Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma Rose Harris arrived on January 16th! I'm way behind on posting, which I'm sure you can understand. I'd still like to document the past month so I can look back and remember what a whirlwind it all has been! Emma is 4 weeks old today if you can believe it! Let's backtrack. For those of you who prefer to just look at the photos, you can scroll to the bottom.

January 15th

Well I had intentions of going into work on Tuesday, January 15^th. It was supposed to be my last day of work. When I woke up Tuesday morning, I was contracting about every 10 minutes, so I decided it was best to stay home. The contractions weren’t very painful so I knew I still had some time before I was truly in labor. Mid afternoon, they started to become uncomfortable but they were still spaced out. You’re not supposed to contact the physicians until your contractions are 5 minutes apart and painful or if your water has broken. It wasn’t until 12:30am Wednesday morning, that the contractions were becoming painful enough that I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all that night. An epidural started to sound quite nice. So I called the on-call physician on call despite the fact that my contractions were only 5-8 minutes apart at that time. I also thought my water might have broken.  You’d think it would be more clear cut, but not everybody has a big gush of fluid. You can have a slow leak as well. Dr.Williams told me to come on in to be evaluated.

January 16th

Once at the hospital, the nurse checked my cervix and I was only 3 ½ cm dilated. Active labor starts at 4cm. The labor and delivery floor will not let you stay at the hospital unless you are in active labor. What that meant is that I couldn’t get an epidural yet since they were trying to decide if I was going to stay in the hospital or go home. They gave me a few hours to see if my cervix was going to change. If not, I would be sent home. They had me walking in the hallway, and when the contractions came, I was very uncomfortable. I was hopeful that I would be at least 4cm when she rechecked me. Unforutnatly not. I told her that Dr.Kleiss my primary physician had wanted to induce me on the 16^th (and it was the 16^th now). Dr.Williams who was the on-call physician decided to let me stay at the hospital until Dr.Kleiss’s shift started in the morning. I was extremely thankful that Dr.Kleiss was on call on Wednesday since I knew she wouldn’t send me home. Let me rephrase this… I would have refused to go home. I was in excruitiating pain by the middle of the evening. I’m surprised that I didn’t break Steve’s hand or the bed for that matter. I finally asked the nurse for pain medication in the middle of the night since I wasn’t allowed to have an epidural. The nurse came in and told me the only thing I could was Tylenol. ARE YOU KIDDING? I could insert a few choice words at this time, but I won't. As soon as she left the room, I burst into tears. I was miserable and they wouldn’t do anything to help me. By the time she came back to the room a couple of hours later, she saw how miserable I was and talked to Dr.Williams about getting my epidural started. Lesson learned: don’t tell people how uncomfortable you are, you have to show them. Just before shift change at 7am, I finally had my epidural. That is the most wonderful thing I could have ever imagined. It was uncomfortable having the epidural placed but it was nothing compared to labor pain. Dr.Williams checked my cervix about 7:30am and I was 6cm dilated, fully effaced, and Emma’s head was low. I also started to feel my contractions again on the right side. The epidural worked wonders on the left side, but not on the right. The day shift anesthesiologist came in to redose my epidural so I could get pain relief on both sides. Ten minutes later, my right eye was full dilated and my eyelid was drooping. The whole right side of my face felt off. I had fears of the epidural causing serious problems. I have seen somebody go into cardiac arrest after having an epidural placed. So I started to get very nervous that if the medication was causing facial issues, the block was clearly too high, and I started to wonder if I was going to have difficulty breathing. Needless to say, it was reassuring to have Steve there at this point. We called in the nurses and anesthsiologist immediately, only for the anesthesilogist to say that he had never seen this before. Great. Steve knew that this was Horner’s syndrome. The anesthsiologist was not comfortable giving me any additional medication through the epidural given the unusal side effects. He suggested that I get another epidural. Dr.Kleiss was at the hospital at this point. At 9:15am when she checked me, I was fully dilated. She suggested that I start pushing instead of getting another epidural. Only problem is that I couldn’t feel anything, so my pushing wasn’t very effective. The epidural was turned off and they waited for me to start feeling the contractions again. The feeling came back fairly quickly with a lot of pain in my lower back. Dr.Kleiss and the nurses came back and I pushed for about an hour, not quite sure exactly how long it was. It seemed like an eternity. I begged for her to get her out any way possible. I would have taken a c-section or episiotomy. Anything. They didn’t want me to get another epidural because they were afraid it would take all the sensation away again. I cared less about that but was more concerned about the side effects of the previous epidural. 

Let’s just say that I understand even less why people want natural childbirth! Why?! It was awful to say the least. I was out of control. I knew I was out of control but I couldn’t do anything about it. I think I would have enjoyed her birth more if I was pain free :-) Emma was born at 11:26am.  8lb 15.2oz. The nurse at the hospital documented her length as 22.5 inches. It's quite funny because she was so impressed that she was way off the charts in her length. She didn't think to remeasure her. The pediatrician measured her at 20 7/8 inches when she was 4 days old, so we'll go with that length. When she was born, she was grunting initially, meaning that she was having a little difficulty breathing. They didn't seem overly concerned, and after a little bit of time, the grunting resolved. Also, Dr.Kleiss was concerned about the amount I was bleeding, so I had to get medication to help stop the bleeding. It was a long, tiring morning, but we were very thankful that Emma was here and in good health! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

At maximum belly capacity.

About to leave for Piedmont Hospital. Uncomfortable.

Contracting without the help of medications.

 After my epidural.

Emma in the delivery room after her bath.

 

Steve's not so cozy bed in the postpartum room.

 

Don't think they gave me enough bands.

 

Leaving Piedmont Hospital.

The next set of photos are from the photography service that took Emma's photo when we were at the hospital.