Let’s kick the story off with the fact that Patrick had just shot a 10 hour wedding alongside our associate photographer Melissa who was my backup since I knew 9 months ago that we were due with baby #3 on July 7th. He arrived home around 11pm to find that I had called the hospital because I think my water was leaking… what a way to kick off a story!
I had been having contractions for a few days and all I wanted to do was make it through the 4th of July because I absolutely absolutely love the parade and wanted to be alongside my kids and with family. I knew there was a chance too I was going to miss a family birthday party that we’ve gone to every year. The joke is I’m always pregnant or about to go into labor when I go to that birthday party.
Patrick had come home around 11pm on July 8. Earlier in the night I thought I had peed my pants a little but I knew it was different. A little TMI about your water breaking it smells like semen or chlorine and not like pee. When he returned home, I knew that he needed to shower before we were going to go anywhere. I called my doula and called the hospital and they wanted me to come in so we left around 1:15am and went to Howard General Hospital. Upon arriving, they did a bunch of checks to confirm that I had indeed lost a lot of fluid around my amniotic sack. In fact, the numbers were so low that they said they needed to keep me. They gave me the option to wait until the morning before inducing and allowed me to sleep a few hours so I wouldn’t have been up a full day going into a natural birth.
So we fell asleep, poor Patrick was exhausted from shooting a wedding, and I was restless because I was excited. So by 9 AM my amazing doula had arrived and the pitocin started. For the next 6 hours, my contractions increased but I was dilating slowly. I think we woke Patrick up somewhere around the 2nd hour around 11am.
Fast forward after on and off pitocin, movement breaks and body position changes, stretches, lots of breathing techniques and moans, I’ll never forget we asked the doctor/midwife to come do a check around 3:30/4pm cause I had the urge to push, but when she checked I was still was only at 6cm. With each contraction the heart beat would drop so they started to consider a c-section. Thankful for options, I asked her to break the remainder of my water when she gave me that option and as soon as she did, I knew it was go time. The baby dropped and I went from 6 cm to 10cm in 6 minutes. She gave me the go to push and with 2 pushes, Annabelle Faith Nolan was born! I was fully alert for my transition and the birth… I definitely wasn’t for the other 2 kids. But when they went to cut her cord, they said she was a “bungy jumper” which meant that her umbilical cord was far shorter than most which explained why which every contraction she went back up instead of down causing a heart rate drop.
She was perfect, beautiful, and birth was wonderful. No tears, no pain or burn. She had great skin, loved to be cuddled and our afternoon was peaceful and restful! Annabelle Nolan, you’re so precious and we are so thankful for you!
As you scroll you’ll see birth photos by our friend and doula Brittney DeFren, our newborn session by Melissa Robbins, and siblings and parents meeting Annabelle in hospital and at home by my beloved, Patrick Nolan. Enjoy!
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