Emma's Birth Story, most of it anyways.

After 3 weeks of bed rest we decided to get ribs at a local yummy place for dinner. We got there and sat down and I immediately started getting diarrhea (too much information sorry). So, we left shortly after and headed home. Something had felt “off” for most of the of the day and the baby hadn’t moved most of the day so with my gut instinct we headed to the hospital on Friday at 10 p.m., February 17, 2006. By the time I was settled into a triage I had started having back contractions fairly regularly. They gave me a shot of terbutaline, which held off the contractions for about an hour. During this time they did the fetal fribronectin protein test and checked my cervix. I had dilated to a good 2. This was not good. Since I had dilated more, and the test came back positive they admitted me to the hospital for betamethisone steroids for the baby (to help mature the lungs) and started me on magnesium to ward off the contractions. The contractions eased overnight. They gave me some ambien to sleep, and I got the best night’s rest that I‘ve had in a long time.
I started having more bloody mucous when I woke up but they didn’t check me. They did an ultrasound and determined baby’s weight to be about 2 lbs. 4 oz. Around 2 p.m. my water broke. No doubt about it. Contractions started again about 5 minutes later. By 2:30 I had gone from 2 cm to 5 cm. dilated. I was haing strong contractions and my water was gushing. The magnesium was no longer working. They made the decision to start the cesarean since she was breach.

By 3, I was in the operating room and 7 cm. dilated. My labor was going so quickly. I was prepped and the section had started. My spinal was awesome. The baby was born at 3:26, February 18, 2006. Weighing 2 lbs 2 oz. And 14.5 inches. We had called our pastor before the section asking him to come ASAP to baptize her after birth. It just so happened that he got there to baptize her and pray over her right as I was heading from recovery to the postpartum ward so I got to see her baptism ( Pastor Manning did it with some enfamil water they gave him in the NICU. The bottle is still sitting by her bedside. Unfortunately, I couldn’t touch her since I hadn’t washed my hands. I’m now in my postpartum room feeling pretty good (I started writing this about 5 minutes after getting into my room) and it's about 2 hours after surgery. Susan is here visiting and will take this home to post to everyone on the Delphi forums and hopefully will have pictures to post too.

Anyways, baby no name as she was so affectionately called in the womb was nameless until birth and somehow Emma Grace was decided quickly. We are thrilled to be "new" parents once again, she is tiny, but doing well for now. It will be a tough next few weeks and I’m not sure how much you’ll hear from me. Good thoughts, prayers and warm wishes are welcomed and we are thankful for them!