Emily Grace's Birth Story

Finally, baby time!! Little Baby's due date was August 21st, however she was Frank Breech, so she was scheduled to arrive via C-section on August 13th. We should have known she wasn't going to go by the plan, lol!

Early morning on August 9th, I woke up to make one of my MANY middle of the night bathroom trips. I noticed Wayne wasn't in bed with me and figured he'd fallen asleep on the couch in the basement, watching TV. In the bathroom, I of course did my usual "checking for signs of labor" as I had been doing with EVERY SINGLE potty visit in the last month. Notta. Darn. Went back to bed and tried to get comfortable, which at 38 weeks pregnant, is a JOB. I had been laying there for a while when I suddenly felt a pop and heard a click noise down "there"...huh, that was odd. For a split second I thought "Holy crap, was that my water breaking?? Nah, couldn't have been...I don't feel any wetness." Ha ha ha, not even 10 seconds later and my bed was filling up with warm WATER!!! Oh. My. Gosh!!! I'm pretty sure I actually laughed out loud because I was in such disbelief that it was happening! At this point, I felt like I was STUCK in bed...I mean, fluid was gushing all around me, I was laying in a PUDDLE in my bed!!! Not to mention Kaitlyn had snuck into our bed in the middle of the night so I didn't want to wake her...and I certainly didn't want her to get wet from all this water! I remember glancing at the clock...4:15 ish in the morning. I tried quietly calling for Wayne...riiiiight...be quiet enough to not wake Kaitlyn, but loud enough that he'll hear me in the basement. That didn't work. So, I grabbed my phone and sent him a text message, LOL...it read something like "Come upstairs now!!! I need help!!" LOL. He didn't get it because...sleeping. At this point, I know I was laughing because I really didn't know what else to do...I mean, water was GUSHING out of me so I felt like I couldn't move, my bed was soaked, my husband couldn't hear me and my 7 year old was sleeping next to me...I honestly felt like I was in a comedy movie. So, I did what any woman with gushing water would do...I grabbed a pillow off my bed, put it between my legs and waddled my way to the bathroom! I got over to the toilet and sat there for what felt like 20 minutes, water still gushing out. I couldn't believe how much fluid was in there! Holy cow. No wonder baby was so cramped, all this water was taking up her room. When I was on the toilet, I remember looking at the trail of water I left from the bathroom door all the way to the toilet...everything was soaked! This was insane! I finally stood up, grabbed the pillow again, waddled my way down to the top of the basement stairs and yelled for Wayne. "Honey, my water broke! I need help NOW!"

I headed back to the bathroom, called the OB on call and waited for the call back. And wouldn't you know it...the doctor who was SUPPOSED to deliver Kaitlyn, but didn't because he was on vacation, was the doctor on call. Super. Dr. Markwood calls and after getting all the details says "Get to St. Luke's quickly!" I asked if I had time to shower...he said no. Darn. I felt disgusting! Though I was still leaking a ton of water, so I'm not sure what good a shower would have done. While all this is going on, Wayne got dressed and is trying to clean up our poor, soaking wet mattress, blankets, pillows and everything else that was in my path from the bed to the bathroom. I kind of remember thinking it looked a little like a horror scene from a movie, ha! I managed to put clean shorts on (which only stayed dry a minute...seriously) and wrapped a dry towel around myself like a diaper...by this point, any dignity I had left was GONE. I open the bathroom door and there's Kaitlyn...totally dressed, hair brushed, shoes on, completely ready to go to the hospital with us...she even had her new "Big Sister" shirt on. Awww, honey...such a sweetheart...she was so excited! The plan was that Uncle Chris would come over to watch her, but she was determined that she wasn't going to miss meeting her little sister. So, we said ok...Uncle Chris can meet us at the hospital so she could go with us. Sweet little girl! So, we all pile into the car, me sitting on about 5 folded up towels, plus 1 between my legs still. I think it was about 5am when we left for the hospital.

