Emily's Birth Story

On October 7th, I woke up at 4am and started getting ready for our trip to the hospital. I made sure we had everything packed, Chris helped me carry it to the car, and we arrived at the hospital at 5:30am. We walked up to the front doors and all the lights were off. Weird. I was scheduled to be checking into L&D on the 2nd floor at 5:30. The doors were locked so we tried to wave someone down that was inside. A nurse came and opened the door, she told us that they had been testing the emergency power generator that morning and it was taking longer than expected to get the power back on.

Awesome.

We had to take the staff elevator and get to L&D the back way because nothing else was working! They got us checked in and settled in our room [Seton SW has amazing rooms! We never had to move to another room- labor, delivery, recovery and post delivery were all in the same place]

I had Chris take a picture of me before we got started.


It was early, but we were both so excited to finally meet this baby! At 6:30 they had me hooked up to 2 monitors for Emily's heartbeat and my contractions (turns out I was already having very mild contractions that I couldn't feel), a blood pressure cuff and an IV with saline and pitocin drip. I hated having the IV in, I couldn't move my left wrist. I hated the monitors strapped to my belly. The one on top that monitored contractions wasn't flat on the bottom and it was so uncomfortable having it poke right into my uterus. I also hated the blood pressure cuff later on when I was lying on my side- it started squeezing way too tight, to the point that my arm would go numb and my hand would cramp up into a fist. I had Chris massage it to get the blood moving, but he couldn't unclamp my fingers until the cuff let some pressure off. Annoying.

The contractions started to get stronger over the next few hours. At 10:30 I decided to ask for the epidural. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer because it took the anesthesiologist forever to get to my room. I think he showed up around 11:30.

While I was waiting, they had me sit on the edge of the bed so I was ready when he got there. They had me lean forward a little and Chris was sitting in front of me. The contractions were horrible towards the end, I squeezed on his shoulders so hard he almost passed out. I think I was cutting off blood supply to his head, oops. He stayed there through the contractions and talked to me while I got the epi.

The epi was NOT bad. I thought it was going to be this huge painful needle, but it felt like the shots you get at the dentist. It hurt and stung a little, but it was nothing compared to the contractions.

It took a little while for it to completely work, but once it did I felt a million times better. My right side went numb pretty quickly and I was still feeling mild contractions on my left side. I finally got a couple of hours of pain free rest. Chris got a nap in and my mom stayed with me and talked to me for a while.

Initially I thought I would want only Chris and myself in the delivery room before, during and immediately after labor. My mom came and went all day and all I can say is thank goodness for my mother. It really helped to have her there for support. Chris did a great job, but I think my mom being there took a little pressure off of him feeling like he constantly had to be helping in some way. I'm glad he was able to rest, I'm sure it was stressful to watch me in pain and not be able to do anything about it.

Around 2:30 I started feeling contractions again on the left side. They started to get stronger and stronger and I asked if I could get more medicine for the pain. They checked me first and told me that Emily was ready! I was so relieved. The pain was her head pushing down in my hips.

They had me push twice to see if I made any progress and made me stop because she was coming out pretty quickly and my doctor wasn't on her way yet. They called her and she headed over from the office on Brodie. It was hard not to push while she was on her way, everything in me really wanted to.

They were afraid that Emily was going to come before the doctor got there so they had another doctor waiting outside of my room just in case we couldn't wait any longer. The nurses got ready (they looked like they were heading into a rainstorm, apparently my doctor is notorious for being a bit messy!) and Dr. Eduardo finally showed up at 3:35. She got ready, had me push, and asked if I wanted to feel Emily's head.

Craziest feeling ever. My eyes got huge and my mom and Chris started laughing at me. I knew there was a baby in there, but after feeling her head I KNEW there was a baby there! It was enough incentive to have me try my hardest to get her out. In between pushes, Dr. Eduardo rubbed Emily's head. It was the first thing she felt on the outside, and she still really likes her head to be rubbed. Washing her hair really calms her down :)

I pushed a couple more times (I only pushed for 10 minutes!), suddenly felt all the pain and pressure relieved, and they put her on my chest at 3:50pm.

I can't explain how it felt to hold her for the first time. It was incredible. I was so happy to finally meet her, relieved that the delivery was over, and thrilled that I was no longer pregnant! They cleaned her off a bit, let me look at her, then took her across the room to examine her. She weighed in at 8 lb, .05 oz and 20 inches long. I can't believe I was carrying that around!

When she came out, she had swallowed a lot of fluid and had the cord around her neck. She was breathing, but grunting for air. They had to give her a bath to get her screaming so they could get all of the fluid out of her lungs. They cleaned her up, patted her back and she went from a really pale white to a healthy pink color pretty quickly. After half an hour, they handed her back to me so I could feed her. It's such an amazing feeling to know that I have everything needed to sustain her tiny little body.


After a while, Chris got to hold her. She looks just like him. She's a tiny, soft, pink, female version of her daddy. She's got his eyes, his nose, his long feet and his hairline. Good thing I married a handsome man, Emily is beautiful! Chris' mom and sister were waiting outside and finally were able to come in to visit. Like I said earlier, I thought I wasn't going to want any visitors, but I really enjoyed having them there and watching them meet Emily for the first time.