The Cutest Blog on the Block

Monday, November 21, 2011

Happy BIRTHDAY, Emersyn Ruth Haney

I wanted to write this as soon as possible so I don't forget a thing about this perfect, wonderful, and special day bringing our sweet angel into our family. Some parts are already blurry and some I would rather not remember, even with all of that yesterday was sheer perfection. It all still seems like it really didn't happen, there is no way my mind can wrap around the miracle we experienced.
I have planned from the beginning of my pregnancy to have a natural birth- completely natural, nothing flowing through my veins at any time. Our plan was starting to fail after we scheduled an induction for today, November 21st because little girl needed to come and was not showing much interest :) Friday morning, the 18th I woke up with contractions- more intense than any I had had before but still nothing to make me consider a hospital trip. They continued into Friday evening, lasting about 5 minutes in between, then I went to bed and was able to sleep all night. Saturday morning I woke up with the same contractions a little more intense and about 10 minutes apart. Mom and I walked, I cooked, and tried to keep moving. That night, Lance made the observation that the more I was on my feet, the more frequent my contractions were. So- we went to the mall and walked. Before leaving the mall, I got to the point where I was unable to continue walking during a contraction and could barely talk. When I got home, we finished watching a football game and the contractions remained at that intensity and they got as close as 2 minutes apart for a long interval. I had already made up my mind that when contractions got to 2 minutes apart, we would head to the hospital- well, we were there. Lance and I got ready and left, mom , dad, and Luke were right behind us as soon as they got the puppies situated. 
We got to the ER a few minutes before midnight to get checked-in and the nurse who came to get us to take us to the labor and delivery floor, said that since we were in this night and scheduled for an induction on Monday, they shouldn't try to send us home- Ha. She got me in an evaluation unit and checked to see how dilated I was- SIX centimeters and 90% effaced. She said. "Oh my- why did you wait so long to come? I'm calling the doctor to let him know you are here and in labor." I was then moved to my birthing suite to have a baby! We met our precious nurse who ended up staying over her shift about 2 hours because she had been with us for so long, she just had to see Emersyn :) She asked the details of my birth plan and we explained we wanted NO medications, etc. The greatest part about labor is they never even offered us drugs because they knew I didn't want them. These nurses have been such a blessing! Honestly, I was not in much discomfort at all. I had my contractions down and was able to breath through them perfectly. About 2:30 am, the nurse checked and I was already at 8 centimeters! Wow! Around 4 am, they checked again and I was between 9 and 10 centimeters and getting ready to push. My water had still not broken, but they were just going to deliver the baby with it if it came down to it. They gave us about 30 more minutes, decided we were about 10 centimeters, and we could start doing "trial" pushes before calling the doctor. (side note- the doctor on call is my favorite doctor in the group and I was THRILLED to know he was the doctor on call when we got here early this morning!) We started pushing and it was really difficult! I felt like Emersyn was  not moving at all and I was just exhausting myself. During one of the pushes, my water finally broke only to tell that where the bag was, it was covering up a part of the cervix and I was still at 9.5 and did NOT need to push until we fully dilated. Even more, Emersyn retreated north! Once my water broke, contractions became unbearable! I had the most awful urge to push with all my might every other minute and I can't tell you how many times I looked at Lance and said, "I am DONE. I can't do this anymore!" It broke his heart to see me in so much pain, but he quickly reminded me we were on a one-way street and there was no turning back now. Until this point, we had dilated from 6- 9.5 centimeters in about 4 hours. For the NEXT four hours, we stayed at 9.5 centimeters and in complete agony.The doctor never mentioned any emergencies whenever he came by the room. He said the baby was fine and as long as she continued, there was no need to even consider other routes of delivery. I won't lie, at some points I was wishing he would! At the shift change, a new nurse came in who was blessing #2. She would not let me give up and had a lot of new ideas to get this baby out! She and our first nurse did NOT leave my side until Emersyn was born. They got a birthing ball and massaged my back while I sat on this ball to try to get that last .5 centimeter and get Emersyn lower. Sure enough, finally after a short 15 minutes or so on the birthing ball, she checked and we were 10 centimeters and Emersyn was crowning. They called the doctor and started setting up the delivery table- oh my word this took FOREVER! It seemed like it took the doctor 6 minutes to put on a cover for just one shoe, or maybe it was because I absolutely had to push constantly and could not wait another second. When everything was ready, we started pushing and in about 5-6 pushes we had a baby girl in our arms! She was even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined and has a head full of dark hair :) She weighed a perfect 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 inches long. PERFECT!! I could not and still can not believe she is actually here! 
I can't say enough about how much I now advocate exercise during pregnancy and natural births. Yes, I thought I was going to die for a couple of hours yesterday, but I didn't and I am SO glad I chose this. I know the exercise helped tremendously with the development of labor. Our nurses were completely amazed at our labor and couldn't quit talking about how amazing it was to watch. Emersyn was born completely alert and moving all of her limbs like a windmill. They scored her a 9.9 out of 10 on the APGAR test and within a couple of hours she had already nursed twice. She has been the absolute BEST baby. She eats, sleeps, and poops :) She is absolutely precious and we are more in love with her than we could have ever imagined. She has every person who has looked at her wrapped around her little finger. Lance absolutely adores her and her Peeps and Gran fight over who she loves more :) I think she is perfect and beautiful. 
We are recovering as nicely as you can after having a baby :) I'm waiting on my belly button to look normal again and to be able to sit down without grimacing, but that will come with time- it is all worth the little angel we gained. I have been begging Emersyn to just not grow anymore- she is so sweet and precious and can't imagine her going off to college one day. And she will not date for MANY years! It seems like she is already growing too fast. Emersyn loves to make little faces at us and wave her arms. She stretches her legs out unless she is having her diaper changed, then she imitates a frog :) She is on a perfect baby schedule, she likes to sleep more during the day, and play all night. She went to the nursery once this morning for about 5 minutes to have her stocks of diapers and blankets replenished and see the pediatrician and I almost hyperventilated. I hated it. Right now, she is at her PKU test and hearing screening and I am about to have a heart attack. We get to take our angel girl home tomorrow morning and we can't wait! This sweet girl is an answer to all of our prayers and has filled our hearts with so much love and joy. Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of such a precious life!

1 comment:

  1. Precious!! I was so worried about you when I found out you might have to be induced. I was praying so hard that Emersyn would make up her mind to come on her own!!! I am so glad you were able to have the birth you wanted! I am so proud of you for staying strong! Congratulations!!! Welcome to the club of the "Women Who Did IT" :)

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