Annie's Birth Story
I didn't want to wait too long to pen Annie's birth story, so here we are, just a day after she was hatched and I'm blogging all about her entrance into this world...complete with more pictures than you could probably want. Sorry. Not really.
So! Where did I leave off?! I published my last bump post at 39 weeks yesterday morning super early before we headed to the hospital. Shocker! I didn't sleep well the night before my c-section because I was just too darn excited. And anxious. But more so excited.
Monday night, January 30th, I got all of my housekeeping stuff done (SO.MUCH.LAUNDRY.), dropped Scoots off at his BFF Braxton's house, and then we had a really tasty dinner at my parents' house (beef tenderloin. OM NOM NOM) and left Rosie there to spend the night (my aunt Kate was staying the entire week at my parents to help watch both of the kiddos) and we took Patrick home to go to bed. Once we got him to bed (he crashed!) Mike and I watched a few HGTV (our new jam) shows on TV, had some cookies and milk for a snack, and called it a night about 10:30pm. My alarm was set for 6am but I knew I wouldn't need it; I'd be up well before then! And I was right -- I fell asleep right away but was WIDE AWAKE at 1:30am. I tossed and turned (and went pee about 45 times) until I dozed back off around 3:30 or 4am and then was wide awake again at 5:30am and decided to just get up and take a shower.
After snapping a quick "let's do this" mirror selfie (as per my tradition on the way to the hospital, it seems!) we got Patrick up and dressed and headed out to drop him off at school before we headed to the hospital.
My c-section was set for 10am -- we had to be at the hospital at 8am -- so we had plenty of time to drop him off at school and then head in to have our baby!
Once we got checked in Mike snapped a few pics of me before I was hooked up to the monitor and IV. I had to get antibiotics, but fortunately they gave me some anti-nausea meds which tremendously helped and I was not pukey feeling at all like I was before Ro's c-section!
Mike and I chatted for a bit, finalized our name game (#lastminute as always), and then my brother got there just before they told us they were going to be starting early (what?!!) since my labs looked good and everyone was there and ready to go!
What's crazy is that I hopped out of bed and walked down to the OR on my own (kinda surreal feeling!) to get prepped before surgery. What was even cooler is that all of the docs and nurses in the OR were women -- I had a team of ladies to deliver my little lady! It was super cool.
*I want to add a disclaimer: the birth pics Charlie took just look magical in black and white, so those are the ones I'm sharing here. If you'd like to see ALL of the birth pics (they're all PG, relax :) in color and black and white, you can click here for the full album.
After I got my spinal and all of that jazz, they laid me down and brought Mike and Charlie back. Charlie snapped a few pics of ^^^ us anticipating, and I'm so glad he did because it's neat to look back on the "right before" pics before Annie was hatched.
Mike had said all morning he thought #3 was a boy, and I said the opposite, saying it was a girl -- kinda like with Rosie's birth, one of us was going to be right!
Not long after they started, my OB told Mike to "get ready" and stand up because it was go time. Of course this made my heart race with anticipation because we were about to find out if it was a little lady or man that had been cooking in there for 9 months!
Mike stood up, watched them pull the baby out, and my OB said, "Okay Mike, what is it?!" And Mike said, "It's a girl!" And I did what I have done for the past two kids as soon as he announced this: I started crying. I can't help it! It's the best moment of our lives and the emotions just overtake me!
I was absolutely taken aback that it was another girl. I mean, I know that's what I speculated and guessed it was all of these months, but I guess I just thought it'd be another boy deep down, cause it was hard enough coming to terms with having ONE girl let alone TWO, and now it has happened! I'm a mama of one son and two daughters! Unreal!
At 10:18am on Tuesday, January 31st, 2017 little miss Annie Mooney made her debut in this world. Ann Maria Mooney weighed 9lbs 1oz and 21.3 inches long. We named her Ann after my mom (her first name!), Mike's mom (her middle name!), my grandma (her middle name!), and Mike's grandma (her first name!) and then her middle name is after my aunt Mary -- but the Spanish version of Mary (Maria) because my aunt Mary taught Spanish for so many years we thought that was a fun part of the name to include. Plus Ann Maria sounds better than Ann Mary :) Hehehe
Once she was out she was cleaned up, weighed, measured, footprints taken, and then give to me for some skin-to-skin action in the OR, which was AWESOME. I loved being able to hold and snuggle her right away -- that truly was a treat!
I really love that they do skin-to-skin in the OR now -- it was SO LONG before I got to hold Patrick, and Rosie it felt like so this was so awesome that I got to hold our little Annie right away.
Mike then got some snuggle time with our new little lady (because as much as I loved doing skin-to-skin, the angle was super awkward and I could only hold her for so long before my arm was falling asleep, soooo, off to daddy she went for some extra cuddles!
