Anderson Heroes: She's Here!

The morning of Friday the 3rd, I set my alarm for 5 am to call the hospital and thus began the frustrating wait for labor. Induction brings an element of planning to the process, which is helpful (like Landon writing lesson plans for the exact days he'd be gone.) But knowing you're going to have a baby that day and waiting for the time to come or the phone to ring brings its own annoyances. At 5 they told me to call back at 9. At 9, to call back at 12. At 12, they told me to wait for their call at 1. At 1, they told me to wait another hour and come in at 2. Then during the admitting process, we got skipped over by three people and didn't actually see a room until 2:45. I thought I'd be holding a baby by 2:45 that day!

Fortunately, from that point on, the time flew. The nurse started my pitocin at 3:45. Dr. Cutting came in and broke my water at 4:30. I got an epidural at 7:00. The nurse checked me at 7:45 and I was 100% effaced and 7 cm, but her head was still "pretty high up there." I began to feel some pain and asked for an increase in the epidural at 8:45, so the nurse clicked it for me and then checked me again. She said I was nearly a 10, but her head was not all the way down ... and then literally, while she was commenting, she felt the head descend! She practically jumped up to call Dr. Cutting. By 9:05, I was pushing and by 9:15 she was born. They were laying her on my chest before I even realized it was over! It was the most surprising, easy labor of all 4 and she took our family record with only 5 and a half hours from IV to baby. And with no cuts or tears, she's been my best recovery too. Of course, Landon is already claiming it's because, as his only daughter, she can do no wrong. Uh oh.

Admitted to Labor and Delivery Room 5. My last pregnancy picture. Ever.

The cheerleaders didn't like the temperature I kept the room =)

Before her first cry, while she laid on my chest, she kept pursing her lips at us.

It was such a funny, prima donna look.

During the scrub down, they kept trying to get her to really scream but she was extremely mellow.

Even her first shots barely elicited a cry.

The shocking reveal: 8 pounds 10 ounces! Our smallest Anderson child. The nurses were laughing at us as we kept remarking how tiny she was and how dainty her face looked.

Dr. Cutting was great. He graduated from medical school in 1967! After his residency, he moved to Coeur d' Alene and has been delivering babies here ever since. I was nervous after having the same Doctor for all three boys, but he had such a calm demeanor and such a wealth of experience that all my anxiety went away when he walked in to deliver. Before he left, I asked how many babies he'd delivered. He did a little laugh and said, "Like 8000."

Daddy and his little girl

He wore his Minnesota Hockey shirt to all four births. Now that we're done, we have to come up with something creative to do with the shirt so it lives on.

Danielle Christine and Elliot Christine =)

I'm still trying to grasp the fact that I have a daughter. Every other experience in the hospital has resulted in a boy. And to be fair, they all looked the same at this age!

She came so late at night, her brothers didn't get to meet her until this morning. They were in awe.

Kellen, while laughing at himself, told Landon, "I forgot hers not a hims."

Sawyer seemed to be the most enamored. Aunt Cait woke him up asking if he was ready to go see Baby Elliot at the hospital and he popped out of bed exclaiming, "I just know Elliot is going to look like a princess."