So, there we are driving to the hospital...STILL don't have a name picked out for Little Baby. So, we're throwing around names in the car on the way there, still with no luck...and I'm still laughing about the fact that I CAN'T STOP GUSHING WATER out of myself!!! I was seriously slap-happy at this point. We pull into the hospital and head back to the ER entrance and just as we do, Kaitlyn says "I like the name Emily." Wayne and I look at each other and were both like "Yea, Emily is a pretty good name!" HUH. Did Kaitlyn just name our daughter?! By now, we were at the ER entrance so Wayne grabs a wheel chair and I pile all my towels in and sit down. Here we go!!! At the hospital to have a baby for sure this time!!

We bypass triage and they wheel us right up to Labor & Delivery, right into a room. Then it hits me. Little Baby's C-section wasn't scheduled for 5 more days. I hadn't had enough time to process having a C-section yet. I hadn't watched enough youtube videos of the surgery yet. I hadn't researched as much as I wanted about the recovery yet. I HADN'T HAD ENOUGH TIME TO BE NERVOUS ABOUT IT YET!!!!! Oh my gosh, I need more time! I was so excited to meet Little Baby, but it JUST hit me that I was about to have major surgery and I was not ready for that yet. Pull yourself together, woman!! In hindsight, I'm glad it happened this way because I know the night before my scheduled c-section, I would have been a WRECK for the entire night...at least this cut it down to just a few hours. ;o)  So, it's probably better that it happened unexpected like this! I kept reading (and chuckling at) the quote that was on the wall in our hospital room..."Every child is a story yet to be told." For some reason, this helped me relax because boy, was it the truth! This little baby had a great story already and she wasn't even born yet! Nurses kept rushing in and out of our room with paperwork, questions, hooking me up to IV's and monitors, etc. We could tell there was an extreme sense of urgency in the air but everyone was pretty calm about it. Apparently, they don't want breech babies to go into labor for fear of the cord prolapsing. Dr. Markwood came in and chatted a bit. Wayne reminded him about working on his house a while back. Quit the small talk people, I'm freaking out here!! ;o)  It wasn't long before they said it was time to go. WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S TIME TO GO?! I JUST GOT HERE!! Let me relax and breath and enjoy a few more minutes of being pregnant again. Deep breath. They started wheeling me out of the room and I was like WAIT!!! I need to kiss my husband! Honestly, the thought briefly crossed my mind that it *could* be the last time we kissed...a bit dramatic, right? Never been wheeled anywhere on a hospital bed before...all you can see are the lights on the ceiling...I felt like a patient on Grey's Anatomy. I noticed the clock in the hallway just before we entered the O.R...6:13am. My water broke less than 2 hours ago. This was NOT enough time to mentally prepare for this!!!

I will NEVER forget entering the O.R. Wow. I've never had any kind of surgery before (impacted wisdom teeth don't count) so this was a totally new experience. The whole room was stark white with the brightest, biggest, round lights I've ever seen. The operating table looked so narrow and tiny, I wondered how my very pregnant self was going to fit on it. They got me up onto the table and had me stay sitting up so they could put my spinal in. They confirmed that they were going to tie my tubes during the C-section...yup. My contractions were getting pretty painful and coming pretty close together. It was at this point when I started shaking uncontrollably because I was so nervous. Of course, this is when I needed to not move AT ALL so the anesthesiologist can put the gigantic needle in my back! He's all "Try to hold still, don't move!" and I'm all "I can't help it, I'm a big ball of nerves!" I was shaking so badly and I couldn't control it...weirdest feeling ever. It seemed like it took a while for the spinal to go in and I remember thinking that it hurt a lot worse than the epidural did with Kaitlyn. Finally, they laid me down, put a hair net on me, put a oxygen tube in my nose, put the curtain up over my chest, etc. It felt like they did about a million things in a matter of 10 seconds. I remember feeling my body slowly go numb...I kept trying to move my legs together because it felt like they were falling off the table...of course, moving them didn't work because...NUMB! Then BOOM, just like that we were ready to go. I heard someone say "Bring Dad in" and then Wayne was sitting at the side of my head. Phew. Sigh of relief, I wasn't alone anymore. I heard Dr. Markwood say "knife" which was weird because I expected him to say "scalpel" like they do on TV. It was at that point when I said to Wayne "You need to talk to me because I don't want to hear what they are doing!" Yea...hearing "knife" so close to your own body is just too eerie for even this girl, who likes watching surgeries and dissecting things in anatomy class. I can't remember what he said, but I think he held my hand and brushed my hair. The anesthesiologist kept asking if I felt ok and I did. I hardly felt anything. Dr. Markwood even said "lots of pressure now" which I knew meant that little baby was close to coming out, but I hardly felt anything. God bless that anesthesiologist for doing a darn good job numbing me up!

