Emily's Birth Story and Hospital Stay!

I'm guessing it all started around Tuesday when I started getting headaches that wouldn't go away. Wednesday I had a headache but still with the girls in tow, Tim and I ventured out to purchase some new paint for our new house and run some other errands. We met Tammy at Golden Corral for dinner (Tim's choice). 


Around 12:30am I woke up to Madelynn screaming at the top of her lungs, which is very different than normal. I opened the door to the room and the smell of vomit hit me in the face. I knew it was bad immediately. Very bad. Madelynn was covered in vomit from head to tow and it was on EVERY morsel of her crib. I didn't even know where to begin other than to start the bath water and put her in the tub. My heart instantly hurt for my poor baby that was suffering. Immediately I thought she must have food poisoning because every bit of her dinner came up and since we ate ate Golden Corral, I thought for sure, plus with the mess in her diaper, I could have bet money. Poor girl. But she was smiling once she got in the tubby and was her happy self to have a bath and Daddy playing with her in the middle of the night.


I cleaned up her crib, which took about 45 minutes (untying those darn bumpers are hard!) and wore me out. Changing the sheets, scrubbing the rails of the crib, moving the crib practically around the room with the lights on (the other two never even opened their eyes...how...who knows, but I was so thankful!) was a workout. By the time she was cleaned up and her bed was ready, I was starting not to feel well, which made my assumption of food poisoning even more likely. Great, I thought. I was so nauseous all night and barely was able to sleep. 


Finally around 6:30am, I just couldn't toss and turn anymore and finally decided to get up. The minute I got up, the bathroom trips started. From then until about 7:45am, I thought I was going to die. So weak, my heart racing, I felt like I had an elephant on my chest and so I finally called Tim at 8:00am and told him to get home right away because their was no way I could even make it up the stairs to get the girls, let alone do anything they may have needed. I could not leave the bathroom or put down the trashcan. Lovely, right, especially at almost 40 weeks pregnant!


And then the contractions started. Immediately after my first bathroom trip, I started chugging the water, which obviously wasn't staying down at all, but I knew I could not get dehydrated. I called the emergency number to my OB but they didn't call me back until right at 9:00am. By that time, Tim was home and Tammy was ready to come down if the OB wanted to see me, which I was pretty sure the case would be, considering I was 39w5d's. I also knew I had a fever. The contractions were about 2-5 minutes apart and when I told the on-call OB, they told me to come in right away. Since Tammy is about 30 minutes away, I called her, and she got ready to come down and I layed down, thinking I was about to die. I felt so bad, I couldn't go more than 5 minutes from the bathroom. I had no idea if I was even going to make it to the OB, or pass out before getting there. It was lovely. I did grab my two hospital bags and my camera on our way out the door, just in case.


Luckily I made it the 30 minute drive to the OB, in the office and they called me right back. Dr. Apgar (yes that is his real name) checked me and said I was almost 3cm. Since I had a fever and was having such strong contractions, he hooked me up to the monitor right then and there and when he came back, he didn't even have to say a word, because I knew the contractions were hard and strong. His exact words were, "you're banging these out, you're going next door (to the hospital) and I'm pretty sure you aren't leaving without a baby."


I still didn't believe it. Not in the least bit. I just thought I would be going to the Labor and Delivery triage area, going to be given fluids, zofran and my contractions would slow down and I would go home. I never thought anything different. I signed in and sat down. By this time, I was actually feeling a little, tiney-tiny bit better. The nurse came out and called my name. It was one of the same nurses I had when I was in with the girls, her name was Carrie. Sweet girl. As we walked back, she said, "so, Dr. Apgar says you're 4 cms..." and I said, "really, he told me I was just 3." When we passed the Labor and Delivery triage, I was confused and said, "am I going to a real room" and she said "yes." Surprise number one.


I got in the room, got undressed into my lovely hospital gown, and she called Dr. Apgar to get more orders for what he wanted. And then that's when it all hit me. I heard him say that I was indeed 4cm's, start monitoring my contractions because in the office they were every two minutes, to give me some zofran and fluids, and he would be over in just a few minutes to break my water. Surprise number two. My mouth literally flew open. I looked at Tim in complete disbelief, and I looked at Carrie and I said, "he lied to me, he didn't say anything about 4 cm, I'm having this baby today?!?!" I couldn't even think. It was almost 12pm. I just called my mom and Tammy and started texting everyone who needed to know what was up.