Once I was all closed up, it was time to depart the OR for the recovery room, feed this little milk monster, and introduce her to the grandparents!
As soon as I got back into recovery my phones was blowing up with people wanting updates! I decided not to do anything until she was fed and we told the grandparents...which after a little nursing session for Annie, it was time to bring them in to meet their new granddaughter!
We had her wrapped in a black and white blanket and black cap -- which I wanted to do to snap our social media announcement with her little name tag -- but then the grandparents came in too to meet her like that and were totally confused if it was a little boy or girl in there! Ha!
When they walked in they were anxious to hear if it was a he or she -- I told Mike, "Why don't you tell them the baby's name?" So he did, and as soon as he said it my mom and Kathy were in tears! -- I may have been too :) It was such a sweet moment and I loveeeeee that both of them, my mom especially, were completely shocked with the name and that they were this kiddo's namesakes! Just priceless.
Annie's first selfie. Three generations! Love this.
The grandparents were completely smitten with her (as are we!) and they stayed for a bit to get their snuggles on before departing. We then unleashed our chain of text messages and pictures announcing her arrival to friends and family, and posted our announcement on social media too.
I then got cleaned up a bit and we were transferred to our big room where we'd stay the rest of the week until we got discharged.
Of course I snapped a billion and a half pics of this little lady in the afternoon before my favorite visitors were due to show up: her big brother Patrick and big sister (that still sounds weird to say! Ha!) Rosie! They were planning on coming with Goose around 4pm...so Mike and I got some snuggles and cuddles with Annie before our next round of visitors came by.
When the time came to meet her, Mike recorded this video of the kids coming in the see their new sister! They didn't know if it was a boy or girl so it was fun to get their reactions on camera! Both of them had guessed a girl, and I think both were very happy (Rosie included!) that it was a little lady!
Not gonna lie, I was legit worried that Rosie would FLIP and not like this baby nor want anything to do with it and just want to hang all over me. Well, I was proven 110% completely wrong -- she was (and still is!) completely OBSESSED with "her" baby. It is the cutest thing in the world.
I think I've watched ^^ these videos 100 times a piece! They are just the cutest things EVER. Rosie LOVES her new baby and doesn't want to let her go! She just wants to hold her and kiss her and love on her as much as possible. Mama heart = melted.
Goose and Kate also got some lovin' in with little miss Annie as well, and I think that seeing her gave Goose an extra umph in her 89+ years of life because she seemed SOOOO happy and soooo excited to get to hold and love on this little lady!
We snapped a few "girls club" pics and family pics (even some Polaroid snaps so Patrick could take them to school the next day to show his friends and teachers) before the kiddos called it a night and headed home. We all were beat (but happily beat!) after the arrival of our new little gal that day and we were anxious to try and get some rest.
Annie's arrival has officially made us a family of 5 and the happiest we could possibly be! We know it'll be chaotic, there'll be ups and downs, fights, and so much more, but we are focusing on the good (and here and now!) and living on cloud 9 with our two little ladies and one little dude. We cannot wait to bring her home later this week and officially into our Mooney house (and, duh, introduce her to her fur brother Scooter!).
This concludes Annie's birth story -- I'm sure she'll be ALLLLL over the blog very soon with more pics and stories and all about our THREE (what??! I'm a mom to THREE?! #craziness) kiddos and our crazy lives. Bring it on -- I cannot wait!
After snapping a quick "let's do this" mirror selfie (as per my tradition on the way to the hospital, it seems!) we got Patrick up and dressed and headed out to drop him off at school before we headed to the hospital.
My c-section was set for 10am -- we had to be at the hospital at 8am -- so we had plenty of time to drop him off at school and then head in to have our baby!
Once we got checked in Mike snapped a few pics of me before I was hooked up to the monitor and IV. I had to get antibiotics, but fortunately they gave me some anti-nausea meds which tremendously helped and I was not pukey feeling at all like I was before Ro's c-section!
Mike and I chatted for a bit, finalized our name game (#lastminute as always), and then my brother got there just before they told us they were going to be starting early (what?!!) since my labs looked good and everyone was there and ready to go!
What's crazy is that I hopped out of bed and walked down to the OR on my own (kinda surreal feeling!) to get prepped before surgery. What was even cooler is that all of the docs and nurses in the OR were women -- I had a team of ladies to deliver my little lady! It was super cool.
*I want to add a disclaimer: the birth pics Charlie took just look magical in black and white, so those are the ones I'm sharing here. If you'd like to see ALL of the birth pics (they're all PG, relax :) in color and black and white, you can click here for the full album.
After I got my spinal and all of that jazz, they laid me down and brought Mike and Charlie back. Charlie snapped a few pics of ^^^ us anticipating, and I'm so glad he did because it's neat to look back on the "right before" pics before Annie was hatched.
Mike had said all morning he thought #3 was a boy, and I said the opposite, saying it was a girl -- kinda like with Rosie's birth, one of us was going to be right!
