Introducing Emily Aileen!!

A lot has happened since my last post! The Lord has blessed us with another healthy baby girl! You know me, I am a story teller and not short on words, and my favorite stories to tell are my labor stories and little Miss Emily gave me quite the story to tell! So here we go! My due date is today, the 18th, but this past week I was very ready to have this baby! I had a doctors appointment on Wednesday, which of course they told me I wouldn't make it to, because surely I would be delivered! Well, 4pm we headed off to the doctors office because surely I wasn't delivered! My doctor was running late so we didn't see him until shortly before 5pm. My cervix (remember I am an OB nurse, so you are going to have to bear with these details!) was dilated to 6-7 centimeters and he gave me a couple of options. 1. Go to the hospital in the morning and he would break my water and see if that got things started. Or we could do that Friday morning, or Monday morning or 2. We could let nature take it's course. Well I was wanting to sign up to go in that next morning and my darling hubby asks the doctor, "What do you recommend?". "It is always better to let things happen naturally" was his reply. So he gave us his cell phone number told us to go home and talk about it and let him know. So shortly after 5 we loaded up in the truck. I was crying because I knew the right thing to do was to let nature run it's course, and that is what I have preached to many the last 10 years, but I SOOO wanted to be done! We went to Andrew's school to finish registering him for Kindergarten and were home around 520. When we got home, I told Brian I was having some more uncomfortable contractions, but figured they were just because of the exam at the office. So we put a few pizza's in the oven and continued on with daily routines....At 540 I told Brian that I was going to start timing these contractions because they were getting more intense. By 6pm I was telling Brian he needed to call someone to get them to the house to watch the kids, because I was pretty sure we were going to need to be going. His sister Amber just happened to call at that moment. After they talked for a while about her recent car repairs (and after he realized I was now crying each time I had a contraction) he asked her if she could come over to watch the kids. She got here around 620 and Brian was getting the kids their pizza and shoveling down a few pieces himself. I had a whoppin contraction and told him we needed to leave NOW! We got out to the truck and realized we didn't have any of our stuff, Amber and her boyfriend were headed out with it and Amber said, "Man, you would think you guys had never done this before!" =) So we got to the hospital, my doctor was already there. They admitted me at 655pm. My doctor came in and broke my water and I was now 7-8 cm's and really feeling like this baby was coming any minute! The doctor encouraged me to fight the urge to push and breath through a few more contractions. My nurse, a good friend, who I worked with for several years, Angie told me I should turn to my side. Now I know what happens when you turn a laboring woman to her side...it gets more uncomfortable! So I got turned to my side and a contraction started right away and let me tell you, words can not describe how unbelievebly painful that contraction was. When I had Kelli, I was kinda just zoned out at this point, and was totally calm and quiet. With this one I was very vocal which surprised even me! I kept yelling that I couldn't breathe and I needed to push. Angie told me to pant, which I did and I got through that one and knew I had to get through a few more. Well the next one came and I grabbed Angies arm and told her the baby was coming out! She got the doctor and 2 pushes later Emily entered the world! Her birth time was 731pm!! I just looked at Brian, looked at the clock, looked at the doctor and we all laughed in complete shock!! Thank you God for a quick, certainly not painfree, safe delivery and another healthy baby! Here are some pictures of the events after delivery!

Because of how quickly she was delivered, and she had the umblical cord around her neck, she needed a little bit of oxygen after the delivery.

When I first saw her, she looked so small, I said I thought she was going to be my smallest. However, she was the biggest!

This was about 20 minutes after she was born, nice and pink and ready to meet her big brother and sister!

Andrew and Kelli were very timid when they first came in...they were afraid to touch anything and just kinda looked around very sheepishly. When Angie asked if they wanted to help her give Emily her first bath, they totally came around and then we couldn't keep them from touching her! Andrew said, "mom I don't think I have ever touched a baby so much!"

This was in the car seat on her way home!!