Emilya's Birth Story

On April 5th, 2016, I woke up at about 6:30, had a quick shower, kissed Noah goodbye before we packed up the truck and drove an hour to the hospital, knowing we were bringing our baby into the world that day!

I was a bit nervous, but mostly excited and happy that everything was going as planned! This delivery was going to be soo much better than my last.

We arrived at the hospital for 8 AM, and sat in a waiting room until almost 9 AM! They finally brought me back to the recovery room, where I would get settled and ready for my C-section. My blood pressure wasn't too bad, just borderline as it had been. They listened to the baby after I got changed into my gown, put my IV in (got it on the second attempt). My sister came in to see me and wish my well, and to put in her guess.

I had a line up of people coming in to see me, the anesthesiologist and team, my OB, various med students, a study group, etc. I agreed to doing a study for the spinal, which was just testing out a special chair to rest your head on, so that took about 15 minutes prior to my surgery.

My Mom and Dad came in just before I was about to get wheeled into the OR, wished me the best and then I was wheeled into the COLD operating room. M got himself all dressed in his OR wear.

This is probably when my nerves picked up. I got up on the table as they were getting the room set up. I remember feeling like I was in a busy city, with people moving all around me doing their own thing and here I was just sitting and watching it go down, not that I was actually watching them, it was just that feeling that overcame me. The respiratory therapist introduced herself, she was very friendly and told me she would walk me through the whole process as it went down. My nurse was also great. I began to shake, as the room was crazy cold, so they did manage to drape a heated blanket on me. 

When it came time for the spinal, I almost felt like crying I was so nervous. The RT stood right in front of me and talked me through it, along with the anesethiologist and my nurse. They gave me a shot to numb the area first, which felt like an intense bee sting, but I breathed through it and was fine. Up next was the spinal and the pressure from this was pretty uncomfortable and I hated how long it took, even though it really wasn't that long, but the needle has to stay in for so long as they inject it. I was starting to get dizzy and just remember them all counting down from 5 for me, telling me it would be done after the 5 seconds, which was good because I really wasn't feeling well. I just felt really nauseous, hot and dizzy. They helped me lay right down and worked on getting me a cold cloth, it wasn't very cold, but wet, so it helped. 

I was instantly numb and feeling a bit better after lying down. Next thing I knew the drapes were up around me, they got me all prepped and the doctor was in. They did the dreaded ice cube test, and I couldn't feel it. This was the part I was most nervous about because I felt my incision with Noah. The doctor did a scrape test on my belly before cutting me open to help ease my mind and I couldn't feel it.

Mike came in shortly after all decked out in his OR wear. The hat was a funny touch. Next thing I knew the nausea hit me like crazy. I was sure I was going to vomit. The anesethiologist gave me a drug in my IV to help with nausea and ended up giving me extra to help. I was also given an actual cold cloth. I was much more comfortable now. 

M and I were silent at first, as I felt various pressures and movement, the doctor was telling us when he could see the legs, that baby was in deed very breach, he then told me I was about to experience labor and pushed hard on my upper abdomen trying to push the baby down, however Emilya was quite content. I could then hear mumbled cries of her inside me and the doctor saying "come here you" and he pulled her out screaming. He held her around the screen for us to see, announcing it was a GIRL and then cut the cord. I'm pretty sure my eyes welled with tears right then after seeing her! We had a baby girl!!! I was on cloud 9!

  

M went with her to get cleaned up, weighed and checked over, while they finished putting me back together. The doctor guessed she would be 7lbs, 3 oz and I replied with "really? Her brother was 7.1" Mike came in shortly after and said she weighed 8lbs 3 oz! She was just screaming away and was hungry. She was born hungry and mad. The doctor said she had no intentions of coming out soon. She was quite comfortable up in my ribs!

M sat down with Emilya while they stitched me up and we discussed her name. We had it down to 2 names and the middle name was easy. We both said Emilya right away. Emilya just screamed away and was not a happy camper.

 They wheeled me over to recovery and I was finally able to hold my sweet baby girl and she calmed right down.

She was literally looking to eat but first things first, I had to get checked on first and M was going to go out to tell my family the news. The nurse was nice enough to let them all come in so I could see the reactions. It was perfect. My parents and my sister all came in to meet her quickly. The nurse checked my incision before allowing me to start nursing and little miss knew exactly what she was doing and nursed like a champ right away. M and I worked on texting out the news and calling our list. I was in recovery for about and hour or two, it went by fast. 

What I will say is that being reunited with my baby right away was such an amazing experience and really created an amazing bond. My eyes swelled with tears several times because I was just on cloud nine! A real dream come true and the fact that everything went soo smoothly was just a blessing. Holding this baby girl and getting skin on skin time and just seeing her, touching her and snuggling her was just the best. I really had no clue what I was missing out on with Noah, but I really do feel jipped after experiencing it with Em, even though with his birth it as medically necessary. 

The pain wasn't too bad and then we went over to the post-partum section where my family reunited with us and got in some snuggles. The morphine added into my spinal was really starting to kick in and I was soo crazy itchy. It was the worst, although the likely better than the pain.

This day was just simply amazing, we ended up with great nurses, our own room, and was just a really great experience. I can't think of one thing that didn't go smoothly. 

Mikes parents came up with Noah at supper time. Noah wanted to see his sister right away without hesitation. He was right all along insisting it was a girl! He crawled up in bed with me for a snuggle before holding and meeting his sister for the first time. Such an incredible moment and it didn't disappoint! We took our first family picture:

I was up and walking after dinner and just felt pretty good overall. My meds were switched over to just Tylenol and Advil and that was managing it quite well. Our first night went as to be expected. Emilya slept with me for most of the night and switched to Mike in the morning. 

Emilya had been coughing up fluid, still clearing out after the birth and ended up having a coughing spell where she couldn't breath. Luckily a nurse was near by and ran her down to the resuscitation room because she was turning blue. Luckily by the time she got her down there Emilya cleared it cough, but as you can imagine everytime she coughed now, we were freaked out. We tried not to call a nurse everytime it happened again, but we saw just how quickly it could go wrong.

We had a few visitors throughout the day, but we kept it to mostly family, with the exception for a few close friends. Overall I felt great and my blood pressure was stable without the need for meds! Another huge relief!

Night number two was rough, but we at least knew to expect the 2nd night syndrome. Emilya just wanted to be held all night, I couldn't get comfortable at all, and well I think most of our sleep happened in the morning.  

We got the all clear that we could go home if we wanted to or stay another night. I really just wanted to get home, sleep in my own bed, snuggle with Noah and start our life as a family of 4! Emilya's cough had started to clear as well, so we were comfortable with that idea.

So we had a little nap while they got all the paper work done. Emilya saw the pediatrician, had her hearing test and was cleared to leave as well.

Right as we were waiting for the porter to come, her ultrasound was available for her sacral dimple. The pediatrician was sure it was closed, but wanted an ultrasound done to be sure. We were told we would have to come back, but our nurse worked her magic and got it done before we left - literally.  

All packed up and ready to go!