Not long after they started, my OB told Mike to "get ready" and stand up because it was go time. Of course this made my heart race with anticipation because we were about to find out if it was a little lady or man that had been cooking in there for 9 months!
Mike stood up, watched them pull the baby out, and my OB said, "Okay Mike, what is it?!" And Mike said, "It's a girl!" And I did what I have done for the past two kids as soon as he announced this: I started crying. I can't help it! It's the best moment of our lives and the emotions just overtake me!
I was absolutely taken aback that it was another girl. I mean, I know that's what I speculated and guessed it was all of these months, but I guess I just thought it'd be another boy deep down, cause it was hard enough coming to terms with having ONE girl let alone TWO, and now it has happened! I'm a mama of one son and two daughters! Unreal!
At 10:18am on Tuesday, January 31st, 2017 little miss Annie Mooney made her debut in this world. Ann Maria Mooney weighed 9lbs 1oz and 21.3 inches long. We named her Ann after my mom (her first name!), Mike's mom (her middle name!), my grandma (her middle name!), and Mike's grandma (her first name!) and then her middle name is after my aunt Mary -- but the Spanish version of Mary (Maria) because my aunt Mary taught Spanish for so many years we thought that was a fun part of the name to include. Plus Ann Maria sounds better than Ann Mary :) Hehehe
Once she was out she was cleaned up, weighed, measured, footprints taken, and then give to me for some skin-to-skin action in the OR, which was AWESOME. I loved being able to hold and snuggle her right away -- that truly was a treat!
I really love that they do skin-to-skin in the OR now -- it was SO LONG before I got to hold Patrick, and Rosie it felt like so this was so awesome that I got to hold our little Annie right away.
Mike then got some snuggle time with our new little lady (because as much as I loved doing skin-to-skin, the angle was super awkward and I could only hold her for so long before my arm was falling asleep, soooo, off to daddy she went for some extra cuddles!
Once I was all closed up, it was time to depart the OR for the recovery room, feed this little milk monster, and introduce her to the grandparents!
We had her wrapped in a black and white blanket and black cap -- which I wanted to do to snap our social media announcement with her little name tag -- but then the grandparents came in too to meet her like that and were totally confused if it was a little boy or girl in there! Ha!
When they walked in they were anxious to hear if it was a he or she -- I told Mike, "Why don't you tell them the baby's name?" So he did, and as soon as he said it my mom and Kathy were in tears! -- I may have been too :) It was such a sweet moment and I loveeeeee that both of them, my mom especially, were completely shocked with the name and that they were this kiddo's namesakes! Just priceless.
Annie's first selfie. Three generations! Love this.
The grandparents were completely smitten with her (as are we!) and they stayed for a bit to get their snuggles on before departing. We then unleashed our chain of text messages and pictures announcing her arrival to friends and family, and posted our announcement on social media too.
I then got cleaned up a bit and we were transferred to our big room where we'd stay the rest of the week until we got discharged.
Of course I snapped a billion and a half pics of this little lady in the afternoon before my favorite visitors were due to show up: her big brother Patrick and big sister (that still sounds weird to say! Ha!) Rosie! They were planning on coming with Goose around 4pm...so Mike and I got some snuggles and cuddles with Annie before our next round of visitors came by.
When the time came to meet her, Mike recorded this video of the kids coming in the see their new sister! They didn't know if it was a boy or girl so it was fun to get their reactions on camera! Both of them had guessed a girl, and I think both were very happy (Rosie included!) that it was a little lady!
Not gonna lie, I was legit worried that Rosie would FLIP and not like this baby nor want anything to do with it and just want to hang all over me. Well, I was proven 110% completely wrong -- she was (and still is!) completely OBSESSED with "her" baby. It is the cutest thing in the world.
I think I've watched ^^ these videos 100 times a piece! They are just the cutest things EVER. Rosie LOVES her new baby and doesn't want to let her go! She just wants to hold her and kiss her and love on her as much as possible. Mama heart = melted.
Goose and Kate also got some lovin' in with little miss Annie as well, and I think that seeing her gave Goose an extra umph in her 89+ years of life because she seemed SOOOO happy and soooo excited to get to hold and love on this little lady!
Annie's arrival has officially made us a family of 5 and the happiest we could possibly be! We know it'll be chaotic, there'll be ups and downs, fights, and so much more, but we are focusing on the good (and here and now!) and living on cloud 9 with our two little ladies and one little dude. We cannot wait to bring her home later this week and officially into our Mooney house (and, duh, introduce her to her fur brother Scooter!).
This concludes Annie's birth story -- I'm sure she'll be ALLLLL over the blog very soon with more pics and stories and all about our THREE (what??! I'm a mom to THREE?! #craziness) kiddos and our crazy lives. Bring it on -- I cannot wait!