Anja's Grand Entrance

Well, we are now home sweet home with our little girl.  It feels good to be back together with Joel and Kyper. 

If you do not want to read or enjoy labor stories feel free to skip most of the reading in this post--I won't go into any gruesome details, just the basics, but I feel I should warn people.

Before going further though, I want to make sure people know how to pronounce our little girl's name.  If we would have spelled it phonetically it probably would have looked like On-ya.  But, we wanted to honor our Dutch ancestry, so we put the J in her name instead of the Y.  We have both heard of the name and it is always started with an A, so no O either.  We also think it has a very pretty look to it (as well as sound).  Also, her middle name is after Joel's mom's side of the family. We got Rose from his mom's maiden name--Rosema.

Like her older brother Anja decided to come early.  She was born 10 days before her due date.  I had gone to the doctor last week Tuesday and there was no progress.  We knew the head was down and engaged, but I wasn't dilated or effaced.  I could have told you the head was down with the pressure I felt and in the way I was beginning to have the pregnancy waddle. :)  I perhaps had a little cramping throughout the week, but nothing to tell me that labor was imminent.  Even on Saturday night as we watched tv and talked to both of our parents, we didn't have any indication of labor starting.  Actually, Joel told his dad that I wasn't feeling anything and it would still be awhile yet.

Joel and I had joked that Sunday the 22nd would be ideal to have the baby for his schedule, but we weren't praying for that specifically.  His director told him that he could have a week off after the baby, and if the baby came on the 22nd, he would get out of a hard week, two nights of call and Saturday rounds.  Then in May he starts his psych rotation, which is an elective and has easy hours.  (He's heard you only work 3 days a week).  But, we wanted a healthy baby and knew the baby would come on his/her own time.  Apparently, she wanted to help daddy out though.

So, I woke up at about 3 am on Sunday morning just feeling the need to pee, which was super typical with being 9 months pregnant.  I headed back up to bed, but felt a cramp.  It wasn't super strong, but it did get me thinking that maybe something was happening and progressing down there and that at my next appointment (which would have been today) I may be dilated a little.  I can't always fall right to back to sleep, so I laid there for a while after the first cramp, felt the baby kick, and right as I started to fall asleep I had another cramp.  I wasn't able to fall asleep the rest of the night due to the cramps/contractions, the baby moving, and the crazy idea that these were getting stronger and closer together and perhaps I was going into labor.  I finally woke Joel up sometime between 5 and 6 and said well, I am not sure I am actually in labor yet, but I don't think this is going to be a May baby.  (With Kyper, I had two nights of this type of thing with the contractions petering out late morning.)  Well, they continued to get stronger, so we decided to text our friends Steve and Corey.  I asked Corey if Steve was home (he travels a ton) and she responded with "Yes, are you going into labor?"  I told her I thought I might be and we may need them to watch Kyper.  We decided at about 7:30am to have her come at 8 to pick him up and if nothing else, may we could rest at home.  But, she came a little after 8 and the contractions were getting stronger, so we went to the hospital right after she came to get Kyper.  I still wasn't sure they would keep me, I didn't have any other symptoms (I really didn't have any spotting and my water hadn't brokem).  We made it to the triage room and told them why we came in and I think the resident thought that I wasn't really in labor when I told her the only reason we came in were the contractions.  She told us, "Well, I'll check to see if you are dilated and then check an hour later to see if there is any progress."  She checked and was quite surprised that I was already 4cm dilated and in active labor.  They got some IV fluids in me right away, so I could get an epidural and then moved me to a room.  This was at 9/9:30am.  I got an epidural around 10/10:30.  Soon after I got my epidural, I felt my water break.  I think around 12 I told them I felt a lot of pressure.  Joel said that I started pushing at 12:15 and she was born at 12:20.  So, I had a very short and fast labor/delivery.

So, at 12:20pm on April 22 our little girl made her grand entrance.  To be honest, I am surprised the baby was a she.  I had thought girl initially in my pregnancy, but I think at the end I had the gut feeling of boy.  We are so excited to have a little girl  and Joel had kind of thought the babe was a girl all along.  We still can't believe that she came the very day that we joked would be the best for our schedule.  God is good!