On Friday morning, Emily woke up around 6 AM with what felt like gas pain in her abdomen. It was strangely regular and uncomfortable enough that she couldn't sleep any longer, so she decided to go for a walk around 7:30. Dave stayed in bed, since it was early in the morning, having no idea that the pains weren't stomach related at all. Dave remembers waking up to the sound of the shower going after the walk and thinking, "she showered last night, so either she really walked herself good or she wants to get one last shower in before she goes to the hospital."
So Dave got up when the shower ended and Emily showed him the list she had been making of the possible contractions. They were somewhat regular, and very frequent, so maybe they were real. But not very long, weren't growing, and were only felt on the lower part of the abdomen and back- so maybe not. Dave decided it was time to call the doctor, who told Emily to lie on the couch for an hour and, if she had more than five in that hour, to check herself in.
Dave finished packing the bag and showered, until twenty minutes and five contractions later it was clear that we needed to go to labor triage. Dave finished packing, got the car completely loaded, and realized that it was worth eating one finial bowl of Cheerios before we left. One last Green-Shirt Picture and we were on our way around 11:00.
We called Emily's mother on the way to let her know that it was probably the day, and to start packing her back, but not to leave yet. Then, after spending a seeming eternity waiting to register, we checked in and had Emily examined. An hour later, the doctor confirmed . . . it was time!
Emily, herself a very happy girl, chose to walk down to the L&D room rather than ride in the bed. We arrived, unloaded, and let them hook Emily up to all the wires she could stand. Dave called work, parents, and other essential figures to let them know it was time and we sent out a text to our immediate family and some friends asking them to pray for us. Then, once the epidural was in, we began our wait. The contractions didn't seem to be making much progress, so the nurse decided to start some Pitocin and break the bag of waters to really get things going. Sure enough, before we knew it we went from 4cm to 9cm dilated!
The worst part for Emily seemed to be the waiting and anxiety, as she couldn't feel any of the contractions and couldn't move much of anything lower than her belly button. We passed the time by playing cards, reading the whole book of Hebrews, and reading some of our old emails from when we were dating. Waiting for our little girl was a somewhat more somber experience than expected.
The only real trouble came when the epidural wore off for about five minutes and Emily got a taste of anesthesia-free Pitocin-enhanced labor. But the nurses were quick to reapply and get her feeling good, leaving Emily with a new-found perspective on all those wires that were coming out of her.
Some time in the evening, a nurse came in for some some practice pushing and told us that as soon as the doctor arrived we would be ready to go. A half hour or so went by while the doctor delivered another baby in another room. Once Dr. Case came in she probably wasn't there but 20 minutes. Two sets of three pushes was all it took. After the first set, a nurse had to tell Emily to stop smiling! The second set came, and the baby was out.
Dr. Case even let Dave play co-quarterback and catch the little girl with her. She was a meconium baby, so once the head came out they had to empty her nose, mouth and ears before we pushed the rest of her out. We got her the rest of the way out, and set her on the warmer while Dave threw off his gloves and Emily rested. Dave went over to take her first picture and a doctor asked, "will you tell us the name now?" Dave, sure he liked it, asked Emily if she was sure. She nodded and Dave announced, "she's Sarah Emily."
It wasn't even five minutes before they let us have her back, took a picture for us, and left us alone. We spent an hour together doing what they call "skin to skin time." We would just lay her with only a diaper on one of our bare chests and put a blanket on top of her. This is supposed to regulate her body temperature and be a lot of fun. It did the former fairly well and the latter very well. We also had our first chance to nurse and Sarah was a champ!
We wound up staying in the L&D room overnight, as the theme of the weekend would be dealing with an overcrowded hospital. About 2 AM Emily's parents arrived and we soon went to bed. Saturday we had two spurts of 8 or 10 visitors each, both of which were perfectly timed. Then Saturday night they finally moved us over to a postpartum room. Dave made a quick trip home, showered, put some pictures on Facebook, and came back. Sunday morning Dave went to church in the morning, came back to his girls, and we got ready to check out. Then the family came home to a nice sign made by Mama Suz.
She's mostly a happy little girl, although she can have her spats of unsolvable crying in the middle of the night. She usually eats and sleeps very well, and sometimes she even opens her eyes to make eye contact with us. Sarah is a great cuddler and loves to be swaddled. She's completely beautiful, and we hope to make another post soon about what we've learned from her.