And within a few minutes my sister arrived and Dr. Apgar was in the room and I was freaking out, yelling at him (in a nice manner...he's an awesome guy) about lying to me!! I just was in such disbelief. I asked when he was going to break my water and he said, "like now, in five minutes!" My sister who works across the street arrived and a few minutes later he broke my water. It didn't hurt or anything. Wait, let me rephrase that, breaking the water does not hurt, it was neat actually, just a warm sensation of water, not like peeing yourself, just like all of the sudden you're sitting in a warm bath. But, what does hurt like pure hell, are those lovely cervical checks. So that was at about 1pm.

And within about 15 minutes the contractions changed. Almost instantly. My contractions from then on were no farther apart than 2 minutes, sometimes just a few seconds apart, lasting about 1-2 minutes. Stronger and stronger. Harder and harder. Off the charts. Holding my breath, had to focus, ouch! Just kept thinking of sitting on the beach in Aruba!

My best friend Kim then arrived, since she works over an hour away, she was not going to miss anything, so I had texted her first to give her a heads up of her newest niece coming sooner than we thought. My mom also finally arrived.

I was told I could have the epidural at any time but I wanted to experience labor some. Carrie and Dr. Apgar thought I was crazy. By 3:30PM, when my temperature was about 101, I decided to get the epidural. I felt like I was letting myself down and wanting this VBAC so bad and here I was already giving in to having an epidural. Not that I EVER wanted to go natural, but I did want some control. It was bittersweet, but I ultimately decided to go for it. I didn't know how long I would be in labor and so I wanted to save my energy for pushing and since I was so sick and had no energy anyway, I thought it was my best chance for a VBAC. I was checked right before the epidural and I was 5cm, close to 6cm and the new nurse, Lauren, promised me I did much better than a lot of women do. Whether it was true or not, I believed her at the time, so it made me feel good.


The epidural was easy. No problem, it didn't bother me when I had the spinal with the girls, so I wasn't scared for this one. What was horrible, was when the anesthesiologist finished my whole right side wasn't numb. The pain was horrible and they could not get it to become numb. After awhile they said they would probably have to re-do it. Of course I sat there, thinking why did I have to be the one it fails on?! But instead, he gave me another full dose of the medication and it really helped. My right side never felt as completely numb as my left but it was well enough that I couldn't feel the contractions. But after a little while, it made me sick. So of course that was no fun, once again. 


Enter then a catheter and a suposistory of Tylenol for my high fever. Neither was bad because I couldn't feel a thing, amen. All I kept hearing was how hot I was, but yet I felt like I couldn't get warm and kept asking for more blankets.


Everyone thought it was great to watch how big my contractions were going, off the charts and yet I wasn't feeling anything. In fact, I was trying to sleep. I was so beat. Constantly getting sick all morning, having a high fever and my body preparing for labor, I couldn't believe how well my body was doing, but I was beat physically. I dosed off a few times between everyone talking and laughing.


Around 4PM, I was checked again and was 6.5cm, but it was so much nicer not being about to feel anything. A little there after E's heart rate started to rise and I was put on oxygen and some antibiotics in case what my body was fighting was get crossed to E.


At 5PM, Dr. Apgar had to leave and his colleague, Dr. Renzi was on-call. I was really happy he was the doctor on-call because I really liked him too. He delivered two of the Sofelkanik kiddos and I was in the room with one of my friends who had him deliver her daughter four years ago. So, he is not a stranger and one very well known doctor.


Things still weren't getting any better for E with every position, so Dr. Renzi was called and the nurse explained to me that if I wasn't fully dilated and E's heart rate wasn't going to stabilize, I would most likely need a c-section right away. At that moment I thought there was no way I would get a VBAC, but I didn't care. I just wanted E to be safe and I would do anything for that.


Dr. Renzi was there within five minutes and checked me and quickly said I was fully dilated, her head was right there and that I better be a good pusher. (He later said that sometimes when a baby drops so quickly and the mother becomes fully dilated so quickly, the heart rate of the baby will speed up some, telling the doctor she is ready!) He said he was going to change his clothes and we can get started. At this point it was 6pm. Kim and Tim were there with me, my sister and my mom had gone downstairs to the cafeteria to get something to eat. They were quickly called and told to get back asap. When I started pushing, I maybe pushed twice and the head could already be seen, along with some dark hair. I asked if it would be like an hour of pushing, and  Dr. Renzi said, "oh no way, who ever is here, is here, this baby is coming now." 


