Family of 4 Plus More: Emma's Story

When Aiden turned 2 we decided it was time to have baby #2. I found out I was pregnant in September 2009 and surprised Patrick on his birthday.

Surprise!

We're pregnant!

My pregnancy with Emma was different from Aiden. I had morning/sometimes afternoon sickness and had that nauseous lump in my throat almost all day. Other than that, I felt great. :-) When it got down to my weekly or bi-weekly doctor visits my blood pressure was high just about every other time. I was sent to labor and delivery twice to have that monitored. Both times it went back to normal after about an hour so I was discharged. I also found out from these doctor's visits that I was 4 cm dilated by my last doctor's visit. I just knew the last time I went to the hospital for my blood pressure they were going to keep me because it was up and I was already 4 cm, nope they sent me home. Which was fine by me because I did not want to get pitocen. It just seems like that makes things more intense, and I didn't want that.

If you read Aiden's birth story then you know I wanted the drugs. Badly. And this was before I was even pregnant. This time around I considered doing it drug free since I made it out alive that way with Aiden, but I wasn't against changing my mind either!

Here is a picture of me with Emma just a week before she was born.

39 weeks with Emma

With my induction scheduled for 41 weeks, I was up to try ~~anything~~ some things to get her to come out on her own. On May 5, 2010, a day before my due date, I woke up around 6:00 - 6:30 just feeling sort of off. I couldn't put my finger on it because I wasn't having any contractions, but I knew something felt different. I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed a little bit of blood. Now, inside I was freaking out a little because with Aiden by the time I saw blood, he was ready to come out, but I couldn't be too far along because I wasn't feeling the contractions...yet. I didn't want to wake up Patrick if I didn't have to so I went downstairs to the computer and Googled it. What would we do without Google??

I decided that it was the early stages of labor and went back upstairs. He heard me and I told him what was going on and that I was going to take a shower in case things got started soon, especially since labor with Aiden was about 3 1/2 hrs, I knew it could happen fast. I began to feel the contractions while I was in the shower. They weren't too bad at this point because I was able to continue doing what I was doing and talk and all that good stuff.

I told Patrick to go ahead and call his sister, Bailee, to head over to our house since she was staying with Aiden. She didn't answer, I don't know how many times he tried, but she didn't answer any of them. Panic!!! As a mom, you think of your children first...so I'm thinking, "Oh my God, this child is coming and I don't have anywhere for the other one to be. He's going to have to go with us and be scarred for life!" Thank goodness he got ahold of his step mother, Tina, and she headed over to save us. (Bailee's phone was on silent and she was sleeping since it was like 7am, don't worry, we still love her!)

I get out of the shower and grab the laptop to start timing my contractions...I love http://www.contractionmaster.com/! Yes, I know, usually the husband is timing these, but I had to do my hair and make-up and he had to get himself and Aiden all ready for us to be gone. I texted my best friends and sister, Aimee, Kelly, and Christy and let them know what was going on and that this was probably it. They had been on Baby Watch for what seemed like weeks! Patrick came up to check on me and the contractions we very close together...maybe 3 minutes apart. He asks if I have called the doctor's office. Um, no. I know! I know! I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. I'll leave it to I was having contractions and trying to get ready so I can't think of everything! I don't know why but I was also thinking that I had read somewhere that if they were 5 minutes apart and lasting more than a minute, it was time. Is that true?? Well mine were closer than that but not lasting for a minute so I thought maybe I had time. I called the doctor and told her what was going on and explained how quick labor was with my first child and she told me to head to the hospital now. No problem because these contractions were starting to really hurt, but we had to wait for someone to get here! This is the problem you run into when labor comes on it's own, unexpected!

I was in the "Oh Sweet Baby Jesus, I'm going to die" phase when Tina finally arrive. Yay! Let me tell you how hard it is to act like you're not in pain so you don't scare the crap out of your almost 3 year old when you just want to curl up into a ball and cry and scream!

The ride to the hospital, maybe 20 minutes, was forever. Patrick did a great job of trying to distract me but those contractions were strong and coming fast! We had talked about him dropping me at the door and then going to park the car...that was NOT happening! I kindly explained that he would be doing valet because he wasn't leaving me. Bless that valet parking attendant because he got me my wheel chair and then proceeded to tell me his life story the whole way he rolled me in the hospital. I don't know what the heck he said because I was too busy with the contractions. I'm sure he's a very nice man, but I just wanted him to push faster and talk less!

Finally, we got upstairs and they were getting me all checked in around 8:15 am or so. One nurse could see how uncomfortable I was and said she was going to take me back to the triage area and Patrick could finish up at the desk and then come back. She took me to the same room I had been in twice before for my high blood pressure, but I knew this time I wouldn't be leaving here without our baby with us. I got in to gown and tried to answer her questions as I had to pause for contractions. She was able to check me in between them and I was 6-7 centimeters. Yay! Not too many more to go!! I could do this!

Now with Aiden, they just wheeled my triage bed up to labor and delivery and now they wanted me to get up and walk over to the L & D room. (Yes, it was 2 different hospitals but they should really considered giving you a ride!) I made it to my new and official room and had to pause for a contraction before getting into the bed when she asked me about pain meds. I told her that I had had my first naturally so I was interested in trying it again with her. I climbed in bed and got all hooked up. Labor this time around was MUCH more intense and painful. I thought the second was supposed to be quicker and easier. Quicker, yes, but much more painful.

At some point Emma's heart rate began to drop so they had me lay on my side and gave me oxygen. There is nothing more annoying when you are all hot and in pain than some mask on your face, but we do what we have to do for our babies. I was trying to squeeze Patrick's hand off of his arm to get through the pain. Breathing techniques out the window! I felt pressure and like I wanted to push to relieve some of the pressure and kept telling the nurse this. She told me to lay on my back again and she would check. I was still 6-7. WHAT?!?! How is that possible?!?! I told her that I think I change my mind, I want the epidural. She tells me that's fine, but I have to get through the bag of iv fluids and something about a blood test. WHAT?!?! I know there's no time for all that! Not much longer after that, maybe 5 minutes, I told her again that I really felt I needed to push. She told me not to and that she'd checked me again. I was 9, maybe but she said my cervix was just melting away when she checked so I was ready. They called Dr. Chou and told her that she was needed in my room. I was trying not to push while waiting for her and when she finally got there she said she knew I was ready based off of the sounds I was making. Hey, it's hard to not push when that's all you can think about, don't judge!

She broke my water and I pushed maybe 2 times and Emma was here! She had the cord wrapped around her neck so they took her over to the side to make sure everything was okay and she was perfect! She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz. Emma arrived at 8:54 a.m, putting me in labor for about a hour and 45 minutes or so once I began feeling contractions. Again, I don't know how some woman do it drug free, for hours upon hours. I'm lucky, I know.

Emma's first picture

I don't think she likes it out here so far!

Mommy & Emma

Gigi and Emma

Aunt Aimee & Emma

Aunt Kelly & Emma

Meeting Grampy

Daddy & his little girl

Aiden meeting Emma for the first time

Family of 4

Sweet girl

Love this one!

Baby Burrito

So tiny!

Aunt Christy & Emma

We told the doctors that we wanted to get home as soon as possible so we could be with Aiden too. They told us with no complications, they didn't see why we couldn't go home the next morning. Yay! Emma had a hard time peeing and we were told the next morning that we would be able to leave as soon as she went. Finally around noon she was able to go! So we took our baby girl home at 1 day old to start life as our family of 4.