Emmaline came into our lives
on the morning of Tuesday December 1st, but this story starts about
24 hours before that.
On the night of November 29, the
morning of November 30, I was having a lot of contractions while I was asleep.
They seemed to be about every 20 minutes. After getting dressed and ready my contractions
continued and were becoming more intense than any I had had. This was sign
enough to me that we were definitely having a baby that day.
As I went through the day, I tried
to keep busy, but also relax at times. I was very distracted and couldn’t focus
on much with the anticipation of how this delivery might go and how it’ll be to
have this baby. The contractions were mostly 10 minutes apart. Ryan also kept
busy and had some errands and things he needed to do. But, kept checking on me
with texting and when he was home. There was a lot of work he and Mark were
doing to get our plumbing fixed.
Well, I went on walks at one point and took a nap at another. Right after dinner, Kris and I went
to do the shopping. As we went along I tracked my
contractions; they were almost 6 minutes apart the whole time.
We made it through our whole shopping
list, but I gave Ryan a heads up that he should finish up what he was doing
with plumbing and then we should go to the hospital. We were ready and heading
over by about 10:00pm.
We got checked-in, and taken to a room with a nurse. After she monitored
me for a minute and we talked to the doctor on call at the time, they had us walk around the maternity ward for an
hour, from about 10:55-11:55pm. That made my contractions only
slightly stronger and my feet very sore.
When going back to the room with
the nurse she said I was still at 3cm. After she talked to the doctor she came back and told me
that I should come back later when the contractions were stronger and, as she
put it, "almost made me want to cry." I would’ve protested or had her call my doctor,
but I was so exhausted from the walking and it was so late that I decided, okay
we’ll go home.
During the walk out and the drive I
could feel the contractions getting stronger and stronger. We were home by
about 12:35. I went to bed,
hoping the strong contractions would go down with me sleeping. Instead they became more and more unbearable. But, I continued to try and get some
rest. Lol! It wasn't very long before Ryan turned on the light and got out of bed and declared we were going
back to the hospital.
When I tried to get up and ready something didn't feel right. So, I went straight to
the bathroom. As soon as I got there my water just exploded;
that’s really the only word to describe it. It was very painful. Once I regained some composure I got dressed and we got to the car. By this time is was about 1:15am, December 1st.
We made it two streets
up from ours when I had another contraction that was really strong and
uncomfortable and I had to push. This time I could feel a head starting to crown. I was trying to catch my breath, so I whispered
to Ryan, “We need your dad!” He started pulling over and I tried sitting on the
baby head to see if I could keep it in for the trip to the hospital. But, with
the next contraction I found that I couldn’t and she was starting to come again. So, when Ryan asked, “What, are we going to the hospital or am I going
back for Dad?” I basically screamed back, “WE NEED YOUR DAD!!” and had to scream
through the rest of the contraction.
I think it was starting to click in
my brain what was about to happen. I was going to have a baby in the car. Ryan started honking the horn when we were coming
around the corner back to our street and then he ran up and banged on the door
or their window and got his parents out. Kris sat next to me in the driver seat
and Mark came to stand in the door at my side.
Ryan called the ambulance and
relayed the instructions from the man on the phone to his dad. Mark and Kris
stayed with me and helped me through the pushing. Ryan ran back and forth a
couple times to get the things from the house. Pretty soon the ambulance was there
and this EMT lady named Kristina replaced Mark at my side and helped me through
the rest of the delivery. Throughout this time I guess I was pushing a lot of
buttons with my feet, turning on the radio and changing the stations. I had no idea at the time.
With about five or six pushes I was
able to get Emmaline out and it was so exhausting and such a relief. She was
born at 1:42am. After Emmaline was born she was still quite while Kristina and the others got
what they needed to suction the liquid out of her mouth. She did cry once
they’d done that, just a little bit and seemed pretty quiet while they were
checking her and taking care of her.
Then they brought the gurney over
for me. So once I got on they did a couple straps on my
legs and then raised me up and used some electric lifts or something for
getting me into the ambulance. After giving me an IV,
etc., someone gave me Emmaline to hold as we drove to the hospital. She and I
were both then given oxygen. She was very still and slept the whole bumpy way.
She was white and pasty looking from the birthing fluids and had a little purplish
bruising on her face. But, she was so precious and beautiful. I was so happy to
see her. Ryan rode up front with the driver and Mark, as the unofficial
attending pediatrician, stayed in back with us to help take care of Emmaline.
When we made it to the hospital, we
went through ER and up an elevator to Labor and Delivery, all with me and
Emmaline still on the gurney. There we were taken to a room and met first by a
few nurses who took Emmaline to a nearby bassinet-table. I was transferred to
the hospital bed. Soon the nurse and doctor who had sent me home came
to see us. I think they realized their mistake. I chose not to have hard feelings against
them, but I hope this is a mistake they’re careful not to make again. At this point I got my two sets of stitches. Fun!
Meanwhile, one nurse took care of
Emmaline, checking for her health and weighing her. She first asked Ryan and me
what we thought she weighed. Ryan said he didn’t know and I guessed 7lb 8oz.
The nurse said she thought Emmaline felt like she weighed a pound more than
that. Once she was weighed she came out to be 8lb 13.9oz, and 21” long.
She passed her check-up and
was born a very healthy baby. She had a very little jaundice is all, and that
soon went away.
We were allowed to stay and rest
for about 45 minutes in that room before having to be moved to the Maternity
ward. Ryan and I were able to take turns holding Emmaline during this time and
we talked about all that just happened. It was all very traumatic and exciting
and crazy. We were so grateful that it was over with Emmaline and me safe and
well.
Ryan stayed with us the rest
that morning and part of the following day. The boys came in the see us latter
that day (1st), with Gramma Kris and Papa Mark, and I made sure to order
Emmaline’s complimentary birthday cake from food services and we all shared it
together. At this time Ryan also got to trim Emmaline's umbilical cord, which was still about 4 inches long. The nurses assisted him and he was happy to finially get a chance to at least in part cut one of his childrens umbilical cords. =)
So things were kept pretty simple. We had made him a banner the night before, and I say we because Mark, Kris, and Ryan all helped on it. The original plan was to go to NASA on Karl's birthday, but with the baby and plumbing, we decided to not go. But, we still had an outer-space themed birthday for Karl. I made banana rockets and a cake with chocolate truffles as planets. Kris helped with dinner and made chicken and rice, one of Karl's favorite meals. 
We headed out before dinner, though, and took the boys and Emmaline to the church where they were having the ward Christmas party. We only stayed long enough to get our pictures done though. Karl was pretty shy of Santa and wouldn't sit over by him by himself. So I sat with him and even then he didn't want to show his face for the first couple pictures. Jared on the other hand, was very happy to see Santa this year and told him what he wanted.
