The whole story

Since so many of you have asked, I thought I would post the official details of Emi's birth so as not to forget the deatails (yeah right) and to not have to recreate it multiple times via e-mail. So be warned, this might be long. I personally have a hard time with really long blog posts, so I will not be offended if you just skim it. :)

Here goes...

Contractions started sometime after 5:33am (I remember seeing this specific time on my alarm clock) on a very early Wednesday morning. I started timing the contractions at 6:03 after I woke Jacob up (in a panic, I might add, because these contractions HURT)and they quickly went from 4-5 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart. I called my Dr. (who was still out of town) at 6:30, and the on-call doctor told me to come to the hopsital Emergency Room and they would "check me out." It seemed to me that Jacob took FOREVER to get dressed and out the door, by the way, but we got on those icy roads and to the hospital by shortly after 7am. Jacob admitted later that he thought this was false labor, and that they would be sending us home after a brief visit to the hospital. He did have the foresight to bring his camera, however, but left out the memory card! The NICU was nice enough to provide us with a couple of pictures, though, so that was nice.

We left Miya at home (sleeping soundly) with Jacob's sister, in case any of you were wondering if we left our firstborn home alone. Deborah had some time off work, and had decided to come down for a few days...fortunately for us! If we had waited even 10 minutes longer trying to find someone to watch Miya for us, I might have had our baby in the car or in my front room - scary! Thank you, Deborah, for being in tune enough to decide to visit us that week - I don't know what we would have done without you!

So...by the time they got me up to labor and delivery, I was already 7cm dilated. The next thing I know, several minutes later, they say I'm "complete", and I hear them telling each other that there won't be time for any pain medication because this baby is on the way out. (Let it be known that the scariest moment for Jacob was hearing them say that I wouldn't get any pain meds...I thought that was pretty funny. And I had my own little surge of panic since Miya's birth was induced and I was saved by my epidural). By the time they delivered the information about no pain meds, I already knew this baby was coming, and then they have the nerve to tell me to "try not to push yet" because the doctor is still a few minutes out. Yeah right...I tried "not pushing" for a long time (it was probably more like a minute, but who really knows...at which point they reminded me to breathe because I was hyperventilating...great). It was over from there... and our little girl was born before the doctor could make an appearance. She was born at 7:49am - 5 lbs 9 oz and beautiful!

Yes, I experienced natural childbirth! Not really by choice, but if having a baby could always be this fast, I think it might not be such a bad thing. Don't think for a minute that I won't consider pain meds next time if I get a choice and a chance...having a baby still HURTS, HURTS, HURTS, and I haven't forgotten that yet. But I am so grateful it was relatively fast, and that I did it! And so grateful that Emi is healthy and doing so well. 5 days in the NICU, 2 weeks at home, and doing great so far!

There it is. The official story. Oh...no, we don't know why I went into labor at 35 weeks, though it seems unconnected to the reason Miya came at 34 weeks (preeclampsia) and it's difficult to say if the next time will be similar. Perhaps my body just gets tired of being pregnant...I don't know what I'd do if I had to go 5more weeks and get really huge like every other pregnant woman. I'm blessed for so many reasons. :)