10 months old!

Today my little lovebug Harper is 10 months old! Such a bittersweet one. It, to me, is just reminding me that 12 months aka 1 years old is just around the corner! My baby has grown so much in these past 10 months. She is now a very quick crawler and a strong stander. She walks with the help of mom or dad's hand or her walker, but sadly there are no signs of her walking on her own any time soon! She loves fruit! Especially grapes, watermelon and strawberries. She also likes tomatoes and some veggies like carrots and green beans. She also likes tofu, chicken, rice, yogurt, waffles and avocados. Let's face it, she will eat anything she can get a hold of! She is allergic to bananas though which is a total bummer because bananas are amazing! We recently found out it is not the actual banana but the protein in bananas that her body will simply reject.
She is also anemic and on iron drops daily. Hopefully she will grow out of that!

I have a little trouble maker on my hands but she is just so much fun! She pats my chest and says shh to put me to bed and she shakes her finger for no no when she knows she's doing something wrong! She loves baby dolls and animals as well as getting her hair done! She sits perfectly still in the morning when I am putting her hair up. She also is amazed with me clipping her nails. We both love shopping at Target and I think she is finally recognizing when we go there because she gets excited which is so cute! I could go on forever with all the amazing things Harper does but I doubt anyone wants to read that! So, in honor of it being 10 months since my delivery I decided to share my delivery story. FYI it's not as graceful as they make it seem on tv so sorry for the details but I honestly wish someone would have told me these things before I had Harper.

I was always super nervous about labor because I freak out over everything. I was scared I wouldn't know what to do or that something would go wrong. My biggest fear was the epidural! I watched so many videos on youtube of epidurals being placed and read horror stories about things that went wrong. I scared myself so bad that for a while I decided against it! I was due September 21...Harper's birthday is September 30! Yup, 9 days late...so stubborn. I was so upset when my due date came and went because I had been anticipating it for so long! My Dr. checked me and said my cervix hadn't even softened and I wasn't even dilated. It was so hard to hear that I had to keep waiting. I tried everything...walking, speed bumps, pineapple, bouncing on a yoga ball, spicy foods, you name it I tried it. Then my Dr. reminded me that she didn't come because she is not ready and we want her to be ready and healthy when she comes so I patiently waited and waited until finally they decided to induce me. My induction date was September 28 and I was supposed to call the hospital at 6 a.m. and see if I could come in....well they were full! So I waited for them to call me back and they never did. They just kept saying it was full and they had to take high risk women first...I was so pissed! Then they called me at 6 in the morning on the 29 saying I could come in. I freaked out, this was it! So I grabbed my hospital bag and off we went...when I got there they said sorry we called the wrong patient and sent me home! I was livid! So I went home still pregnant and waited some more until finally they called and said to be there by 7 p.m. They told me to eat something but I couldn't. I was a ball of nerves. I don't even think I talked the whole day.

Once I was finally admitted, they started my IV and hooked me up to the monitors. They gave me a suppository that was supposed to soften my cervix and once that happened I would start pitocin. Well, I didn't need the pitocin because I went into labor on my own. At 3 a.m. I woke up to the worst pain of my life. It was so bad I was throwing up. It was back labor. I tried sitting and standing and nothing helped. They gave me pain medicine through my IV but all it did was make me throw up more. So, by 9 a.m. I was ready for an epidural. I was freaking out because I asked for it out of desperation, not sure that I could even handle going through with it! When the anesthesiologist came in I was legit shaking! Gavin had to leave and I was terrified. The nurse who was there to help reassured me I was going to survive. They had me sit on the edge of the bed and curve my back as much as I could. Then she gave me a shot of some numbing medication and once it set in, she started to stick the tube thing in my spine, but she missed! She hit my spine twice and I don't know what was worse...back labor or getting hit in the spine with a thin tube! Turns out I had a little bit of scoliosis due to pregnancy which made it a little hard for the epidural to be placed. Once I got it, I felt immediate relief! Then I had a catheter put in and they broke my water. After that, it's kind of a blur because I was so tired from not sleeping the night before but people were constantly in and out I could barely sleep. Then I remember the nurse telling me to try to push and I did and next thing I know I've been pushing for 10 minutes. It was hard to push and I actually stayed calm. I remember thinking don't stop Anna or you will never finish! I tend to give up when things get hard so I had to keep telling myself to fight through it. I remember someone saying she had a lot of hair and then she was on my chest.

The best feeling was finally holding my little girl I waited 9 months to meet! She was so calm and barely cried when she was born. She came out with one eye open and I knew at that moment she would be as crazy and curious as she is. After she was born, I still had to deliver the placenta which was so weird and annoying because I just wanted my baby and everyone else got to look at her and hold her while I was still chillin on the delivery bed. I also had an epesiotimy so I had to get stitches too. I was literally exhausted after labor and I wanted to sleep, but I had to wait because I didn't stop bleeding for a long time and had to have some emergency shot in my leg to help my blood clot. Once I did, they moved us all over to the  postpartum room and it was finally time for bed! Except every hour the nurse would come in to check Harper's temp and blood pressure and mine and then remind me to nurse. It was so annoying. At one point, Harper was screaming for a good hour and the nurse kept telling me to nurse when I knew she didn't want to and that she wanted a pacifier! They would not let us give her one because they were afraid of nipple confusion when they should have been afraid of me! I was livid and tired and overwhelmed. Finally, the nurse agreed and Harper fell asleep right away...mother's instinct.

Going home was scary because it was just the 3 of us. No nurses or doctors to help us. It was our responsibility to take care of this baby. It was hard at first, but we adjusted after a while and created a routine. I think next time I will be more prepared for labor and delivery now that I know what to expect. Some things I wish people would have told me? Well for one, no one told me how much and how long I would bleed for! I bled for a good month after I had Harper. I also wish I had brought certain things with me in my hospital bag like:
Chapstick
maxi pads with wings! (The hospital ones sucked and didn't stay in place)
Underwear (The hospital gives you these weird mesh looking things they call underwear, but they are one size fits all and don't work. So bring a good pair of "granny panties")
Snacks and drinks for Gavin
hair ties and bobby pins/clips
(also, I brought my own toiletries and jumped in the shower the first chance I got! Not the easiest, most graceful shower but the most refreshing shower I've ever taken was after labor)

Labor was hard and once you experience yourself, you realize why its called labor! But once you get past the first few weeks and settle into a routine, things get so much easier and before you know it they're 10 months old babbling on and getting into everything!

p.s. No one looks like Kate Middleton one day after labor! I was swollen and gross looking for days after!