Emma Lynn was born on May 21, 2012 at 8:31pm, weighing 6lbs 15oz and 19 inches long.
For two weeks I had been dilating and getting strong, although not painful, frequent contractions. Emma was really low so it was apparent when she was ready it would go really fast. I had a Dr.'s appointment on a Monday and she said since I was getting closer to the due date that if I had 6 or more contractions (no matter the intensity) to call her. Well that afternoon I had 10 in one hour so I called. She wanted me to time them for one more hour and she'd call back afterward. Well as things would go they were just as frequent but because they had not increased in intensity she said to wait it out. That night I started vomiting along with other things and continued through out the night. I had no fever but decided in the morning I'd call the Dr just in case she wanted me to get checked out. She said just to treat it like any flu with lots of rest and liquids. However she asked about the contractions and I said they were just as frequent but still not painful. She asked me to come in again that Wednesday because the contractions were obviously doing something. Wednesday at my appointment I had dilated from 3 to 4. The Dr. just said to continue with the same plan as before otherwise she'd see me at my regularly scheduled appointment the following Monday.
Monday the 21st rolls around. I had had a few strong contractions but the frequency had dropped quite a bit. I was expecting to be at about 6cm and was only at 5. The Dr. was worried the labor would go so fast I'd deliver at home so she said I could come in that Wednesday and she'd strip my membranes. If that didn't work to start labor she'd break my water that Friday. However, when it came to contractions she said anything goes now. With about 8 strong contractions in two hours that afternoon I called her and she said to head on in to the hospital. Jon came home from work about 3:30 and my mom came over to watch Hadley, who was still sleeping. We left Hadley a note of where we were and headed out. Luckily, we made it to the hospital in time to take advantage of the valet service!
I felt silly walking up to labor and delivery without soaked pants from my water being broken or not being doubled over in pain from contractions, but alas, we proceeded. We checked in within about 30 minutes and the nurse began sticking me with all kinds of needles. My Dr. showed up at 6pm to break my water and I have never felt something so painful. Actually I'm not sure it was the act of breaking my water that hurt. I think it was her stripping my membranes followed by putting an internal monitor in to monitor the contractions better. Holy Cow! I was halfway up the bed and about to hyper-ventilate.
After my water was broken and the pitocin had kicked in I was feeling those contractions. The Anesthesiologist came in to just assess things and I told her I'd wait until I was about 6 or 7 (knowing things could progress quickly) to get the epidural. That took about a whole 20 minutes after my water was broken so we had her come back in. I could tell she was having a difficult time getting it in the right place but eventually we were done and I started feeling tingly. All my lower half that is except for a small window on the right side. within about 15 minutes I was in a lot of pain and asked for the anesthesiologist to come back and check. She mentioned she'd move it but there was a risk of the epidural slipping out completely. I wasn't quite sure which was worse but she went ahead and fixed things. Within about 15 minutes the pain subsided and it was glorious. About 15 minutes later my Dr. said it was time to push....the epidural worked just in time! The Dr. kept saying she was so close but then realized her head was a little cock-eyed so they had to get a vacuum to help straighten her out. Later the Dr. mentioned that was probably the only reason she stayed in as long as she did and I hadn't gone in to labor a week earlier.
I pushed for 20 minutes and two and a half hours after my water was broken Emma was born. Emma was all twisted up in her cord, even though her heart monitor never showed signs of distress, so yet another reason I'm glad we didn't have her at home. :) So when she was born everything seemed fine. She seemed alert and her cry was decent. One of the nurses checking her out later remarked that her breathing didn't sound right. They had a NICU nurse in the room for delivery just because I was at 37 weeks so she came back and checked her out saying she looked ok. After some visitors we tried nursing and she had absolutely no interest and was making a grunting sound. The sound seemed like normal baby noises to us but she was doing it constantly.
We were wheeled to our post-delivery room by my nurse and the same infant nurse who was concerned about her breathing. As soon as we got to our room they decided to take her to the nursery to evaluate her breathing and oxygen levels. Jon went with her thank goodness and I was left in my room for about an hour wondering what was going on.
When Jon came back (it was now about 1:30am) he was with my nurse and both informed me that her oxygen levels were too low and she was going to the NICU to have an xray done and be monitored. After lots of crying Jon wheeled me to the NICU so I could see her. With tears streaming I watched as they hooked my baby up to lots of tubes and tried to make her comfortable. We finally tried to sleep at about 3:30 that morning only to wake at 6 to go visit her again. Thus began our journey of having a NICU baby.
