the birth of Emmersyn Grace.

Feb 12th

I had a prenatal appointment with a midwife at 2pm on Friday, February 10th. She checked for dilation and since I was already 3 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced, she stripped my membranes.  It hurt something fierce! I don’t remember it hurting to much with my son, but I guess my midwife did a good job!  Around 6pm, my mom and sister and I went to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. I started having some contraction on and off. We got home and my contractions continued, so I decided to start timing them. They started out about 12 minutes apart and by 10pm they were coming between 5-6 minutes apart and starting to get painful. I tried to go to bed and get some sleep but I couldn’t fall asleep. Around midnight, we decided to head to the hospital. I kept apologizing and saying sorry if this is a false alarm! It was snowing out, so it took us a little longer to get to the hospital. When we got there, they hooked me up to the monitors and checked me. I was 4-5 centimeters and 70% effaced. I labored for another hour and they check my progress again…6 centimeters and I was staying to have this baby! I was able to breathe through my contractions and I felt in complete control of the situation. At this point, I started to have horrible back labor and decided to try the birthing ball. Counter pressure on my back was a lifesaver! Around 7 centimeters I decided to get in the shower. The shower was awesome. The warm water felt great on my back and at this point I was getting a little shaky and starting to have to groan through my emotions.

I got out of the shower and the doctor one call stopped by to check on me. I was still only 7 centimeters and felt SO discouraged at that point. I was starting to feel pressure and the contractions were starting to get really painful. The doctor thought it was a good idea to break my water at this point to help baby come down and help with dilation. And oh my goodness did it help. My contractions were absolutely unbearable. And at that point I was re-thinking my choice to try for an all natural birth. I even asked for some IV pain meds at this point but the doctor was certain I would be pushing soon. Sure enough, I went from 7 centimeters to having baby out in 30 minutes. At first I had a really hard time figuring out how to push effectively. But eventually I got into a rhythm and Emmersyn Grace was born at 6:13 am on February 11th, all natural! The second she was on my chest, I was all smiles and looked at my mom and said “I did it!” Emme was on my chest until her cord stopped pulsating and I was able to cut it myself.

That’s where things got a little scary. Emme didn’t want to cry and was not turning pink. They rushed her over to under the heaters and gave her oxygen and paged a neonatologist. I was worried with her, but also thinking about having to deliver my placenta. My biggest fear was having a retained placenta…again. The doctor stitched up my 2nd degree tear and waited to see if my placenta would deliver on its own. After waiting about 30 minutes with no placenta and me having gushes of blood every few minutes, the doctor decided it was time to do a manual extraction. I started crying at this point and saying I was so scared. They have me some morphine and it made me all loopy. The extraction was the worst pain I have ever felt in my entire life. I would go through 100 natural childbirths before having to do that again. She was able to remove the all of the placenta and with the help of a whole bag of IV pitocin the bleeding was under control. I feel really blessed to have such a wonderful doctor. She was calm the entire time and it certainly helped me see her so calm and confident in her ability to handle the situation. At this point, Emme was and I were both stable and I was able to breastfed her. It was wonderful to finally hold my little girl. She weighed 7 pounds and ½ ounce and was 20 ½ inches long. Her poor face was all bruised because she came so quickly! She is an absolute angel and I feel so incredible blessed to have such a beautiful family!

More to come later about big brother meeting little sister!