Monday, September 28, 2009

The Story

On Saturday evening I found myself having contractions less then 10 minutes apart. I debated all evening whether I needed to call the doctor... Around 10pm the contractions began to let up and I went to bed. It ended up being long night with alot of contractions.

I spent all of Sunday morning and afternoon on the couch(besides taking a shower) and my contractions gradually increased in strength and frequency. By lunchtime they had been running about 7 minutes apart and had begun to hurt, so I ate lunch and then decided to call the dr to see if they were going to want to stop them due to the fact I was barely 36 wks. I was thrilled to hear my Dr. say my name when I received the call back! She said they wouldn't stop the contractions and I could come in and let her check me if I wanted. We had just sent Blake's parents back to their hotel to change and rest so I decided to wait it out another hour or 2... One hour later we ended up asking his parents to come back so that I could go ahead and go in. The contractions were coming every 5 minutes at this point... I still was in complete denial that this could be it, but knew I would rather go in at 5 and be home by the kids bedtime rather then decide at 10pm that I needed to go in only to be sent home at 1 or 2 in the morning.


Well, 30 minutes later the monitors were showing my contractions at 3-4 minutes apart and I was beginning to feel the contractions in my legs. I had no progression in my cervix though - thought to be because Emery was still laying transverse. They monitored me for another hour and the contractions quickened even a little bit more but when they checked my progression they found me to be the same. Surprise, Surprise - the nurse commented about feeling her head and I was in shock. I had been having painful contractions and felt her moving around, but certainly thought I would have known if she had flipped head down. They pulled in an ultrasound machine and sure enough - Head down! An hour later still no progression and my dr made an appearance to let me know she didn't think that I was in labor, but was going to give me a little longer before she sent me home. She gave me permission to walk the halls and I ended up wandering around the hospital for about 30 minutes with my best friends Mom and Jessica. Dad, Paul, John, Daustin(Jessica's husband), and Blake chilled in the waiting room.




While wandering around the contractions basically stopped, but they wanted to hook me up for a little bit and check me one more time before sending me home. 30 minutes later my contractions were every 2 minutes and I had dialted to a 4. They decided it was time to introduce Emery Ann to the world and by 10.00pm I had an iv. I got an epidural about 11.30. They waited till 2.30 am to check me again and I had only progressed to a 5. At that point they decided to attempt to speed things up a little bit and added some pitocin to my iv. I had struggled to maintain the epidural medication on my right side unless laying completely on that side, but by 3.30 they wanted me to flip sides for just a little bit to see if Emery would come down a little more. As soon as the nurse flipped me and left the room my water broke... They checked me and I was 9 1/2 cent. dialated and by the time I was cleaned up I was feeling EVERYTHING in my right side. The nurse checked me again and you could see Emery's head. I spent 30 minutes waiting for the anesthesiologist(sp?) to come up and for the meds to kick in and man - Pain like I have never felt.


My parents beat the doctor to the hospital. Well dad waited in the waiting room. :) Within 10 minutes of my dr's arrival Emery was here! I pushed 2 counts of 10 and on the third they counted backwards to 7 and told me I didn't even need to push.

Emery Ann joined the world at 4.24 am weighing 5 pounds 9 ounces and measuring 18 1/2 inches long. She is a compact, beautiful bundle. Since she was technically a preemie they had a pediatrician from their special cares nursery present for the birth. Emery had fluid in her lungs and her blood sugar was quite low so they rushed her down to the special cares nursery. I got to visit her on my way to my postpartum room, but have only been able to hold her for about 1 minute. She seems to be doing quite well now. She is off of the oxygen and all of the fluid seems to have cleared from her lungs. Because of her small size and early delivery they have her on an iv drip - trying to boost her strength before they allow her to attempt to nurse. They will let me attempt tonight.


Update: I just got back from spending about 30 minutes holding Emery in the nursery. Please keep Emery Ann in your prayers. We fully believe that God was in complete control last night, but it is extremely difficult to see your 5 lb 9 oz baby laying in a bed with tubes coming out of her nose and an iv in her tiny little hand.

8 comments:

Megan said...

What great news that she flipped on her own! Praying that she continues to do well, and that you can hold her lots and lots soon!

Grams & Pops Claridge said...

PTL!!!! Welcome Em!!!!! Grams and Pops look forward to meeting you in person in December. Love y'all,
Grams and Pops Claridge

The M Family said...

congratulations!!!

Adam Holly Grace said...

Praying for Emery!!

The Petty's said...

Yea...we are so excited...Rest up while you can. Emery is being taken care of..... God Bless you all.

Leah said...

Happy to hear that Emery is here! Amazed that you did not have to have a c-section! WOW!!! Will continue to pray for you guys in the days to come!

Tiemans said...

How amazing!! So happy for you that you did not have to have a c-section:-)
I remember feeling that same way when I saw how tiny Zoe' was (5.12 when she was born) and how many things were attached to her small body. She looked sooooo small, but she quickly filled out and was completely FINE!
We will continue to pray for ya'll :-).

Grace, Hope and Joy said...

So excited for you all! Congratulations on a beautiful baby girl. I will definitely be praying for you all!

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