Emily's BirthDay

The day our second little girl arrived began very early in the morning. I woke up around 1am with abdominal pain. Not knowing (but hoping) if they were the real deal or not, I starting timing the contractions. There was about 7 minutes between the 1st and 2nd. Then 6 minutes between the 2nd and 3rd. And then 5 minutes between the 3rd and 4th. Then my water broke. It was definitely time.

I woke up Zach and told him we needed to get going. I finished packing my hospital bag and let my mom know that we were leaving. We made it to the hospital around 2am. The contractions went back and forth between 2 and 5 minutes and they were getting really painful. When the nurse from the labor and delivery ward arrived, I asked her if she brought my epidural. She smiled and said no. Bummer.

We got settled into a room and again I asked for an epidural. The nurse told me she had to get me into the computer, a few tests needed to be run to see how far along I was, and an IV had to get hooked up. All of this finally happened by 3am. Then she checked me. I was already at 9cm. She told me there was nothing she could give me for the pain. I asked her if she was serious and she was. This was not going to go the way I had hoped.

The pain was pretty much unbearable. I don't know how women choose to go without medication on purpose. The doctor showed up about 3:15am and it was time to push. I kept telling Zach I couldn't do it and I'm pretty sure I went a little crazy from all the pain. I don't know what I would have done without Zach there. He got me through the whole thing, telling me I could do it. And I did it.

Emily Grace was born at 3:29am. And she is perfect in every way.

They didn't have a hat for her, so the poor thing got a diaper on her head