sleep...and around 11:00, I started having contractions-and by midnight, lots and lots of back labor. 

Here we are...right after check-in...before all of the craziness:)

By 8:00 am, I was in quite a bit of pain from the back labor-and had not slept at all...so, when my doctor came in to break my water, I asked if I could have an epidural...

 she said yup:)

(for those of you that are wondering, I was so not trying to be all brave and big and bad and do it without drugs-I just REALLY hate needles-and the idea originally petrified me-and honestly, still does!)

And here is where things get interesting...

Well, when she broke my water, she let us know that there was meconium present (meaning the baby had already had a bowel movement before she was born)

so....they started pumping me full of fluid (not super comfortable-fyi) to try to flush out all of the meconium.  They let us know they were trying to get the fluid to become clear...but if not, they would have her pediatrician there when the baby was born...

Then, the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural-and this is when it gets a little fuzzy for me...He told me he was going to put the medicine in the epidural needle...and about 30 seconds later-I got REALLY lightheaded, told Shane I thought I was going to pass out-and all of the monitors started going crazy.

Shane says they flipped my bed with my feet up in the air, started massaging the baby and calling my doctor out of surgery back into the room-it took about 5 minutes to get everything back under control-I do not remember any of this-but Shane says it felt like a lot longer...

After that, everything calmed down quite a bit-I was able to sleep a little, but poor Shane-he became like a monitor watching freak.  He literally would not stop watching them-and if he saw the slightest change, he would freak out:)  Progress was slow-I think I was driving everyone waiting for news nuts! 

About 2:00 in the afternoon, flowers arrived from Shane...awwww:)  Shane went down to pick them up at the front desk-and when he walked in the room, I was throwing up-a nice side effect of my epidural...very romantic moment, really...

Then, about 6:30ish, I started to feel A LOT of pain-but I just thought I was being a weakling (I mean, I had an epidural, people)... so I told Shane to have the nurse bring me towels for the fluid...and so the nurse said it would be a minute...about 5 minutes later I was in tears and a lot of pain, so Shane finally just called the nurse and told them we needed them-well,  yup all you mothers out there know-we were ready to roll:) 

Now, they warned us that the baby would not cry when born because the meconium was still present in the fluid and they did not want her to breathe it in and they had called in her pediatrician to be at the birth, too...

After about only 45 minutes of pushing (ps-epidural-non-existent at this time:), the baby was here...and she did not cry at all and looked very very blue from what we could see.  They pulled her over to an incubator to work on her...we just kept asking is the baby okay, is the baby okay.  It was honestly well over a minute before anyone even said "It's a girl!"   Shane and I looked at each other-and honestly, we were shocked-and then I told him I was fine and to get over there and be with the baby!  Finally, as he was walking over to see the baby, we heard her cry-thank goodness-but she was still very grey and . 

They worked on her some more, weighed her, measured her, let us hold her for literally 1 minute and whisked her away.  They told us we would get to see her soon-but they needed to keep working on her.  They finished up on me-truly I have no idea what they did to me-could not think about ANYTHING except the baby.  About 10 minutes later-our room was empty and it was just Shane and I...we were excited, freaking out, crying and worrying...so we decided to call everyone and tell them its a girl.  We needed something to keep us busy-so we began calling everyone to tell them Mia Marie Hannah was born at 7:39 pm and weighed 7 lbs 3 oz. 

(For those of you who are wondering why no family was at the hospital with us, there was a strict restriction because there had been a bad outbreak of the flu and the only people allowed into the nursery wing were grandparents.  So, Shane's mom arrived around the time Mia was born, but my mom could not come until Wednesday becuase she could only take a few days off of work-and wanted to stay longer...my sisters and Shane's brothers were so sad!)

Finally, after about 45 minutes, they came to get us to tell us we could go see her.  They put me in a wheelchair and we went to see her.  She looked so little in the crib-and she had so many wires, an iv in her ambilical chord, and an oxygen tent over her-BUT her color was a lot better than it had been in the room.  We were told not only did she swallow the meconium, she also breathed it in-which is what caused all of the major trouble!  We got to touch her and hold her hand, but could not hold her.  They let us see her for about 30 minutes-then they needed to do more to her-but were told she was doing MUCH better. 

Our first visit with our new baby, Mia...

So, we moved upstairs to another room and called to check on Mia-she was doing good.  They told us to get some sleep and then we could come back down in a little bit-so, we slept til 1:00 and then headed back down for about 30 more minutes-she looked better every time-and again at about 5:00. 

Arm IV-yay-much better!

Then....look mom and dad-no more tent!!!

By the morning, she was looking much better, her IV was in her arm-not the ambilical chord and the oxygen level had been lowered.  She had also been cleaned up and had a bow put in her hair:)  Around 2:00 pm, we were able to hold her and I was able to nurse her-which she caught onto right away!  We snuggled her, but had to leave her there again. 

Our first snuggles!!!

Our little lady!

Finally, around 5:00 pm they allowed us to take her up to the room!!!! YAY!!!  Shane's mom came to meet Mia and we finally relaxed a little.  We were able to keep her for a while-until they came to get her for more tests-which she passed with flying colors. 

Finally, in a real bed-in mommy and daddy's room!!!

Look-no iv or monitors!!

Meeting Grandma Hannah for the first time!

By Wednesday morning, which was also Shane's birthday, we were told she would be going home with us-WAHOO!!!!  We really did not think she would get to come home with us when she was born, but we were so EXCITED!!  So, they came and her took her hospital picture, we put her footprint on the wall-stayed for lunch-seriously, their food is really good-and headed home.  We took a family nap-and then my sister and my mom arrived to meet little miss Mia. 

Ready to head home:)

Anderson tradition-footprint on the wall:)

All bundled up!!

Hello, Aunt Tobi!

Meeting Grandma Toni for the first time!

This is Mia's story-while it was a whirlwind 24 hours before her birth and 24 hours after her birth-it was the most amazing time.  We are pretty certain she had a special Grandpa Terry angel watching over her that day:)  We are so lucky to have such an amazing baby and she is such a little sweetie today. 

Happy 1st Birthday, peanut!  Mommy and daddy love you lots and lots!