Then it happened...crying...I hear CRYING!!!! Raspy, wet, screaming at the top of her lungs crying!! My sweet little baby girl was here and letting everyone know it! You can't describe the relief you feel when you hear those first cries, but I think most parents probably feel the same way. They whisked her over to the baby warmer and I could see the top of her orange little head. She had a lot of vernix all over her and she had one little leg straight up in the air...my little breech baby! I had worried for weeks about her having any issues from being breech for so long. I was freaked out to learn that she could have her legs 'stuck up in the air' for a while after being born. Anyways, I saw that little leg sticking up and it was just the cutest little thing! I remember the nurse saying she had a little strawberry blond hair. And she weighed 7 lbs 9 oz...just 2 ounces less than Kaitlyn. They got her all wrapped up and brought her over to us. She was screaming like crazy but as soon as they put her next to me I said something to her (I can't remember what) and she instantly got quiet. She heard Mommy's voice! She was wide eyed and listening to her Mommy. Sigh. Best. Moment. Ever. I kissed her sweet little cheeks, which were about the ONLY part of her showing from under the many blankets and hats she had on, LOL. Wayne took a few pictures of us (selfie with the baby!) and then the nurse took the baby back. Now they were doing my tubal and stitching me back up...at some point during all of this, Wayne (didn't tell me then, but now I know) looked down and saw LOTS of my blood on the floor, creeping toward his shoes. He told one of the nurses that he needed to step out for a minute. Oh my gosh, my husband better not pass out!!! He was back within a minute or so...phew!

The rest of this is pretty blurry...closing me up didn't take very long and I was wheeled back to my room pretty quickly. I believe my mom was there waiting. And Chris and Kaitlyn were back from getting breakfast too. I remember being laid back pretty far, so when they brought the baby in it was hard to hold her. This was one of my fears about having a C-section...I wanted to enjoy snuggling with my baby and not have to worry about being in pain...but, it is what it is. I started feeding her, but it was impossible to burp her since I was laying down, so I handed her off to Wayne, who finished feeding her the bottle. I remember feeling very awake and like I had a lot of energy...something I didn't have after birthing Kaitlyn! Maybe a C-section was the way to go after all...I only thought this because I was still VERY drugged up! ;o)  After she finished eating, Wayne handed her off to Grandma Maloch, who was proud as punch to hold another granddaughter. And then, Wayne took her and got Kaitlyn ready to hold her brand new little sister. Kaitlyn was obviously nervous about holding her, but she was VERY proud too! Sweetest thing I've ever seen is my first baby holding my second baby!! My heart almost exploded. :o) Not too long after Kaitlyn held her, Aundrea showed up (she had been visiting her little sister that night) and got her turn to snuggle little baby too. They were both VERY proud big sisters and I was one proud mama! At some point, Wayne and I had decided on Little Baby's first name being Emily...the name Kaitlyn picked when we arrived at the hospital. We were still undecided about her middle name though...Wayne wanted Ann, because she was born on our wedding ANNiversary...I thought that was a bit too cheesy though. I really loved the name Grace. So, since Kaitlyn picked her first name, we asked Aundrea which middle name she liked...and she said Grace...so, Emily Grace it is! The rest of the day was a blur of visitors, snuggles, bottles and naps but I do remember Grandma Maloch calling to say that Kaitlyn was really missing us and was it ok if they came back to visit that evening...of course! Poor Kaitlyn was missing her mama...this plus all my raging pregnancy hormones made me cry, lol. Anyways, Grandma brought the big girls back that evening for another visit and then Wayne and I settled in for our first night with Little Baby...Emily Grace!

Official Birth Stats:
Emily Grace
August 9th, 2015 (Mommy and Daddy's 12th wedding anniversary!)
6:44am
7 lb 9 oz
20.25" long