The Birth Story

As promised, here is our birth story! Please forgive some of my sentence structure in this post...this has taken me forever to write due to the whittle one. So to avoid taking months to get it out, here's this choppy fun version :) Enjoy!

Months 9 & 10

The last two months of my pregnancy were filled with aches, pains, more nausea and vomiting, tears, restroom visits every 15-20 minutes, and anxiety. Many (with great intentions) were trying to encourage me with how worth the wait it would be etc, but carrying past term is never easy. I am so thankful though to Philip for being so understanding and patient with me as we had many tearful nights, three “false” alarm hospital trips, and lots of nesting episodes!

The Last Appointment

Well week 41 of my pregnancy was here and we went in for what we were hoping would be my last appointment. My doctor performed a stress test and ultra sound to check on little Emmy and see what was going on. While Emarosa checked out stress-free and good, my amniotic fluid showed to be quite low and that she might have had a bowl movement inside my womb which could lead to a stressful baby. So, my doctor said she wasn’t comfortable letting me go another day pregnant and sent us on right down the hallway to Labor and Delivery. Philip and I were ecstatic!

Walking down the hallway to Labor and Delivery was one of the happiest and most nerve-wracking experiences of my life. Mostly pure excitement rushed over me—we were having our baby finally!

My doctor had also explained to us how she was going to induce. Because I had a very high and unfavorable cervix, she was going to have them place a hormone in me called Cervadil to help give my cervix a nudge . She had assured me that the hormone wasn’t supposed to put me into labor and that she would have them take it out at 5 A.M. the next day and start the pitocin then.

I was in labor the whole night?!

So they started the Cervidil in the evening and I started having more contractions (which they said was normal). But then around midnight, I started having intense contractions…like really intense. The only thing that alleviated the pain of these contractions was pushing, so I started pushing with each one. These contractions were solely in my back and felt like my back was being ripped apart. And as most of you know, with the back issues I have had and currently have, that was not too fun! So they decided to check my cervix to see what was happening (and I failed to mention that having the Cervidil inserted was extremely uncomfortable and painful—yikes!) It took four nurses to finally find my cervix, four! They didn’t think I had one… haha but nurse number 4 was the charm and when she found it, she said I was already dilated 3 cm and had been in labor all night!

Around 5 A.M. they finally took out the Cervidil and the contractions were just getting stronger and stronger. They highly recommended the epidural before the pitocin due to my back history and I gladly accepted! With a little hesitation due to my back, the Anesthesiologist got the epidural in, thank God! And by the way, epidurals are not scary or painful at all for all you expectant mommas. One little pinch and a little bit of pressure and voilá, no mas pain! After the epidural was in, they started the pitocin and within 2 hours I was 5cm, then after an hour and half, I was 8 cm and within the next hour, 10 cm! I couldn’t believe how fast it was going; we were in total shock!

One, two, three...PUSH!

The next phase was just a rush and so exciting. My nurse came in and set everything up to begin pushing. It was just her and Philip for the first part of the pushing as she had explained that most first-time moms push for one to three hours. She was guessing that I would have Emarosa out within an hour or so. So, we hoisted up my legs and I began pushing at 11:14 A.M. and within 20 minutes, my nurse was like “Wow! We are going to have this baby here before noon!” so she called in the doctor. Now for our delivery, we not only had to have the normal staff in there but a whole NICU team as well because I didn’t have any amniotic fluid and the baby could come out stressed. Once the doctor came in, it was so quick and so unforgettable. Philip was so amazing throughout it all and he watched the whole thing too! It had been not yet 24 minutes and I gave my final pushes. I felt this warmth rush over me and heard the doctor say, “You can stop pushing now! Haha!” and Philip say “Look babe!” I picked my head up a little and saw the doctor pull out our beautiful baby girl. He then said “It’s a girl…wait…no yes it is definitely a girl!” Then he rolled her right on top of my belly, still attached to the umbilical cord. That was the most beautiful moment…

I starred at Emarosa in disbelief and looked up at Philip to see that he was in tears. I began touching her all over as she squirmed and started to let out little cries. Then the doctor handed the scissors to Philip and he clipped her little cord. After not even a minute in my arms, the nurses took her and begin checking on her and cleaning her up. The doctor then began to explain to me how I had pushed so hard that I had busted a blood vessel where he had to stitch up, and that he had to give me an episiotomy to help pull her out and so I was stitched there as well. And when I delivered the placenta, he noted that there was absolutely no amniotic fluid in it. Poor little girl was swimming around in me with nothing!

That whole time, I just kept looking over at her and wanting to know everything that was going on. I couldn’t wait to have her in my arms again—to look at her features and soak it all up! Then they handed her back to me and Philip and I got our time with her. I breast fed her successfully and then let the family herd on in ;)

So, there’s the gruesome birth story! Haha! Hope you enjoyed…

Next post will be way better, I promise. Why? Because it will contain all of her newborn photos we shot right in our nursery! I will also post all of her nursery pictures too, especially for all you pinners out there ;)

So with Thanksgiving approaching us, I can name about a million things I am thankful for, but I am especially thankful for the miracle God gave us—Emarosa Joy. Thank You heavenly Father, thank You! She's absolutely perfect and I feel perfectly complete.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Erica & Emarosa Joy