Our Little Girl's Birth

I went to my appointment at 2:15 on Wednesday afternoon. I was having contractions on and off(again) but nothing regular. Dr. R checked me and said that I was 3 cm and how would I like to have a baby on Thursday. I said "Yes" before he could even get the words out of his mouth. I had been induced with both boys successfully and was hoping for the same with Emma Kate since I had not already gone into labor. I was to be at L&D the next morning at 5 am. Eddie had to teach Wednesday night so I used the time to buy last minute stuff for the hospital, clean house, and wash baby clothes. My mom kept the boys for the night(man, we missed them so much)since we had to be at the hospital so early. Gavin cried several times, not wanting me to leave him. It broke my heart.

After a restless night with only 2 hours of actual sleep/rest, we got up and got ready to leave the house. We made it to L&D at about 5:30am (I am never on time for anything. It is sad really.) They gave me a difficult time before getting a room because I refused to sign the paper to allow Emma Kate the Hepatitis B shot. (They looked at me like a moron when I insisted she would not get the disease before her one month checkup). That over with, I was admitted into a room and changed into a gown and got into bed to be hooked to monitors and answer pages of questions about my medical history.







Around 7 or 7:30 am, the nurse hooked up my IV with fluids and pitocin. Around 8:30 I got my epidural and the Dr. broke my water. At this point, I was 4.5 cm. I labored for about an hour and the nurse had to keep telling me to take deep breaths since Emma Kate's heart would go down some. Then my blood pressure (being read every 10 minutes) would act up. I would get a reading of 80/35 then it would be 135/80. I felt horrible, like I would pass out. I got the nurse anethesist to come back in since my right leg was so numb I couldn't move it. However, I could feel myself bearing down, the pressure from my contractions and could move my left leg really well. He felt that decreasing the medicine in my epidural would mean that I would feel pain in my belly during transistion. I decided to just deal with my right leg. At 10:00 am, the nurse said that I had not made any change and needed to soon since I was on the max dose of pitocin and the baby and my heart were acting up. I asked Eddie to please pray. She mixed a fresh bag of pitocin and changed it out at the suggestion of my OB. At 10:20am she checked me again since the monitor was showing progress and and I was 8 cm. However, the baby's heart went down to 80-90BPM, she put me on oxygen and told me to take deep breaths; her heartrate then increased to about 110-120. I also had to keep rolling back and forth to stimulate her(very difficult with a numb leg). It was a scary time for awhile. I wondered if I would end up with a cesarean section, but just wanted my little girl to be okay. At 11:26am, I was complete. I began pushing and it seemed like it was taking her forever to move down. Then, I realized that Eddie was just helping me hold my head up. I asked him to push up on my back and after one contraction she was crowing. This was around noon. It was great because I could feel her head and body moving down and coming out, but there wasn't any pain, just tons of pressure. This is when the doctor came into the room, so as one nurse broke down the bed and he got on his scrubs, I pushed her head almost all the way out. One push later, after the doctor was ready, her head was born. Then a small push, her shoulders and at 12:09pm, I was holding my beautiful baby girl on my chest.












She did wonderful after birth. She cried well, and pinked up right away. We were shocked when she was born at all her black hair and she was so tiny compared to the boys. Her feet were so little. They weighed her as one of the last things and everyone was getting impatient. After two big boys, we all knew she was smaller, and wanted to know by how much. Finally, my doctor hollared out, "Weigh that baby!" LOL At 7lbs 15oz and 20 inches long, she is a good bit smaller than the boys(At their 9lbs and 22 inches) She actually fits into newborn clothes and couldn't wear her going home outfit. It was a bubble outfit and the inseam at her diaper was at her feet instead. My little dainty girl!

Eddie and I were talking later that night on how we will never get over the miracle of birth. It just truely amazes us how people can experience it and still doubt the exsistance of God.