Life's a Beach: And then there were four...

Annabelle Grace Beach joined our family on March 21, 2014 at 8:42 p.m. She has dark brown hair, blue eyes, long eyelashes, and the chubbiest of cheeks. We are in love. again. Henry is a big brother, we are proud parents of two, and Charlie is once again on duty to protect the littlest of the clan.

And here's how she joined us that day...

It was a Friday, the 2nd day of spring, although not very spring-like weather, except for the sun. Henry and I had breakfast with Nance, my best friend from law school, for her birthday and then decided to take a nice long walk with Charlie to the park. I pushed Henry on the swings, we slid down the slides, we climbed the towers, "we played hard," in the words of Henry. Lunch time was upon us and we headed home, picking up sticks, listening to the birds, and enjoying the morning just the two of us. Little did either of us know the life-changing event that would be happening. soon. I mean we knew -- I was past my due date and ready to pop, but I felt like I had more time -- just me and Henry. We had lunch, laughed, read stories, and as we were lying together during our nap routine, I suddenly felt as if I had wet my pants and I couldn't stop it from happening. I had to jump out of Henry's bed and rush to the bathroom. Henry was almost asleep and I didn't want to alarm him, so I cleaned up, and went back to in to make sure he would take a nap. I wanted our day to be "normal." Because tomorrow his whole world would change.

After Pies was confirmed to be slumbering, I called Ryan and informed him that my water broke and although I wasn't feeling any contractions, he should probably head home soon. I then called Nance who was our person to come stay with Henry if we needed to go to the hospital. I then called my Mom, who would would be traveling from Grand Rapids -- it was the plan she would be here for Henry and wake up with him when we were in the hospital. And then our doula. She said she would visit in the next few hours. But I didn't call my OB. Why? Well, first things first, I love my OB, she's wonderful and amazing, and very happy to let me do my natural thing, but I was afraid she would make me go to the hospital because my water broke. I wanted to labor at home, I wanted to be at "the point of no return" when I arrived and not have the experience I had last time. So I waited to call her. And I waited for things to start happening. When Ryan and Nance arrived at the house, they watched me like a pot of water on the stove. Shocking -- nothing happened. I went about my day -- I did laundry, picked up the house, made sure we had what we needed for the hospital and when Henry woke up, we had a snack and enjoyed the sunny, getting slightly warmer day by playing tee ball outside while Ryan cleaned up the garage. Our doula came over around 4pm, listened to the baby's heartbeat and discussed the plan. I was having some contractions, but nothing that I couldn't talk through or that really hurt. She just wanted me to keep her updated as things progressed.

Things started to progress around 5:30/6pm when the contractions did take my breath away, and I needed to lie down and focus on the task at hand. Henry was occupied with Nance, and Ryan was making dinner -- again trying to keep the day normal for Henry. I was quiet during my contractions, and felt peaceful as I listened to the "baby mix" Ryan had made for this birth. Around 7pm, I knew I was making the turn. The contractions started to get hard, and I asked my doula to come over. They still weren't as close together as I would want before heading to the hospital, so I stayed put a little longer. My (irrational) goal was to have Henry in bed (8pm) before we went anywhere.

However, around 7:40p.m., I knew it was time to go. I hugged my dear sweet Henry so tightly and told him that I would see him soon and that Nance would be putting him to bed. He didn't care in the slightest (first time for everything!) and Ryan and I headed out to the car. The fact that I had 2 contractions on the way to the car made it clear that little lady would be here very soon. Our doula was pulling up to the house as we were leaving and Ryan was making the call to my OB (a small detail that I had forgot to call her 20 min before when I decided that it was time to go!) Less than a mile drive, a few blown red lights and we arrived at the hospital. The valet asked if I needed a wheelchair, I figured I had walked to the car, why couldn't I walk to the elevator? HA! 2 steps and I doubled over in a contraction, the worst one yet and the man rushed over with a wheelchair.

We made it up to triage, Ryan was calling the doctor again as we had missed her return call when pulling up to the hospital. I told triage my water had broken, but I must not have looked "in labor" enough as they made no move to get me back to a bed... until the next contraction hit. The door immediately opened and I was put into a bed, and when finally checked, realized I was 9+cm! They rushed me down the hall to a room where I crawled into a bed, an IV was plucked into my arm and a nurse was asking me several questions to register me at the hospital. My doctor was called again, but the in house doctor came rushing in as this baby wasn't waiting for anyone. There was so much chaos, a gown was thrown on me, the bed was being transitioned and everything was being set up for the delivery. I couldn't catch my breath and in-between contractions, Annabelle's heart rate kept spiking. They told me to start pushing, I couldn't focus. I remember thinking about the 2.5 hours of pushing with Henry and knew that if I had to push that long again, I wouldn't be able to do it. They finally let my doula come into the room (she had been in the waiting room as the rule is 1 person in triage at a time with the patient). When she arrived, she grabbed my head, stared into my eyes and calmed me down. She told me to take a huge breath and hold it to slow my breathing and get focused. She knew my fear and told me that our sweet girl would be here soon, and I believed her. I looked at my husband, who was all smiles and told me that he could see her ... And less than 15 minutes later, sans any pain meds or interventions, Annabelle Grace Beach arrived, just 40 minutes after arriving at the hospital. They placed her on my stomach, our sweet girl with a head full of dark hair and lungs for days. Her long fingers and feet were perfect. She weighed 7lbs, 11oz, and measured 21 inches long. My OB was there -- she arrived at the very end shaking her head at me -- knowing my stubborn personality that I would wait so long. She begged me not to in our many appointments, one just 2 days prior to delivery, but I waited, wanting to keep life a little normal for one more day for one special little boy.

Ryan and I laughed together and stared at our sweet girl. Laughed because it was a thrill to have her in our arms just moments after arriving at the hospital and laughing at the difference of my two labors. We both believe that your entrance into this world helps shape who you are and this little lady was going to be quite different than her big brother! We are thrilled to have a healthy little lady join our family -- it's going to be fun!

Less than an hour later we were in our postpartum room, and 25 hours later we would be arriving home. I felt great, nursing was going well and we were ready to start this adventure as a family of four!