Married at work: Introducing Emily Mae Elder

Emily Mae was born on April 11th, 2009 at 6:05pm. She weighed 8lbs, 11oz and was 21" long. Here is my birth story for those who are interested (sorry if TMI for those who aren't):

Friday, April 10th (my due date) I went in for my 40 week appointment. My doctor did an exam and while she was checking to see how dilated I was she also stripped my membrane and did some massaging. I was 3cm. That night around suppertime I started having contractions but I wasn't sure if they were actually contractions because they were not very regular and they were tolerable or if I was just still sore from the exam.

That night they seemed like they were becoming a bit more regular. They felt like menstrual cramps. I was hoping that I could sleep through the night and maybe be able to time them a bit better during the day. But that didn't happen. I didn’t get any sleep at all. I was constantly looking at the clock to see how far apart the contractions were and they were about 5-7 minutes apart each lasting about 30 seconds.

At about 3am I woke Scott up and called the Birth Center and asked them what I should do. They told me to wait until the contractions were closer together, lasting about a minute and were a little more intense. We waited at home and took showers/got ready to go while I labored for about 3 hours. Finally we decided to head in at about 6:30am.

When I arrived I was 4cm dilated. For the next few hours I laid in bed, walked around, sat in the waiting room with my mother in law, sat in a chair etc while having contractions. I was progressing pretty slowly so they decided to give me some Petocin (sp?) to get me to progress more quickly. After getting the Petocin (just an IV), I was still debating whether or not to get an epidural (by now I was 6cm dilated). My sister was there and telling me I should. I asked the nurse and she said she did with her kids but it seemed as if I was tolerating the pain well so it’s up to me. I finally decided to go for it. I’ve heard that after 6cm they start getting really painful and much closer together.

The doctor came in to give me the epidural. This is a strange experience but really, TOTALLY worth it to get it in my opinion. You all probably know how the epidural goes in etc so I don’t need to go into detail there. When he was putting it in I had two contractions but didn’t feel them at all because I was so focused on what he was doing. He did have to insert it a second time because it wasn’t going into my spine correctly the first time.

After the epidural I felt my contractions a little bit on my right side which sometimes happens but it was very tolerable. Then they broke my water and put a catheter in my bladder and I didn’t feel a thing. Then it was just a waiting game until I got to 10cm. I was extremely tired and almost fell asleep. This is when I was updating my Facebook because I literally was just laying in bed waiting for a few hours. A few times when I was having contractions her heart rate would go down a little which concerned them and myself a little so they gave me some oxygen. Because of this I couldn’t sleep. I was also just thinking about what was to come. Would I have to get a C-section? What if I push for hours and hours? What if the cord is around her neck? Etc etc.

Finally I was at 10cm and ready to push. This was a weird experience because I didn’t feel the need to push at all and really couldn’t tell how I was supposed to be pushing because of the epidural. But apparently I was doing it right because the nurse kept telling me I was doing really well. Scott was there holding up one leg and a student was holding up my other leg (it was her first birth and she was so excited). After about 35 minutes of pushing the nurse finally got the doctor. Once the doctor came in I pushed for another 10 minutes and she was out. What a surreal experience. She came out and was crying instantly and had wonderful color. Scott and I were both crying also just in awe of what happened. They put her right on me and I don’t even know what they were doing we were just so caught up in the moment. Truly amazing!!

I did have a 2nd degree tear which of course I didn’t feel at all because of the epidural also. Recovery is pretty disgusting and you’ll feel like you’ll never heal again down there but believe me you do. I’m already almost 100% healed. I recommend taking advantage of the nursery to get some sleep those couple nights you’re in the hospital. You won’t get that kind of help again and it’s good for your body to recover.

The first night home was very strange. I have to admit it was a huge eye opener…”you mean I can’t just go to sleep with my husband and sleep all night?” The first couple weeks were challenging for me too. It’s different for everyone of course. It’s such a drastic change to your life all of a sudden. It wasn't until about the 3rd or 4th week that I started thinking "ok, I can do this" and really started falling in love with my little girl.

Here are some pictures of the event which I actually now look fondly on :)

Me still pregnant, waiting or her to be born