On Tuesday around 4pm I suddenly felt very strange, pretty sick and uncomfortable, I was also having pretty consistent contractions about 3 minutes apart. I had been having tons of contractions before so I didn't think too much of it but along with the strange feeling and a slight increase in intensity I was getting nervous that this was the real thing. I called Peter at work. He said he would come home right away but I really didn't want him to come for a false alarm so I said I would call him back in about 15 minutes too let him know if things were still the same. They were, so Peter headed home and my mother in law came over to help watch the kids. The contractions were getting stronger and still consistently about 3 minutes apart. We started getting a few last minute things ready for the hospital. Peter's Dad was concerned that we were not headed to he hospital straight away but I just didn't feel that we needed to go just yet and I wanted to labor as much as possible at home.
And then everything stopped! I was feel so foolish for getting everyone worked up for nothing. We decided to go on a walk around the neighbourhood and I had some very painful contractions while we were walking but that was it! I went to bed so frustrated and confused about what was going on. Peters mom stayed the night just in case. The next morning Lyn went home and I started having some contractions again! So I ended up calling my doctors office. I kept feeling like this was labor but couldn't figure out why things weren't progressing. They told me to come in and be checked. We went to my doctors office but they told us we needed to go to the other office up at Mckay Dee hospital. So we dropped the boys off at Peter's parents and headed up to the hospital. When we got there they hooked me up to a monitor for 20 minutes. I was really frustrated with this because it wasn't really reading what was going on and the nurse and I could see and feel how tight my stomach was getting and knew I was having serious contractions. I really wanted to be checked to see what was going on. Finally we were done with the monitor and the nurse checked me. I was only at a 3. She told us to go and walk around for a while and then come back.
We went over to the mall and walked around for a while then went to Chili's for lunch. I ordered steak, its always the right time to eat steak, and it was amazing. Then we headed back to the hospital. This time I was at a 4 and officially in labor, so we were finally admitted. I called my mom at this point and she said she was going to fly in the next day. I was really nervous about that plan because even though we were admitted I still didn't feel like this baby was really going to come. We hung out and things were pretty mild. We started talking about breaking my water when I was at a 5 because things had stopped again! Our Dr was about to go do a C-section so we decided to wait until after that to do anything. Right after we decided that things started to pick and get pretty intense. I was really nervous. I hadn't had an epidural with the boys and didn't regret that at all but this time i just didn't feel strong enough. The whole pregnancy I had been practicing relaxation techniques, reading books on hypnobirthing etc. I still felt like trying to have a natural birth was the right thing to do but my head wasn't quite there. I just felt so exhausted it was hard to muster up the energy physically and mentally that I needed. Things started getting hard and I was handling it, better than I had before with previous labors but I just kept thinking about how bad it could get and decided to get an epidural. Once I made that decision I felt so much better.
The anesthesiologist was amazing and the whole experience was much less uncomfortable than I had anticipated. My left side went numb super fast and with a little maneuvering I was completely comfortable. It was such a strange sensation. I was a 7 at this point. About an hour later we noticed Emma's heart rate drop down to the 60's. I tried adjusting the monitor but that didn't help so we called the nurse. We were so anxious when our Dr walked inr all decked out for a delivery a couple nurses and a tray of equipment. We thought something was really wrong. My doctor checked me and said, ok she is coming right now. Peter and I looked at each other...really?! It was so strange to be at a point where I knew I should be in a lot of pain but to feel nothing. I double checked with the dr that nothing was wrong and she said that the heart rate can drop when the baby starts to crown. I only had to push 3 times and our baby girl was born.
Getting to hold her for the first time was so wonderful, I felt like I had known her forever. We had struggled coming up with a middle name for her and had a few ideas in mind but as I was holding her I knew that we should name her Emma Rachel. We had never even thought of the name Rachel but it fit her perfectly. Though I have to admit, it took me a while to finally make it official because I had been really set on some of the other middle names but nothing fit her as well. We are so glad everything went so well and that we have such a beautiful and healthy little girl :-)
All the pictures from the hospital I took on my phone and I can't get them off since I can't find my memory card. Anyways here are a few we took right after we got home :-)
