Emma's Birth Story

Disclaimer: the beginning of this post may be a little TMI but it is my birth story with Emma and I want to remember the details.

On Friday, October 19 I started feeling sick to my stomach around 8:30 pm. I thought it was what we had eaten for dinner that was making me sick and kept asking John if he felt ok. He was fine. I decided to go to bed early but could not sleep. Around 9:15 I started throwing up and did not feel better after. I got sick a few more times between then and midnight. I kept trying to sleep but couldn't.

John went to the corner store to get me some Sprite around 10:30. I also tried drinking some Gripe Water. We figured if it helped babies, it might help me. Again, it didn't help. Around this time I started having (what I now know were) contractions. They began coming at 2 minutes apart and were very intense. I wasn't 100% sure they were contractions because I had never felt them with Hudson. My water broke first, and the second I started feeling any discomfort in the hospital, I asked for my epidural. I had contractions coming every 2 minutes for an hour. We called the doctor and they said to come on into the hospital. My biggest fear was having to call someone to come stay with Hudson to only be sent home from the hospital with a false alarm.

side note: we were SO not ready. My bag wasn't packed, John was actually painting the hall bathroom while I was sick and having contractions and the kitchen was a mess. I had spent all day making PW's cinnamon rolls and had not cleaned up yet. I was planning on it that night then started getting sick/going into labor. SO. NOT. READY.

The person who we had lined up to call in the middle of the night in case something happened was out of town that weekend. So we called Mickey and Connie (he is one of the pastors on staff with John) and they came over in less than 5 minutes. They were WONDERFUL and ended up staying at our house all night with Hudson.

We got to the hospital around midnight. We were put in a triage room to monitor things and see what was going on. We found out that I was actually having real contractions. (thank goodness...I really wanted them to be real and for us to be there for an actual reason!) I had lost so much fluid from getting sick that they wanted to monitor me during the night and give me IV fluids. I was not dilated AT ALL and she was still very high. That is one of the reasons they felt comfortable waiting on a c-section even though my contractions were so quick. We also learned that every time I would have a contraction, Emma's heart rate would drop. This same thing happened with Hudson and was the reason for the c-section with him.

Throughout the night she started doing better and we were told that we would have an ultrasound in the morning and that would tell them more information and they would then decide if we would be having a baby that day or not.

I could not sleep at all that night. I got maybe a total of 45 minutes of sleep. Between only being able to lay down a certain way (which caused major back pain) and the contractions I was very uncomfortable.  Plus, nurses came in several times to check on me.

The on call doctor came by in the morning (my doctor was out of town) and said that even though Emma was doing better she didn't think it was worth it to send me home and wait for me to go into labor again. Since I was already 37 weeks (and a couple days) she wanted to go ahead and do the c-section that morning. She said we would have a baby in less than 2 hours!

Cue the tears. I was so happy, relieved, nervous, and so many other emotions. I was so ready to meet our baby girl, but I had not yet done certain things at home I wanted to do before she was born. I wanted to put Hudson to bed one last time knowing that he would be a big brother the next day. I wanted to hug and kiss him and spend time with him knowing it would be the last time before Emma. Looking back I know these were very emotional thoughts. Hudson is still too young to really understand what is going on. These "lasts" would have only been for me. Anyway, moving on. :)

They still did an ultrasound and even though she was way too big to see any cute images of her we did find out that she had some hair and got to see that on the ultrasound.

They took me back to the OR around 8:30 and started prepping me for surgery. They did my spinal which to me was the scariest part. It was better than getting an epidural but still scary. Once my spinal was done I quickly moved myself over to the operating table and then went numb almost instantly.

another side note: during this time John was (what I thought) out in the hall getting his scrubs on and just waiting to be told to come in. This was all true but he was also trying not to pass out. He was starting to get sick and was downing orange juice and eating crackers to try and get his blood sugar up. When he came into the room he sat down on a chair next to me. I knew he wasn't feeling good but didn't realize how bad he felt. He was amazing through the entire c-section.

Once they got her out she immediately started crying which is the best sound ever. They cleaned her up a little and brought her around to me. John and I were in awe of her and so thankful that God had given us another sweet baby.

They noticed immediately that she had some breathing issues so after I saw her they took her to the nursery to be monitored for a while. They reassured me that it was normal for an early baby so I wasn't too worried.

I asked John to go with her while they finished putting me back together. While she was in the nursery they noticed she had a heart murmur which we later found out wasn't a big deal and that it would end up fixing itself. But because they found that she was in the nursery for 2 1/2 hours. It was hard being away from her that long but also good because I was able to rest a little while in my room. 

Her breathing issues cleared up very fast and we didn't have any other problems with that while we were in the hospital. 

We are SO thankful that Emma decided to arrive early. It wasn't exactly how we planned things and we certainly weren't ready at home but everything has worked out perfectly and we are so in love with our newest blessing.

I have tons of visitor pictures and our first days at home to share next.