Miss Emma has arrived :)

September 23, 2011

Miss Emma has arrived :)

WARNING: This will be the longest post. Ever.

Where to begin.......? Last Tuesday (Sep 13th) I woke up at about 4 in the morning because I was feeling really nauseated and felt like I was having really bad menstrual cramps - only to find some spotting (which isn't exactly normal when you're pregnant). Soo I called my Mom, who was working at the time, and she talked to the labor and delivery nurses who said I should probably come in. Well, then the adrenaline hit - was it time? Clint and I weren't sure but we packed up our bags and headed to the hospital! Well we got there and to make a long story short - got sent home cause my contractions weren't changing my cervix and the baby looked good. On Wednesday I had my first appointment with Sheila since she got home from her vacation. At this appointment, my blood pressure was a little high and she noticed that my face was a little puffy - both signs of preeclampsia (which is not something you want at the end of a pregnancy - creates very high risk situations). Given my record in the last 6 weeks and the way that I felt the day before, Sheila felt like something just wasn't right. She checked my cervix and instead of being right underneath Emma's head, it was behind her head (which explains why the contractions weren't changing my cervix). I was dilated to a 2 at this point and Sheila recommended moving my cervix (manually) to speed things up a little. I wasn't too thrilled about this idea, but was so uncomfortable that I was willing to do anything to get things going so I allowed her to do this - OUCH! But almost immediately I dilated to 3 cm. She also did an ultrasound in the clinic just to measure my amniotic fluid levels - which were also on the low side of normal. Sheila left the appointment telling me that she was going to be on a 24 hour shift at the hospital starting at 8 am on Thursday and if I felt like ANYTHING was off to come in and see her. She said if I had a headache - come in. Well before I could even wake up on Thursday to assess how I felt, Sheila called me to check on me. I told her that on Wednesday night, after the appointment, I went home and felt just miserable all night. She said, "I would like to lay my eyes on you today so pack up your things and head on in to the hospital." SO we did.

We got there at about 11 am and when Sheila checked me I was still at 3 cm. She also thought that maybe my fluid was leaking, so she checked for that and found out that in fact it was. Because of this fact, she decided to induce me right away. When amniotic fluid is leaking or your water breaks, they want to get the baby out within 24 hours to prevent infection. I was admitted and they immediately started things up. They started giving me Pitocin (labor inducing medication given through an IV) around 2-230 in the afternoon. Around 5 pm - they checked me again and I was still dilated to 3 cm, so Sheila decided to officially break my water. Well, almost immediately after that I went into full blown labor and was having contractions that I could hardly handle. The nurses had told me previously to allow an hour from the time I ask for the epidural until the time I get it - so as soon as these awful contractions hit I knew I would want it. Almost exactly an hour later, the epidural was placed (which was a piece of cake compared to dealing with the contractions) and within 2 or 3 contractions I could no longer feel any of them. I couldn't even tell I was in labor from that point on.

It was about 1 hour later that Sheila checked me again and I was at 5 cm, and 2 hours later I was dilated to 9 cm. Sheila manipulated the cervix a little and I was complete. She wanted me to "labor down" for about 45 minutes (which is just allowing my body to move the baby down, so there is less work for me to do when it comes time to push). During this time, Emma's heart rate started dropping with contractions and things became extremely intense extremely fast. After the first deceleration in her heart rate, Sheila came in and we tried moving me on my side to see if this would help. Sheila was thinking that there must be some compression on the umbilical cord, so shifting positions might help - but it ended up changing nothing. They were having trouble monitoring my contractions and Emma's heart rate so they inserted what is called an IUCP- Intrauterine Pressure Catheter- to monitor the strength of my contractions and they had to insert an FSE - Fetal Scalp Electrode- into Emma's scalp which measured her heart rate. Basically, she was not tolerating labor very well and we needed to get her out of me as soon as possible. There was concern that she might come out not breathing or without a heart beat, so they had the Pediatric team on standby on the other side of the curtain (terrifying for a new mom). At this point, I left the building; figuratively. Everything from this point on is a complete blur but I have been told what happened next. I started pushing at 8:25 pm. Around my 3rd contraction, Sheila told me that I had one last push to get her out of there. I took a deep breath in and literally shot that little girl out at 8:36 pm. 11 minutes of pushing total. And this is where I came back - she SCREAMED. I heard that beautiful cry and everything else didn't matter.

I immediately went to pull her onto my chest to have skin to skin contact and when I went to pull her up, she wouldn't come and Sheila then was like "Whoooooa! Don't pull!". This was because my umbilical cord was not long enough. It barely left enough room for her to make it out of the birth canal. Clint then cut the cord and I was able to hold her. Afterwards, once everything was safe - Sheila told me that she hadn't seen that short of a cord in her 25 years as a midwife. Clint and I completely trusted her with my life and Emma's and she handled the situation exactly like it needed to be - we are forever grateful. She also told me that this is one of the leading causes of stillbirths. Somebody was looking over us.

After the delivery and we were all cleaned up and calmed down, about 25 people came pouring into the room to welcome Emma into the world. There was an overwhelming amount of love and joy in that little room that night. We are so lucky to have the family that we do that is so supporting and so involved in our life. The next two days in the hospital went extremely well - I would recommend Regions to anybody. We had EXCELLENT care. Clint and I will feel forever connected to Nora, our labor and delivery nurse, who helped us through that extremely exciting and intense day.

Room full of family <3

Nora, Sheila, Clint, Emma, and I :)

And life since we have been home? It's been perfect. I fall in love with Clint and our beautiful daughter every day all over again. We feel so blessed to have a healthy and happy baby. We are amazed every day at how much we love her. She has completed our lives like we never could have imagined. She is the best baby; hardly ever cries. She is feeding extremely well and the girl loves her pacifiers. We had her first doctor appointment on Wednesday and she had lost a little bit more weight since we had left the hospital, so we are working on gaining weight (or at least not losing any more). She was 6 lbs 9 oz when she was born and was 6 lbs at her first doctor appointment. It's normal to lose weight right away, they just want to make sure we turn that around now. I feel like I can't express enough in words the love that I feel for this little girl. My mom had said throughout the pregnancy, "Soon you will know just how much I love you" and I always thought that I already did. But you really just have no idea until you have a child of your own. There is a bond that is immediately created when you meet this child and it grows stronger every day. I am on cloud 9.