emma's birth story

it is hard to believe that emma is 2 weeks old. i wanted to record her birth story earlier because i don't trust my memory to remember the little details for too long (the times are already getting fuzzy), but the first week of emma's life didn't go quite as we planned. i had time to record the story of her birth, just not the emotional energy to actually do it (but that is the subject of another blog post to come). but things have settled down and we've gotten back to normal life. well, the new normal!

monday, april 11
5:30 am - our alarm goes off. it's the BIG day! we're having a baby! we throw last minute items into our hospital bag and i make myself some scrambled eggs because i had been told to have a good breakfast before we headed to the hospital. i'm feeling nervous about being induced. it's almost like it's the first time that i've actually stopped and thought about it and suddenly reality is setting in.
6:00 am - i call the hospital to make sure they have room for us. they don't! definitely not what we wanted to hear. it seems we are going to have to wait a little longer to meet our little girl. we're not too keen on waiting. of course we have no idea how long we will be waiting for, which makes the waiting even harder. even though i had taken a shower the night before i decided to take another one to kill some time because i was too wound up to go back to bed. sometime before 7:00 am kari arrives. she's on logan duty while we're at the hospital.
8:30ish am - we still haven't heard from the hospital and are going a little stir crazy. we decide we need to get out of the house and head to the cherry creek mall for logan to play. we eat a cinnabon (nothing like drowning your sorrows in cinnabon) and wait impatiently for the phone to ring. eventually logan is done playing and we leave. we had brought 2 cars in case we heard from the hospital while we were there and as we're walking back to the cars i say to dave, "i guess we're headed back home?" it seem like torture to go home and just wait again. but it did give us a chance to spend more time with logan. we read books and were able to put him down for his nap. i remember thinking, "so help me if we're still here when he wakes up from his nap!" but within 5 minutes of putting him down the phone rings and we're told to head to the hospital (i think it was just before 11:00 am). any nervousness i felt when i woke up that morning is completely gone and i am READY to have a baby (it felt like a really LONG 5 hours).
11:15 or 11:30 am - we get to the hospital, get checked in, head up to our room and answer a million questions about my health.

12:30 or 1:00 pm - i get started on antibiotics for strep b.
2:00 pm - they start me on pitocin and increase the dose every 15 minutes. the contractions still aren't really bad. in fact, i don't think i was feeling a lot of them.
2:30 pm - they break my water and immediately i feel more intense contractions. with logan i waited until the contractions were awful before i got my epidural. i decided there was no use in doing that again since i knew i wanted the epidural, so about 10 minutes later i request my epidural. by 3:00 pm i have my epidural and i'm feeling good! i love that thing! i can still feel pressure from the contractions and the length of time each contraction lasts, but no pain. i remember thinking during some of the long contractions, "if i'm feeling this much pressure, this must be a doozy of a contraction. i'm so glad i can't feel the pain!" we talk, watch tv and i eat lots of popsicles.

5:28 pm - the nurse checks my dilation and it's go time. we can't believe it! suddenly things are happening really fast. dave and i had just been talking and wondering if she would be born early enough for logan to come and meet her before he went to bed for the night. she has me push (3 times through one contraction) and they can see her head. the nurse has me stop pushing while she calls our doctor.

5:30 pm - we call our parents and kari and tell them to come to the hospital at 6:30 pm. our baby girl is going to be here soon!!
our doctor christee arrives, i push 9 more times (through 3 contractions)
5:42 pm - emma arrives!

cristee our doctor. we LOVE her! (side note: not a very flattering picture of her because she is seriously gorgeous)

i'm pretty sure she's already got him wrapped around her little finger by this point :)

love!



from the very first moment, logan loved emma and wanted to give her kisses. 2 weeks in and his love for her hasn't waned and the kisses continue to be plentiful!


proud grandparents! we're so lucky to live so close to our families.

our first family picture of four! i love this guy!