emma's birth.

The day (or night rather) finally came when I went into real labor early Sunday morning on August 22, 2010. We went to a wedding on Saturday and after hearing lots of "you're STILL pregnant!?" I was more than ready to have a baby! I kept telling people from church; "hopefully you won't see me in the morning" ... but in reality I wasn't too confident that anything special was going to happen that night. Since everyone I knew who was also pregnant and due within 2 weeks after me had already had their babies, I was excited to meet our little munchkin! Ironically, my friend who was due 2 days after me delivered a day past MY due date, and I ended up delivering Emma a day after HER due date! I don't think many people thought I'd end up going 3 days late, but we were so grateful for a healthy babe that came when she was good and ready!

So, back to the birth story .... I woke up around 1:45 a.m. with a contraction that immediately felt different than all of the other ones I had been having. Meaning it hurt more. I waited for the next one which came about 5 minutes later. After a few more contractions I decided to wake up Brian and let him know that I was likely in active labor. After how fast Callie came, we were told not to stay home for long once the contractions started, so Brian asked if we needed to leave. I told him that I was going to get up and walk around for a little to make sure the contractions didn't stop. And they didn't ... in fact, they got worse ... which for me is a sign that labor is for real! So we finished getting some things together (yes, my bag was already packed but we still had some things to gather) and then told my Mom that we were heading to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 2:45 a.m. Because of the time we arrived, we had to enter through the ER. An easy way to avoid a long check in is to walk in while experiencing active labor ... as soon as I had another contraction the lady at the desk said to Brian, "um, is she in active labor?" If I wouldn't have been busy trying to breathe my way through the contraction I would've responded for him and said "no, I enjoy breathing like this for no reason." But instead, Brian just kind of laughed and said "yes she is." She immediately got a nurse to escort us up to maternity!

By 3 a.m. we were nice and comfortable in our labor and delivery room (well, as comfortable as you can be while in labor). The nurse checked me and told me I was 6-7 c.m. dilated then got busy with the paperwork. In the mean time I ate ice chips and breathed my way through the contractions. I must say ... Brian is the best encourager, ice chips retriever and contraction coacher I could ask for! He sweetly tells me when each contration is coming on, peaking and then eventually getting ready to end ... all while letting me squeeze the life out of his hand!

Around 3:45 a.m. the contractions had gotten pretty crazy intense and I was beginning to feel the need to push. The nurse could tell from my breathing that they were increasing in their intensity, so she decided to check me again. She said I was holding around 7 c.m. ... I looked at Brian with a look of "are you kidding me" ... and then a minute later had a killer contraction. During my killer contraction, the Dr. walked into the room, took one look at me breathing through my contraction, told the nurse she wanted to check me ... and just like that I heard the glorious words "she's complete and ready to push!" One contraction took me from 7-10 cm just like that.

The nurses quickly finished prepping everything for delivery and the Dr. got ready to deliver babe #5! When the next contraction came I started pushing and with a couple more contractions and a few more good pushes Emma Jane entered the world at 3:59 a.m. and weighed in at 7.13 (our heaviest by an ounce) and was 19" long. It is always an amazing feeling to have the "fresh out of the womb" baby placed on you.

We are loving having another girlie in the family and the kiddos all adore their new sister. Thankfully and by God's grace she has been a pretty easy baby which we are very grateful for.




I'll try to post some more recent pics soon!