Emily Ann makes her arrival!

Emily Ann is here!

After a relatively easy labor and delivery our little one made her arrival at 6:05 in the morning on December 3rd.

John and I had gone into the hospital about 10:30 on Wednesday. Uncle Brett was awesome and said he would stay with the older kids while we went to the hospital! I didn't worry about them at all knowing they were with him!

At the hospital we did all the usual admitting and stuff, got showed to our room and I got ready for the show to start! After an hour or two I was in bed, all the papers signed and hooked up to an IV for the pitocin to start! At this point I was dialated to 3cm and 90% effaced but the baby still was not coming down at all on her own, they did the first of many ultra sounds over the next 18 hours and she was still head down but really high.

My parents came out for the day and between them and John we spent the day talking, I napped some and waited for something to happen. The Midwife and nurse kept upping the pitocin through out the day hoping it would cause something to happen, but until my water broke the contractions were not going to progress much. My midwife didn't want to break my water because she was worried that since the baby was so high the umbilical cord would drop before the baby. Around 8:00 or so I was uncomfortable enough that I got an epidural. My blood pressure dropped pretty low after this so they stopped the pitocin and tried to see if things would pick up on their own - again with no luck and another ultrasound had the baby really high still! So about 10:00 or 11:00 my parents headed home after the doctors and midwife said nothing was going to happen today!

After an hour or so my bp was fine and the midwife decided to up the pitocin again to see if we could move things along. Around 1:00 I was asleep and my water broke, I was still only dilated to 3cm and the Midwife still couldn't feel the baby. During this time, John started feeling sick with a head cold. He was able to sleep some in the room but is so tall and the couch so short so he went out to sleep in his truck for a while. This went on for a few hours and about 5:00 am my midwife came in to check and I was finally at 4 1/2 cm and I was having consistently long and hard contractions (at thankfully they weren't too bad for me due to my epidural!!!). But still the baby was really high, she did an ultra sound to make sure she was still head down and thankfully she was! John at this point had gone to the pharmacy to get some cough drops and sinus pressure medicine. At about 5:30 a doctor came in to check and said we were going to have to decide what to do at this point if nothing was happening. I think they were concerned the baby was so high and were ready to head the route of a c-section. The dr could just feel the top of the babies head and said I was at 6 cm. He said at this point it would be a little while but after a few minutes I could tell the contractions were pretty strong at this point so I texted John and told him to come back NOW!!!

The nurse I was with at this point was driving me crazy. I told her it was almost time and she kept ignoring me like I didn't know what I was talking about. She said you were just at a 6, this could be a while yet, but I could feel my pelvis separating and the babies head moving down. I had told all the nurses and midwives I had seen over the course of this that when it is time, it will happen quickly and I will know it is time and when I feel ready to push it is time to push (you would think after 3 other kids I would know how this last part works). This nurse told me to push my epidural button and that might help. She was moving slowly about the room setting up for delivery and I kept telling her I needed to push. John got back about 5:40 and at one point when the nurse stepped out of the room he asked me what I needed and I told him to go get a doctor because I was going to start pushing. As he opened the door my midwife and doctor came in, she took one look at me then she ripped the end of the table off, the doctor was helping her tie her surgical gown as I am telling her I am pushing and she said lets go then. No more than 3 contractions and a few pushes latter Emily Ann arrived.

She was perfect! A beautiful little girl with this adorable face and 10 fingers and toes! It is amazing how they place this little bundle in your arms and you forget the last 9 months of pregnancy and the hours of labor! I took one look at her and was so in love with her it made my heart hurt! I am so glad she is here and part of our family, I couldn't imagine not having her!