-Of Emma and the year long stretch of deployment-
Emma is officially one month old already. Time is flying by! While shes napping peacefully in her swing I wanted to write down her birth story.
Just 3 days after we dropped Riley off at the airport the early signs of labor showed their face on friday night. I called my mom and she booked a flight before she even got off the phone. So the next day by 10am she was here. The very impatient part of the waiting game began. We ran all the errands i could think of and did enough walking and more spicy food eating. Finally Sunday afternoon, fathers day I started having contractions. By sunday night they became pretty regular but i insisted on getting my brownie sundae from DQ for dinner before we went to the hospital to get checked. Well worth it. We got to the hospital probably around 830/9 that night. My contractions were 3-5 mins apart, but werent painful. I was only 2cm so they sent me home. The next day by mid afternoon I was having very painful contractions so back we went. They checked me again but I was only at 3 and they still wouldn't admit me as a cried in pain. instead the put me on a "morphine rest" aka they super drugged me up and sent me home with ambien. I was so out of it my speech was slurred and I could barely walk. We got home and I slept through the night. I took an ambien in the morning to help ease the pain and dozed off all morning again. By 6:45 that night, tuesday, my water finally broke. So back to the hospital we went and third times a charm. They admitted me, and by 930 I was getting the epidural. At this time they were predicting 7lb baby by 4am. By midnight they were starting the pitocin and actually had to break another bag of my water. But I was still progressing slowly. By 330 or so my epi was already wearing off and I was so uncomfortable. They had to keep coming in to adjust me and adjust the meds but it wasn't really helping. By 5am I was miserable and still barely 5cm. This went on all morning untill 1115 when they checked and I was still barely at 6.
When they told me that I knew exactly what was coming next because it has been going on 18 hours since my water broke. I broke down into hysterics as I DID NOT want surgery. They told me i oculd wait two more hours and see but at this right I knew it wasnt going to happen. Baby was also very displaced all the way to the left side. I talked to my mom and Ashley (who drove all night form pensacola to be there for me!) and decided to let them go ahead and prep for a c section but I couldnt use the epi because i could feel way too much. So there I sat in active labor, letting my epi wear off so I could get a spinal instead (though I begged them to just put me under). The second I agreed though the whole L & D floor was running around to prep me. But it was well over an hour before I headed for the OR which seemed to give me far too much time to think. I was exhausted, and starving and at this point I was even cut off from ice chips. Finally around 1 I headed for the OR to get the spinal. That took forever. I was weak and in so much pain and had so much pressure from her head. All I wanted to do was cry. It took well over 30 mins to get the spinal in (Dr. Yoder, the one doc name ill never forget) was a saint. once it was in I was still so nervous about feeling things but he reassured they'd never cut until they knew I was good. Finally, they let me mom in but apparently they had already cut me open. bless my mom through this all she has seen every awful inch of me right down to my insides. Within seconds of her sitting down next to me we heard crying.. well screaming. Our little Emma had a great set of lungs and a full head of hair! She was over 8lbs and it was then they realized and told me she probably would have never fit down the birth canal. I barely got to see her before the took her away but i cried tears f joy. It seemed like it took forever to finish the procedure which was apparently because I had lost alot of blood. i began to hemorrhage and was borderline needing a transfusion. I could here the suctioning and Im pretty sure I only didnt freak out because I was completely exhausted. Finally I could feel them tugging to sew me up.
At first all I could think of was eating but within minutes while getting ready to go to recovery I got super nauseous and started shaking. By the time they got me back to my room with my baby I was shaking so bad they had to hold me down and all I could do was watching other people hold my baby. I couldnt even talk because when i tried I just bit my tongue. Finally they got me meds to stop the reaction which was brought on from the loss of blood mixed with hormones and lots of meds and I could hold my sweet little angel.
i was so thankful to have my mom there for my recovery. I had a couple of breakdowns as I felt super useless to my daughter. I couldnt even get up to change her diaper in the hospital. This wasnt the recovery plan I had pictured but my mom was a lifesaver. When she left just shy of the 3 weeks mark all i could so was cry.
Now here we are at the one month mark and I cant believe its here already (and that shes slept through all this). She is an amazing little baby and weve learned some tricks on getting things done with just the two of us. I so miss Riley so very much and every day think about the day until he finally gets to meet our sweet baby girl. This morning she smiled a real smile for the first time and my heart just melted. I could seriously stare at this girl all day
