Birth Story

I realized that I didn't have a written version of Emerson's birth anywhere and thought I should get it down somewhere before I forget details about it.  Consider this another post meant more for journal-keeping than blog-updating, but enjoy nonetheless.

I was due December 19th and was really anxious to have Emerson before Christmas because otherwise my doctor was going to make me wait until after Christmas to be induced.  Yuck.  I just wanted to hold my baby on Christmas and pretty much wasn't willing to wait if I didn't have to.  Luckily, consistent contractions started the night of the 18th; however, they didn't progress much for whole day.  They remained 5-7 minutes apart until the night of the 19th, which was a Sunday.  By then they were painful enough that I really wanted some extra help in the pain management area, so we went to UVRMC to see if they would admit me.  As protocol dictates, they monitored me for an hour and then sent me home since I had no progression.  They did, however, give me a nice dose of morphine before making me leave.  On the way home we stopped and got Del Taco and I was pretty much out of it by the time we got home.  I crashed while the contractions kept on going all night long.  

I woke up at 7 with a lot of pain and strong contractions but called out sick from work and forced myself to go to sleep a little longer to make the time go by more quickly.  At 11 I couldn't sleep any longer, but could hardly get up because of the pain.  I mustered through a hot shower hoping that would help ease the pain but was mostly concentrating on keeping back the tears.  

This was a Monday and happened to be the first day of Will's final's week so he was already at school studying and testing his brains out.  After showering, I got myself dressed in my comfiest, baggiest, least-constrictingest clothes I could find and headed to my mom's house to get some sympathy and pass the time.  I don't really remember what I did there, but by 2pm I was almost in tears because of pain and was just hoping Will would get done early and come home.  I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 4pm to have my 40-week check up.  My mom was planning on taking me since I didn't think driving was a smart idea for me.  At 3:30 I was crying and asking her if we could go early to the appointment and just see if they would send me to the hospital.  By that time, the contractions were so strong that I couldn't walk, talk, or breathe during them so on the way to the appointment we decided to go to the hospital instead.  Tears would spill out with each contraction and the nurse couldn't get me admitted quickly enough.  I just wanted to lay down.  Once I got settled in my room, my mom called Will to update him.  He had just finished his finals for the day and hurried on over to be with us.  I was dilated to a 3 and when they offered to give me the epidural I gladly accepted.  

The anesthesiologist came and by 5pm I was comfortably enjoying labor.  Epidural = best.invention.ever.  I highly recommend getting one.  I'm not one who anxiously takes drugs for every little ailment, but with how slowly my body was progessing, I wanted my epidural as soon as I possible.  

After I got the drugs on board, I got really cold so Will bundled me up.  The doctor came in and gave us a run down of what a "typical" birth is like: one hour of waiting for each centimeter of dilation followed by 2-3 hours of pushing.  He predicted I'd have Emerson around 4am.  Yay.  So I napped for a little bit.  I woke up around 7pm and was dilated to a 5 which was great news.  I was given a small dose of pitocin as well to get things moving along.

Around 8:30 I felt some pressure and was anxious to be checked again by a nurse since I felt like I had progressed more than just a centimeter.  When the nurse came in, she said I was dilated to a 10!  My doctor happened to be at Timpanogos hospital performing a C-section and wouldn't be back for a little while so she wanted to practice pushing with me.  She said that by the time I was ready to really push he would be back to deliver my baby.  After one set of pushes she said that was plenty and that we'd have to wait for the doctor to come since my pushing was so effective.  My mom predicted I'd be a good pusher :)  I was so excited that I wouldn't have to wait until the early morning to deliver.  

After the doctor arrived, we got all set up to have the baby.  A mirror was set up so I could watch and my sister came in to snap photos of the fresh little one.  I pushed for 3 counts of 10 and then rested.  I did this 2 more times and then big baby Emerson was born at 10:10.  The doctor held him up so I could call the sex and then the nurses took him to clean him off.  

Emerson's Apgar scores were great at both the 1 and 5 minutes tests and, because he was healthy, I was allowed to snuggle him and have some skin-to-skin contact before his real cleaning.  I got to nurse him for the first time which was just precious and then he went for his first bath with dad.  

He weighed in at 8 lbs 4oz and measured 20.5 inches in length.  He was definitely bigger than I had anticipated, but was perfect nonetheless.  

We took another day to finally decide on a name for Emerson, but we can truly say that he is an Emerson and his name fits perfectly.  We are so thankful he came without any complications.  

My family all came to see him and stayed until 2am.  I had so much fun seeing my parents and sisters hold him, but seeing Will with Emerson was the best.  He looked such the part of contentedly excited father and there was a glow about him I'll always remember.  

  

He continues to be such an immense joy in our lives and we have so much fun being with him.

*photos courtesy of my sweet sister Jenna who was willing to snap.snap.snap away for us