Simply Shari: Arianna's Birth Story

On February 9, 2016 at 2:19pm, we became a family of four. The day before, I went to the doctor for my 39 week visit and was pretty much miserable. I never made it to 39 weeks with Vincent, so I figured that with a second baby, she would come even earlier than that. I was big and uncomfortable, and not sleeping much. The doctor could tell I wasn't feeling great, and we were discussing my placement on the wait list for February 12th, to be induced (one day past my due date). Being on the wait list meant I may or may not actually get to be induced on that day, depending on hospital scheduling. She asked if I was willing to go in the next day instead, as she was the on-call physician for that day. YES!! I no longer had to worry about when she was coming, or what we would do with Vincent should my water break in the middle of the night. I knew that I would get to meet my little girl on a Tuesday, February 9th (unless for some awful reason I labored longer that that). Mike and I went out to dinner when his mom arrived for an early Valentine's Day Dinner and our last date night for a while.

At 5:30am, we arrived at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital for a scheduled induction. They took us back into a delivery room around 6:30am to get the process started. This was very different from my delivery with Vincent where I was in contractions for a while when I arrived to the hospital, and had false labor 5 days before he actually arrived. At 7:42am they started pitocin to induce contractions. About an hour later they broke my water. By 12:40pm I had fully progressed and we were ready to meet our girl. We then waited for the doctor to finish with another delivery before it was our turn.

So excited to meet our baby

At 2:19pm, I delivered a healthy 8lb 10oz, 20 1/4 inch long baby girl. She had so much hair, and hearing her cry made my heart explode. We had been waiting for her for so long, and seeing her for the first time was a moment I will never forget.

Love at first sight

Getting all cleaned up

Our sweet girl, love those cheeks!

Nana and Grandpa

Arianna and G

Uncle Matt

Daddy and his girl

Mommy and Daddy with our girl

Aunt Lindsay

I wasn't sure if I wanted Big Brother Vincent to meet his little sister on her birthday, or until the next day. Since she was born earlier in the afternoon, I had time to rest and recover before he was done at school for the day. Seeing him with her was something that I had dreams about during my pregnancy. I was worried about how it would go, how he would react, and really so excited to see him take on his new role. The moment they met exceeded all of my expectations! He was so excited and loved his baby sister from the start.