Paul and Katie Van Heukelom: Annie Lynn

We welcomed another little girl into our family on March 6th! Despite Ruby's many ideas on what we should name the new baby, we settled on Annie Lynn (Lynn after my sister Hattie whose middle name is also Lynn). Annie weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and was 19 and a half inches long. She came very quickly and was born at 12:50pm on that Friday. We are in love with this little sweetie!

After a 9:00 dr. appt that morning, in which Dr. Ward said I could probably stay and they could get things moving along...I opted to head home. I had been having some very minor and inconsistent contractions the previous couple of nights but nothing seemed to be happening that morning. Paul had a week off of work that started this same Friday so when I got home the four of us went for a little walk. When we returned I started having some contractions. Paul had been doing some work on the computer and I told him he should probably shower. While he was in the shower, I called his mom to come in to watch the big kids. Right after I got off the phone with her, my contractions started getting more intense so I called Stef to come over until Ruth could get there. Stef was at our house in less than 10 minutes! We headed to the hospital at 11:30. We got checked in around 11:50. I saw a senior resident who Paul knew and approved of. :) However, her words weren't exactly what I wanted to hear! She told me I was still dilated to 5 which was the same as my appt. that morning. Therefore she said, "I'm not going to say that you're in active labor, but I'm not going to send you home either." I was thinking, you've got to be kidding me! I knew I was in active labor! Anyway, she wanted me to walk around and said they would come check on me in one hour instead of two. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to walk around! After giving it about 10-15 minutes, Paul called them back in. I was now dilated to a 7 and ready for the delivery room. I walked myself there and they assured me that my epidural would arrive soon! I had asked for my epidural about two minutes after getting checked in! haha! However, after another 10-15 minutes I knew it was time for this little babe to come. No epidural. :( This wasn't necessarily on my bucket list but it should have been, because I could have crossed something off! Annie came after just 4 minutes. Thank goodness! and all was well! And honestly, my recovery was a piece of cake!

We were very excited for Ruby and Jace to meet their new baby sister! Ruby fell in love immediately! Jace liked Annie but wasn't near as excited as big sis!