our sweet boy, emmett joshua, was born two weeks late on friday, april 3rd, at 6:58pm. he was 6lbs 14 oz and was 20.5 inches long. everyone is doing well. we are happy, healthy, sleep deprived and in love.
that's the abbreviated version. if you want the long story see below.
labor officially started on tuesday. the midwives checked me and i was only a 1/2 cm dialated after being a week and a half late. trish, our midwife and friend, gave us the option of trying a catheter to get the ball rolling. it was inserted in the morning and by 2:30pm contractions had started. they kept going until midnight. then they stopped.
we went back to the midwives the next day. i was 3cm dialated and they gave me herbs, dieter tea and told me to pump as a way to bring about contractions. nothing happened when i was trying these methods, but contractions started on their own again around midnight and lasted until 7:30am. just long enough to not get any sleep.
that morning the lora, one of the midwives, checked and I was 4cm dialated. she did a membrane sweep and sent me home. contractions started for the last time that thursday morning at 11:30. they continued the entire day and into the night.
by 3am they had became so intense that my screams woke aaron up. he helped me get in the shower which helped a lot with the pain...until we ran out of hot water. he then surprised me with jelly beans he had sneakily purchased for the occasion (i couldn't have any sweets the last 14 weeks due to gestational diabetes). i suffered through another hour of contractions then got back in the shower after our hot water was replenished. soon after, the contractions got to the magical 4 minutes apart stage and we got to call the birth center. i remember as we left our house that it was incredibly weird to know that the next time i came home i would be a mother.
when we got to the birth center it was about 6:30am on friday. friday was our two week mark, so at the end of the day we would risk out of the birth center and have to go to the hospital to be induced. i had been in labor around 33 hours total. karin, the midwife on call checked me and i was still just 4cm dialated. no progress from the day before. this news broke my spirit. i sobbed. i hadn't slept in two days, the contractions were unbearable and i was no closer than i had been the day before. i sat in a warm bath at the birth center while aaron tried to console me.
trish, our friend and coincidentally also a midwife, arrived around 9am. she gave us our options: i could take some ambian and try to sleep, go to the hospital and try some morphine, or go to the hospital and get an epidural and get induced. aaron and i talked. i really really wanted to get an epidural and be induced, but i felt like a failure for giving up on natural childbirth. he and trish both reassured me that i gave it a solid effort for 3 days. there was no failure. i felt so relieved at that. we then headed to the hospital.
the epidural took about an hour to get, but our nurse, jena, gave me something lovely to help me relax until then. after the epidural was in place, aaron and i both slept for about 4-5 hours. trish then came back to check on me. after a quick look, she said it was time to push - i was at 10 cm! at this point i was in disbelief. the entire thing felt like i was in a movie.
the pushing began around 4:30pm. trish, jena, aaron and i were the only ones in the room. trish was a terrific coach. aaron held my leg, held my hand, and got me all the water i wanted. after about 2.5 hours of pushing, emmett joshua wech was born!
i was concerned right away, as he was quiet and there were no screams. also there was suddenly a team of nicu doctors in the room. they explained that emmett had meconium in his lungs, and they needed to be vacummed out. sure enough, less than a minute later, aaron was placing him on my chest. i was crying and shaking so hard. he was perfect and healthy.
he was named after my great uncle, emmett, which is also my father's middle name. and josh, aaron's brother.
the pushing began around 4:30pm. trish, jena, aaron and i were the only ones in the room. trish was a terrific coach. aaron held my leg, held my hand, and got me all the water i wanted. after about 2.5 hours of pushing, emmett joshua wech was born!
he was named after my great uncle, emmett, which is also my father's middle name. and josh, aaron's brother.
ahh! it makes me cry and cry! congrats! and way to push out a human! you MADE that!
ReplyDeleteWhat an ordeal! So happy for you both that Emmett is here and healthy!
ReplyDeleteHoly cow, what an awful sounding labor. I too was going in and out of labor for 3 days, but because of my specific medical circumstances, I was admitted to the hospital within 15 minutes of labor starting! That meant I was in the hospital for the full 3 days prior to giving birth, so I had strong painkillers and Ambien to help me sleep. And I got an epidural on the 3rd day, aren't epidurals great?! I also had other emergency treatments however, and it meant I was not allowed to get up from my bed AT ALL for 2.5 days, no shower, no bathroom, nothing. And I had a team of NICU doctors standing by to whisk my baby away (at least I did get to hold her for 2 minutes) and I was freaking out because I was pushing and the NICU team wasn't there yet. They ended up arriving just in time, phew.
ReplyDeleteIn the end though, the problems of labor subside in your memory, and of course it's all worth it for the kiddo.
My kiddo is very close to 1 year older than your kiddo (born March 10, 2014; due date was April 21, 2014), so if you have any "Is this normal" or "how did you deal with..." questions or just want to talk to another mom, I'm totally available for that. Also, for a few reasons breastfeeding did not work out for us, and I felt awful about that until I found http://www.fearlessformulafeeder.com/. If you find yourself in the same boat, check them out.
Thanks, Noel. I will take you up on the "is this normal" questions offer. That's really sweet. Your labor sounds awful too. It's a good thing that hormones and perhaps lack of sleep prevent us from remembering these ordeals, otherwise no one would have siblings. :)
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