She's Here!! Aka.The Longest Post Ever

So its official--- we have a baby!!! <3

Emmalee Meredith Gifford
6.13.11 * 3:52 am
8 lbs 6 oz * 19 in.

She is amazing and wonderful and between her, the hospital, and my laptop acting funny, it's taken a few days to write this.  I didnt think you'd mind though. Some parts are gross and you may never look at me the same but you're reading about a baby delivery, obviously there's going to be blood and poop.  :)

So where to begin? Sunday.

Sunday started with me being a brat.  I was 41 weeks, hadn't complained all week and was restless to do something.  Dave and I pretty much relaxed all day.  Had lunch together, watched tv and before bed we watched the Heat/Maverick's game right before bed.  Miami lost and I was amped.  I was posting on Facebook around 11 pm to my cousin and just enjoying the fact that Baby BronBron didn't get his championship. Dave and I went to bed shortly after and at 12:30, I felt a 'pop' inside of me and ran to the bathroom.  Sure enough, my water had broke. :)

So I called the doctor and he was asking me about pain and contractions but since I wasnt having any yet he gave me the option to go to the hospital and get checked out or get some rest, wait and go to the hospital for 6 am.  I told him I'd talk to Dave, see if I started to have contractions and we'd decide from there.  I walked from my living room to the bedroom and had my first, pretty painful contraction.  I told Dave what the doctor said and went to the bathroom becuase I felt sick.  Between vomiting and contractions that were coming stronger and faster I was starting to think we should go.  I left the bathroom, wlaked to the living room and it felt like someone put a hook in my lower back and just pulled.  I was on my toes, almost in tears and looked at Dave and said "We need to go" so he got up, dressed, grabbed my last minute things and strated out the door.  I had 2 more contractions between our apartment and walking to the car, they were getting much closer and stronger. 

Thankfully Im a geek and had downloaded a contraction timer app the other day.  It was wonderful, contraction starts, hit the button, contraction ends, hit it again.  It records how long and how frequent.  The ride there was terrible.  My lower back was throbbing and they just kept getting worse. 

We got to the hospital at 1:20.  Dave dropped me at the ER entrance, parked and ran back to me.  The nurse saw me trying to walk and having a contraction at the same time so she wheeled me up to maternity.  My doctor had given them a heads up that I may be in becuase I had called but being a first time mother, with no contractions when I called, they didn't really think I would be there that fast.  They were setting up the room and they told me to get a jonny on so they could check and make sure I had actually ruptured and see how far I had progressed. The nurse asked what my contractions were at and I simply handed her my phone.  Apparently they were a minute or so long coming every 2 to 3 minutes.  While changing, I peed and it looked like blood, voided, and vomited but I was good and vommed in the trashbag and no where else.  Do all this at the same time in the middle of a contraction... best.feeling.ever.  I kept apologizing to the nurses because I had and they were thirlled becuase it just meant I wouldnt do it on the table while delivering. lol. I laid down and they set up a monitor for the babys heart and my contractions so we could monitor them.  Baby looked good and my contractions were coming strong but they kept making me roll to my side.  Unfortunetly because my contractions were so close they couldnt get a blood pressure reading becuase I'd start the next contraction before it could finsih.  They made me lay on my side because its supposed to help the BP and its easier on the baby.  The nurse checked me out and informed me I was still around 4 or 5 cms.  I was pissed. 

I strating asking for pain meds becuase I was in that much pain and not progressing, I wouldnt be able to do it all night.  The nurse kept syaing no becuase the doctor had to examine me first.  They cant give the pain meds too early.  Because the nurse wouldnt let me on my back, I had no pressure against my lower back and thats where all the pain was.  I started climbing up the sides of the hospital bed because it was all I could do to help the pain.  The nurse was nce though and moved the monitor so I could watch my contractions.  I could see when I'd hit the peak of it and when it was starting back up.  That helped me a bit but I still wanted meds.

While I was contracting, Dave had called mom and I kept asking for her.  Apparently she had been given a hard time coming and was waiting outside of maternity.  I may have spoken rudely to the nurses and told them to get her in the room asap. Oops.  It was nice having her.  She kind of calmed it down, told Dave to get me a wet washcloth for my head and really just made it easier.  I love Dave but he knows I dont want somoene rubbing my back or telling me to breathe and the nurse kept telling him to do those thinsg so he was caught in the middle; my mom on his/our 'side' was definately wlecoming for him and me.

