After what seemed like an eternity, our little angel joined us on June 19. I say an "eternity" because I had pre-labor contractions for days. They were very painful because they were all in my back, but of course they were not productive, so it felt like I was in labor forever...which I wasn't. But, come on, I mean, if you're gonna be in pain, it should be doing something, right? Oh, well. I digress...what follows is the story of my second little girl's birth.
I went in for my doctor's appointment on Monday, two days overdue, and got checked. When my doctor said I was only one centimeter dilated, my heart sunk. I mean, I knew things could change quickly, but this was not good news. We discussed the options, and I got scheduled for a non-stress test for Wednesday morning. I went home and just went about the rest of the day as usual. When Faiver came home from work, we walked over to Seven Peaks for some cooling off, which was really nice. I could feel some contractions, but they weren't regular and would go away after just a few hours. The rest of the evening passed without event. Tuesday was a little different. I had contractions on and off all day long...contractions in my back which were very painful. I tried to just ignore them because there was no regularity to them. I actually got quite a bit done. I even made a nursing cover all by myself (well, with guidance from my mom). It's only the second thing I've ever sewn completely on my own. I went to bed around 10:30 because I thought maybe just maybe my contractions had done something, so I wanted to get some good sleep just in case I went into labor during the night. Around 2:00 in the morning, I couldn't sleep anymore because of the pain in my back, so Faiver and I went to the hospital to see if I was progressing. I got hooked up to the monitors and checked, but unfortunately I was still only about 1 1/2 centimeters dilated. They kept me for an hour to see if anything changed, and when it didn't they called my doctor to see what she wanted to do. She gave me the option of going home or being induced. I decided to go home because I knew I'd be more comfortable there and possibly be able to get some more sleep. I did get some more sleep which was good! I went to my non-stress test in the morning. During the test, we found that my fluids were low, so I needed to be induced. So, I went up to Labor and Delivery and was admitted. I got checked and was still only a little over 1 cm dilated, so I was told that they'd use pitocin and cervical balloons to help me reach the "active labor" portion of labor (because before 4 cm, you're not considered to be "in labor"...ha!). I had back labor again, so I asked for an epidural...I knew I was in for a long ride and didn't want to be in excruciating pain the whole time. After I got the epidural, things were pretty good. I slept a little, got checked every now and then, and eventually lost feeling in my legs, which was a very weird sensation. Around 12:00, the balloons came out because I had reached 4 cm. Happy news! Then there was more waiting around and getting checked. Faiver was such a champ just sitting in the hospital room with me. His friend, Russell, brought him some lunch, so that helped out a lot. I was a little jealous that I couldn't eat anything except ice chips, but it was ok. :)
The pitocin was doing such a good job, that they had to reduce it quite a bit so I didn't have the baby before my doctor could get there. She was in surgery at another hospital, and of course wanted to be the one to deliver. However, even with the pitocin hardly doing anything, my body had taken over and was ready to have a baby! Around 7:00pm, I felt some pressure and asked the nurse to come in and check me. When she did, she discovered that my water had broken (numb legs made it hard to tell anything had happened) and the baby's head was crowning. She looked at me and said, "try not to push. I'm going to call Dr. Grover and hopefully she'll make it before the baby comes." I was like, sure, ok, I'll try. Another plus of having the epidural was that the urge to push was not as strong, so I could wait for my doctor. She got there in the next 5 minutes, and they were all ready to deliver my little girl. Faiver helped move one of my legs (the nurse did the other) since I really couldn't. He was so encouraging while I was pushing...I'll always remember that smile. After just 5 minutes of pushing, our little Emily Sofia was born at 7:11pm on June 19. I was overwhelmed with joy at seeing her and even remember laughing/crying when I saw her for the first time. The nurse laid her on my chest while she got cleaned and the doctor sewed up my tear. Oh, and Faiver got to cut the umbilical cord this time! He was so happy. When Emily was clean, she was laid on my chest for some awesome mother-daughter bonding time. Faiver was already on the phone telling our loved ones the good news, and Emily was trying to lift up her head to find him. She could hear his voice!! When I told him that, he rushed over and started talking to his new daughter. It was priceless.
After a bit, Emily was taken to get a real bath, and I was moved to the Mother-Baby floor to wait for her. My mom brought Lily in for a few minutes to see Mommy and her new sister. She was so happy to have a new baby and just wanted to hold and kiss her. She's going to be a great big sister to Emily. After they left to get some sleep (Faiver, too), Emily and I had some alone time until I was ready for her to go the nursery so I could get some sleep. What a day!
The rest of our hospital stay was pretty normal. We had some wonderful visitors (Russell and Katie; Brother Noyes; Katie, Kayson, and Annley; Margie; Scott; Carla; and maybe some other people that I can't remember right now...sorry!). The second day that Lily came with my mom, I was holding Emily and she said, "poke!" (I poke her nose sometimes and say that). So I said, "Lily, do you want to poke Emily?" She looked at me and very emphatically said, "yeah!" It was hilarious!! The second night we were there, I got done feeding Emily and had her go sleep in the nursery. The nurse brought her back about 10 minutes later and said she was still hungry. I knew she wasn't...she just wanted to snuggle with Mommy, so we slept together until she was ready to eat again. It was a special time.
Now we are at home and getting used to the new addition to our family. Lily loves her, and it's wonderful to finally have her with us! Welcome to the family, little Emily!