With every contraction I pushed and pushed and my mom and my sister were taking their sweet time, because it literally took them 20 minutes to get back into the room from 3 floors below. I was so afraid they would miss it, and I kept asking where they were because things were moving so incredibly fast. I was still in complete shock but felt great. Compared to how horrible I felt all day, I was feeling great! I honestly couldn't believe I was about to have our baby! I was so excited but it was honestly so surreal!


Finally my mom and my sister arrived and I maybe pushed another 5-10 minutes and looked down and I could see Emily's head coming out. Totally crazy! Dr. Renzi turned her head to rotate her body and she came right out with a few small, slight pushes. I could not believe it!!! I felt nothing and enjoyed the whole process of watching my little girl come into the world and take her first breath at 6:58PM! She was immediately placed on my chest and the tears started to roll. I was glad the nurses let her lay on me for a few minutes before taking her. I soaked in all I could in those first few minutes. Tim was speechless and it was so perfect.


After the nurses took her to clean her off and my sister finally grabbed the camera (in our hospital, they don't let you take photos of the actual birth, and since I had a fever and the Neonatalogist was present, they were being pretty strict about the photo taking because they wanted no one in the way if they needed to assist Emily right away) to start taking photos, I had a moment to reflect on what I just did! I was so proud of myself and really was in total shock that I just had a vaginal birth, something I always dreamed of! I just couldn't stop crying, it was wonderful, really, there are no words to describe it.


They weighed her, checked her all over and made sure she was perfect. They kept trying to get her to cry, but she barely would. She was breathing fine, just wouldn't cry super loud. Secretly, I was hoping it is her laid-back personality showing through already.

Emily was born with a fever of 101.1, but it quickly went down within an hour of her birth. The Neonatalogist was aware of the whole situation and there was no need for anything further and the conclusion was because I had a high fever. Thank goodness she was fine!


I then got to hold her for awhile, just skin on skin, so a bunch of those pictures are not blog-friendly, but here are the ones that are!

And then snuggle time meeting her Daddy....

Getting ready to go to our new room!

We were then transferred over to our new room, which was right down the hall from where I was when recovering from the girls, only this time, I had a baby IN MY ROOM! I was so happy!


Tammy came down when we got over there and it was so wonderful for her to meet her newest grand-daughter. Before we knew it, it was almost 11pm and I was totally exhausted and still couldn't feel much of my left leg. Because of the second dose of the epidural that I got, my left leg was numb for HOURS that night. I took some pain meds and even though I was so tired, I couldn't sleep at all because I was so excited. I kept praying and thanking God all night for the most wonderful experience I could have ever imagined. I swear, I kept looking at Emily and then just thinking that I just had a VBAC, she was fine, I was fine, no complications. All my fears were gone and it was a great feeling. Too good of a feeling to sleep. I just couldn't stop thanking the Lord for what He has given me!


The rest of night was great and I just held Emily and relaxed. Of course around 5am of Friday, people start bombarding your room for everything. Blood work, vitals, food, room-cleaning, bathing the baby...it never ended. Plus, the room we were in...yea...the TV was broken! So, then just when I decided to take a shower, the repair men came! Nice! But I was so thankful to have the TV working again! The day was very lazy and quite boring! I was so ready to go home and see my "big girl" babies! We just watched TV and napped a few times, but it was an easy day. I still couldn't believe how great I felt!


Christine came by at lunch and then her and Nathan came by after work. 

Then I dressed her up in one of my favorite preemie outfits that I had from the girls, and it barely fit! But it was too cute, so I just kept it on her, but needless to say it will be the only day she wore it, or fit into anything preemie!

My dad finally arrived after work also and I was so excited to show him Emily! He missed her birth by just a few minutes when he left the hospital to take over for Tammy watching the girls, so she could come down.

Saturday morning we were up at 7:30am and were ready to get going! I wanted to get home so bad!!


Finally we were released at 1pm, after waiting all freakin' morning for her PKU test to come back and make sure she wasn't jaundice.  While waiting, I caught Tim trying to convert her to an Eagle's fan already....

Waiting oh-so-patiently to leave!

Finally we were given the OK to leave!!!

So excited to take my baby girl home with us when I get discharged! I just kept smiling so I wouldn't start crying! Such a wonderful feeling...so normal!

And finally were going home with Little Miss Emily June!!!! Stay tuned for when she met her sisters!