Monday, December 15, 2008

emma's birth day

She is still out, so I am going to take a chance that she will stay asleep, and write about the day she was born before I start forgetting things.
* Edit May 28, 2009 I am still trying to finish this, and get all the details down, this time Emma is sitting on the floor with me, sitting up by herself and playing with her bug that Auntie Jenn had for her in Australia.
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After a very full week and weekend with both our families in town Jason and I survived the Day The World Fell Apart (TM) mostly because it didn't. Saturday, November 29th was my due date. It was also the date of the anniversary party at College Church for his grandparents 60th anniversary. It was also the day of family photos. (These were not just any sort of family photos... they were photos of the WHOLE family: grandparents, their five girls and husbands, and kids, and kids spouses, and kids of kids. Then they broke it down into grandparents with one daughter and her whole family, and into four generation photos for each family... lets just say it took a while.) We survived it, and Emma did not come.

Despite Jason's efforts. :)



Each evening during the family time, we had cousins and siblings over at our house to play Apples to Apples, and In A Pickle. We did this again Saturday night until about midnight (which was typical.) Theses games are a lot of fun, especially with the group we had playing. We laughed and teased each other, the whole bit. Poor Christopher, and always getting distracted, forgetting to play his turn, then I had pregnant brain, and would ask "Is it my turn?" over and over and it was always his. It became our joke when there was a still moment in the game. "Is it my turn?"

I had been having contractions about three to five minutes apart for several weeks, and at one point they were two minutes apart but they didn't have enough intensity to qualify as labor. They did on the other hand, have enough intensity to irritate me immensely, and to be a bit painful. I have had the real thing, and can say from experience, that they were not Braxton Hicks contractions. Throughout that day I had been feeling them regularly, and when we went back to College Church for dinner I could tell that Emma had dropped quite a bit. Andie noticed too, so we crossed our fingers.

Jason and I went to bed around midnight, and I slept typically considering I was 40 weeks pregnant. I woke at 4am and noticed that my contractions were getting a little stronger, so i rolled over so that I could see Jason's clock to time them while I tried to go back to sleep. I did manage to doze a little until 440am and it was then I decided that Finally, I was in labor. I kept timing, and let Jason sleep as long as he could, until around 530am he woke up and I told him what was happening. We talked about weather or not it was time to go and he knew already that I didn't want to sit and wait at the hospital, and I was Not going to be sent home again. We got up at 550am, and left the house at 6am. Jason drove quite fast to St Luke's Downtown and I reminded him several times that it was painful for him to make jerky motions while driving. (In a very kind and patient way, I might add. Really. I was nice to him, he was pretty nervous.)

We had to stop and wait out a couple contractions on the way to Labor and Delivery, but were soon checked in and strapped in to monitors. Katy was our nurse, and gave the good news of "You're a five, that means you get to stay." i teared up a little, and Jason asked, isn't this what you wanted? Of course it was. but that meant that very soon I would be pushing an Enormous (because Swajakoski said she was big) baby out! :| Katy tried to get an IV in four times before we went upstairs to my delivery room, and each time blew my vein. She gave me a break and ran a tub of water for me while we waited for my monitoring to get to half an hour.

Upstairs I got in the tub and started having back labor. Terrible Back Labor. Katy tried my IV two more times, then called someone else to do it. I turned in the tub so that I was was on my knees, leaning over the outside edge. I kept getting dizzy (I thought from the warm water because baths often make me dizzy, but apparently, I am too good at breathing, and was causing myself to hyperventilate.) I don't know who came up to put in my IV, but she did a great job, once it was finally in. I had said to Jason during this time that if it continued to hurt that bad, I would want something. I had another contraction while I was getting the IV (which took an hour an a half from the first prick to the last) and said something to Jason (who was standing in the doorway with Katy) about hurting and I heard Katy say to him "They always say that when they are getting close, that they cant do it." I jumped in and said "Oh i can do it. I just don't want to FEEL it anymore." Katy laughed and remarked about what good hearing I must have. She had meant the comment just for Jason. :)

A few minutes after everyone left the bathroom, I focused on the shine of light on the faucet and the pain started to go away. Katy came to check Emma's heart rate in the tub, and couldn't get it (I wasn't worried, because I could feel her fighting the contractions the whole time) so up I went to a birthing ball beside the bed. She found it, and Emma was fine. The change in temperature made me feel like I could go to the bathroom, so Katy and Jason walked me to the toilet, and that is where i spent the most amount of time. I never peed. but I sat there, starring at the spot of shine on the foot of my IV pole until I told Jason I was ready to push.

He ran out of the room calling for Katy and she walked into the bathroom, looked at me and said "so you think you're ready to push? Well, you're not going to do it there." They walked to the bed and Katy checked my cervix, a ten. Not just a ten, but a "Go call Dr Grissom" ten. There was a little bit of a rush to get things spread out and Dr Grissom was in the room pretty quick. Katy told me I could push a little if I needed to, but otherwise to wait. I was too afraid to push at all, so I tried to wait. Dr Grissom had the same reaction, thinking there was no way that I could be so ready. I hadn't pushed at all yet, and I was a first time mom, and I had only been upstairs for a couple of hours... But I was ready and so was Emma.

I saved Jason from my bits when one of the nurses asked if he wanted my leg I told her that i needed his hand. He was on my right, and Katy was on my left. I told Katy "here comes another one" and she wanted me to push but i was scared it would hurt (the logic I had in these moments is just astounding don't you think? :) She convinced me that it would hurt less to push (not sure why I believed that) so I did. I don't remember exactly how many times I had to push, but I think it was five. Jason was wearing his "I may not be very smart, but I can lift heavy things" shirt, and the dot of the i in lift was my focal point while waiting to push. He was nervous, and wiggling and i told him to "HOLD STILL" and Katy explained why in a nicer way. :) I do remember pushing through my water on the third one and the warm wet and wonderful feeling, of warmth on a very sore area. Also, the pressure that came with losing that cushion. Another push and her head was out. An eternity passed before I could push again, and that's when I most wanted to. I kept asking and everyone in the room kept telling me no. Finally, one last push and Dr Grissom laid a very puffy bloody purplish crying baby on my chest.



Jason cut her cord. It took him two cuts to get through. after the placenta delivered (which also felt kind of soothing because of the warmth) they took Emma to clean her up a bit. Jason followed Emma but was brought back after a minute or two of stitches. I had a grade three tear, it took Dr Grissom much longer to stitch me up than for Emma to be born. There was a second round of shots after I could feel the stitches again, and they gave Emma back to me to serve as a distraction.

Emma was Born at 1002 am Sunday November 30, 2008.



She was 8 pounds 11 ounces and 22 inches long. Emma's Blood sugar was low, and because of that, she had constant foot pricks and tests to make sure it was going up from her feedings.

We had LOTS of visitors throughout the day because most of Jason's family was still in town from the anniversary party. We stayed in the Hospital that night, and came home the next evening. The rest of the story you already know.


Here are photos of Katy, our nurse, trying to get Emma's blood sugar up with a little bit of formula, Jason's and Emma together for the first time, and Emma and I just after she was born.






2 comments:

  1. I cried. Again. And I hate these 8000 miles.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I cried reading this. :) And I'm sitting at the flying m. ;)

    ReplyDelete