After the longest week of our lives, it was finally time to see our baby girl! On Thursday, April 17, we were scheduled to go into the hospital to start the induction. Well, Emma had other plans, she decided to come on her own! I woke up on Thursday and was having pretty consistent contractions, but after the embarrassing trip tot he hospital on Monday, John and I decided that we were not going to go into the hospital until we couldn't wait any longer. At about 3:30PM, John made me get in the car. We were driving to the hospital and decided to stop to get my "last meal". The guy at the smoothie shop looked horrified when we told him that I was in labor and we were headed to the hospital. Poor guy! We pulled into the hospital and received a call from them. They told us to come in at 10PM to start the induction. I am pretty sure that I started to cry. Why did we have to wait so long?? Being in the heart of Dallas at 5PM, there was no way we were going to go home and come back. We went into the hospital and sat in the lobby for a couple of hours.
John was tracking my contractions as I buried my face in a magazine with each contraction so that people wouldn't look at me weird. At 6:30PM, I had a contraction that lasted a good three minutes. John had enough. He dragged me down to check in to the hospital.
We were thrilled when we were admitted into the hospital and brought into my labor room. Yay! We were finally going to have Emma! It seems like everyone that I talked to about labor seemed to say that their babies virtually fell out and they had a quick, easy birth. Ha! Another time I should have expected the unexpected.
John and I were admitted into the hospital around 8PM. About 30 minutes later I had my epidural, "Thank you, Jesus!". Nurses at the hospital work through 12 hour shifts. Well, I went through three nurses and three doses of epidural medicine before we had Emma. Labor was a great time for us to practice patience. Emma decided to be one of the 5% of babies that actually arrive on their due date.On Friday morning, family and friends began to gather at the hospital. We had several times where I was told that I could start pushing, but then the doctor came in and said that we had a problem. Emma's face was looking up and my cervix would not dilate the whole way. Time for Perutusan to help this process. Around 1PM, my nurse told me that I could start pushing. I was thinking, "Alright, this will take 30 minutes tops. Let's do this!". After THREE hours of pushing, my doctor came in and told John and I that I needed to have a C-section. I was so scared, we did not do any preparation for this. This was not a part of our plan! Within minutes, I was taken to surgery. As soon as the anesthesiologist pumped me full of more drugs, I started shaking uncontrollably. That was so scary, but apparently a common side effect. I remember looking up at the ceiling and, to my joy, I was able to see my insides from the reflection of the light in the room. GROSS! So, I stared at John most of the time. At 4:17PM, Emma came out. I remember thinking how cute her cry sounded. I immediately wanted to hold her.
She was cleaned off and given to John.
She weighed 9lbs 1ounce and measured 20 inches long. I heard John yell, "YES!". He was so proud of his big, strong girl. It is such a special moment to get to hold your baby for this first time. I will never forget it and will always cherish that memory.
Here is a pic of me after Emma came out. I had to share it because after a week of contractions and 24 hours of labor, this was exactly how I was feeling when it was all over.
Our first family photo. Totally worth the wait!
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