Anna Joy Skaggs

It's been several days since we welcomed Anna Joy into this world and I am just now sitting down to write about her birth.  I have wanted to several times, but honestly I cannot put her down long enough to sit at the computer and spend the time writing.  Anna Joy is the sweetest, biggest snuggle bunny ever. And I can't stop loving on her. 

But we will get to that in a minute.

Anna Joy was born on January 8, 2013 at 4:28 am. She weighed 6 lbs 9.8 oz, which is ironically the exact same weight Jones was at birth.  She was 19 1/2 inches long.

After weeks and weeks of bed rest and medication to stop pre-term labor, I woke up on Monday, the 7th, feeling very different.  The contractions were harder and lasting longer and not going away by taking Tylenol, drinking water and lying down. 

One of the sweet church members gave us the gift of a cleaning lady while I was on bed rest.  She was coming that day, and I was not going to miss the opportunity to get my baseboards and toilets clean! So I decided to not say anything just yet.  I waited until about 3 pm before I texted Kristen and Trey saying that maybe my contractions were something more.  Trey asked if he should come home from work and take me to the hospital, but I assured him I was fine (the cleaning lady wasn't finished yet!).

Kristen was, thankfully, on call that night.  She talked me into coming into the hospital and just letting her check me to see if there were any changes.  Trey and I got there around 6:30, met my parents to pass off Jones and headed up to see Kris.  I told my parents I would be back at their house in an hour!

She checked me and I was at 3 1/2 cm.  Three days before I was at 2 (and had been for about a month).  She decided to put me on the monitor and re-check me in an hour.  I was contracting every two minutes and when she came back an hour later I was dilated to 4 1/2.  She decided it was the real deal, so we began the process of checking me into the hospital, starting my IV and beginning the laboring process.

Around midnight, I got my epidural.   A couple of hours later, she broke my water.

I continued to labor on my own.  There were some scary times with Anna Joy's heart rate.  It would drop significantly after each hard contraction as well as bottom out when my normally low blood pressure would drop even lower.  Thankfully I had a wonderful doctor and wonderful nurses! They were able to stabilize her heart rate and continue laboring. 

Around 4:00 am, the nurse came in to check me again - and much to our surprise it was time to push! Kristen was called in and after ten minutes of pushing Anna Joy was here.  I am so thankful that both of my deliveries have been short and, dare I say, easy.

Laura at this point was at my parent's house with Jones.  My mom and dad were called when they first determined it was time to push, but they didn't make it in time.  She was ready to get here! They arrived shortly after she was born.  Later that morning, after Jones was dropped off at school, Laura and my parents came back.  That afternoon Anna Joy was introduced to her cousins and big brother, which is a post all of it's own.

This pregnancy has been trying and tiring, but looking at this sweet, perfect face made it all so worth it.  Anna Joy is such a blessing to our family.  I already cannot remember what life was like before she arrived.  She has completed our family.

Here we are, almost 2 weeks after her birth, and the one word that Trey and I keep coming back to when describing her is peaceful.  She is so very peaceful.  She is eating well, sleeping pretty well and rarely cries at all. She prefers to snuggle, which I am happy to accommodate.  When she is on your chest she literally scoots up to be closer under your chin.  It is precious.   

It is true what they say: you are much more relaxed with your second child and it seems our more relaxed behavior is rubbing off on her. 

She lives up to her name: JOY.

We are all so very in love.