The Easter bunny stopped at Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's house, too. - April 2011
Memorial Day weekend - first time at the pool! It was a big hit! - May 2011
Around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 21st I started to feel “funny”. I had contractions previously, but nothing that was painful, just uncomfortable. I came down the stairs and mentioned my feeling “funny” to Jonathan and not long after that I started to have contractions that were getting painful and more frequent – about 4 minutes apart. We called the doctor and headed to the hospital, not sure what to expect. When we arrived around 2:00 a.m Sunday morning, they examined me and I was only 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced, which is where I had been for the past couple weeks. The nurse informed me that I was definitely in real labor but very early real labor and told me to walk up and down the hall for an hour and see if I progressed at all. So we walked up and down the cold hospital hallway from about 3:30 to 4:30 a.m., while I continued to have contractions. After this time, I was re-examined and nothing had changed. They gave me two Ambien’s and sent me home to sleep. I will never take Ambien again. The medication had some serious effects on my system. I don’t remember a whole lot, but what I do remember and from what Jonathan told me, I was pretty much unable to stand on my own, I was hallucinating, and I looked at him very wide-eyed and told him “You don’t look like my husband.” and started to cry. The good news is that I was able to sleep soundly from about 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and then off and on until 12 noon.The rest of the day, I stayed in bed and watched movies. Now, any time I watch Air Force One, I will think of this day. Jonathan took good care of me and brought me drinks and chicken noodle soup and then made me waffles for dinner. After we finished dinner, I went back upstairs to try and get some sleep which was when the contractions really started to kick in – around 8:00 p.m. Sunday night. I thought the contractions I had earlier in the day were bad, but they were nothing compared to the contractions I felt at this time.For those of you who don’t know, I was scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, August 24 at 7:30 a.m. and my only thought while I was having these contractions was that I could not continue to do this the rest of the night, all day Monday, and into Tuesday, when I was to be induced. In addition to the contractions, I had some additional symptoms of impending labor (I won’t get into the details!) so we called the doctor and headed to the hospital again, around 9:30 p.m. Sunday night. When I arrived I was 3 cm so they admitted me and I was given the green light for an epidural. From here, the next 9 hours were a whirlwind.We walked down the hallway to the labor & delivery room where they started me on an IV and I received the epidural around 11:00 p.m. Within 5 minutes of receiving the epidural, the pain from the contractions was gone. Thank goodness for epidurals! My parents arrived around 12:30 a.m. on Monday morning (August 23rd) and spent time with us while I was in labor (but blissfully unaware of the contractions!). I continued to be examined and continued to progress pretty quickly – the nurse was pretty sure I was going to have the baby before her shift was over at 7:00 a.m.She kept commenting on how low the baby’s head was.Around 3:30 a.m., I started to get pretty uncomfortable from the pressure of the baby and they gave me an extra boost of pain medicine. Between the labor and all the medicine I had in my system, I threw up a few times so they gave me some medicine to help with that as well. Around 5:45 a.m. they examined me again and I was 10 cm and 100% effaced so it was time to start pushing! My parents, Jonathan’s mom and sister all had to go to the waiting room at this point. I pushed for roughly 45 minutes and Emily was born at 6:29 a.m. on Monday, August 23rd, 2010.Emily’s shoulder was stuck on my pelvic bone so the nurse had to push on my stomach while I pushed through one of the contractions to help dislodge her shoulder. The supply from the umbilical cord was being cut off so Emily was blue when she finally arrived.They were unable to immediately place her on me and Jonathan was unable to cut the umbilical cord, but the doctor and nurses worked quickly to take her to the warmer and get her breathing.She did not cry for what seemed like an eternity (although in reality was probably only a few seconds) and I was a bit concerned. Her first cry was music to my ears and I was so happy to see she was doing okay. She weighed 7 lbs. 5.6 oz. and was 19.5 inches long at birth. It was a long, tiring couple of days, but she was worth every second. She is our little blessing and we are so happy to have her in our lives.
Thank you all for your prayers and support throughout the pregnancy. We love our little angel and can’t wait for everyone to meet her!
Love,
Christine and Jonathan