So I'm still a big baby and asking for meds but the doctor isnt there yet and pissed off, I go "Am I even dialating anymore or am I just sitting at  or 5 still?" So the nurse checks and says its about 6 or 7 but stop thinking about numbers because it will happen, I just need to keep breathing and all that jazz. The doctor shows up a bit later, just before 3 am.  He comes in to see me and asks how everything is, the nurses update him and I asked if I could just gte some pain meds because it hurts and if it's so slow I cant do it all night.  He checks me and says "Nope, your complete, it's time to get the baby out". Awesome. No pain meds at all. Great. So I get told to push. I'm pretty sure I put an elephant to shame with the noises I was making but I kept apologizing to everyone for them.  Mom made fun of me becuase even in the middle of everything, I kept stopping and saying hi to every new nurse that came through the doors. :)  I pushed for 45 minutes, still apologizing the whole time for my noises and feeling like I had poop. 

The doctor had asked Dave if he'd like to tell me what the sex is and Dave said yes so I'm pushing and pushing and pushing... the doctor tells me two more good pushes and I can feel the head crowning.  There was an extra bump feeling at the very top and the baby had apparently gotten a bit stuck.  Even with my big pushes, she did not want to come out so my doctor asked for the olive oil (no, I cant make this up), lubed up her head and told me one more good push. Out she came!

The doctor held her up uside down and the way Dave saw, he couldnt see the genitals so he  had no idea.  He goes "Umm, maybe a boy?" and the doctor laughed and goes "You may want to check again".  She we had a beautiful little girl who arrived at 3:52 am.  Dave ended up cutting the cord and Emma was placed on my chest immediately.  There are no words for it.  Even though I was yelling at David to get a vasectomy the whole time I was contracting, I was so in love with her and him and everythign felt so amazing. 

Tobey is great because they really push the Baby Friendly aspetcs of skin to skin bonding before any meausremnets are taken so Emmalee stayed on me until almost 7 am.  They came in at that point to weigh and meaure her.  ONce again, Dave was amazing and in formed me that rather than 8 lbs 6.4 oz... he said she was 6. 4 lbs.  Love him.  The nurse quickly corrected him and we joked about being 2 for 2 with his information.  She measured at 19 inches but when Dave texted people, he said 12.  So instead of my big, healthy baby girl... people were thinking I had given birth to a midget son. Haha.


The two days in the hospital flew by.  She fed well, sleeps for super long stretches and is just generally happy.  We loved having our visitors and she got some SUPER cute outfits!  The nurses all loved her and between David and I, we got to really bond with her and become a family. As we were getting ready to leave on Wednesday, I noticed a small gray bump on her right shoulder.  I asked the pediatrician to look at it and she ordered an xray for Emma.  They brought her out and when she came back in about a half hour later, they told us that because she had come out so quickly, she must have bumped one of my bones and she had fractured her right clavical.  :(  Obviously, being so little, there's really nothing we can do about it.  It will heal on its own and we pretty much just have to wait for that.  We informed the pediatrician so he will check it out tomorrow when we go get a check up.


She seem to doesnt complain about the pain.  It makes feeding harder because shes putting all of her weight on it but the nurses showed me a different way to hold her to help that. However, were supposed to treat it normally so that it corrects itself and she doesnt start favoring one side.


Coming home was nice and we spent the night relaxing on the couch.  I will say whoever thought of having babies CLEARLY did not think about recovery.  Its silly things like it being harder to use the bathroom, and my boobs are huge and uncomfy and sitting down too quick hurts but they are all worth it for little Miss. We're working our way through breastfeeding, sometimes doing wonderful and sometimes she gets pissed becuase it's frustrating her.  It all depends on everything else and Im still learning what she wants and needs. She sleeps through most of the night, only waking up twice the past 3 nights to feed and she LOVES the sleeper my mom bought for her to lounge in.


Its going to be difficult until we figure each other out entirely but the three of us are doing fabulous for now.


<3