Well, Emmalynn is one week old today! Crazy.
She has already changed so much! She sleeps all day and night still though. So, I guess we're just waiting for that to change (hopefully she'll still sleep through the night though!).
So, when I got to the hospital on Sunday night (last week) I was dilated at a 1 and effaced about 70%. They started me on Cytotec, but it didn't do what it was supposed to. Instead, I was still dilated at a 1 and still about 70% effaced six hours into treatment. But, I had MASSIVE contractions about every minute. So, the doctors didn't want to give me any more, and they wanted my contracts to slow down/get weaker. But, sadly, they didn't. So finally in the middle of the night they gave me some pain meds (and they were FABULOUS!). Well, they at least helped me sleep and put me in a really good mood. I now understand what people mean when they say 'happy pills'. I mean, it wasn't a pill, they put it right into my IV so it started working within like 10 seconds, but still. It was awesome. Although, really freaky because anything that moved terrified me. I think I now have an idea of what it must be like to be high.
Anyway, I got to sleep about 3 hours that night (yay!) and because my contractions never slowed down, they decided to start the pitocin earlier than they had planned (around 6:30AM instead of around 10AM). So, once on the pitocin, I dilated to 2, but my contractions were still coming strong and nothing changed after that. So, the doctor decided I had too much amniotic fluid by my cervix, so he broke my water around 10:30. After that, the huge contractions I was having, actually hurt! (Before that, I was thinking, this isn't so bad if they are the big ones!) Actually, they hurt REALLY badly. Haha
I got the Epidural about 30 minutes after that. It was fabulous! I didn't even feel the needle go in (and that's the part I was most scared about), but that was mostly because I was in so much pain already I'm sure. haha
Anyway, after the epidural was in, it felt SO much better (well, once it was working on both sides.. lol). So, I slept for 3 hours of labor! Yay! Then, I woke up because of extreme pressure feeling like I was supposed to push. But, no one was around, and I didn't want to call the nurse because I didn't know what things were supposed to feel like and didn't want to look silly. Oops!
Well, I spent an hour actively trying NOT to push. Then, finally a nurse came in to check me. She said the doctor was just finishing with a delivery and was headed to another, but wanted to make sure I was alright still. So she checked me and all she said was "Oh, your baby's head is right there!" in a super happy voice - not alarming or anything. So Michael and I thought she meant by the cervix ready to come...
She hurried out of the room and got the doctor. Before he even checked me or really acknowledged me he got everything ready and had Michael help me get my legs into the stirrups. The first thing he said was "You ready? On the next contraction push!" And then pointed Emmalynn's head out to Michael. She was crowning! and apparently had been for about an hour! CRAZY!
I pushed twice and she was out! yay! I didn't even need stitches or anything. Talk about easiest delivery ever!
She didn't cry at first, but she was breathing. and because she was early, she had a TON of vernix on her... she was completely white when she came out. But, she was breathing! and Healthy! and she started screaming when they started cleaning her and poking and prodding her until she heard Daddy's voice. Then she just whimpered a bit.
So, the last week or so, Emmalynn has had to have blood tests every day because she was slightly Jaundice. She now whimpers/cries when her feet are touched because she's been poked so often. Although, we got good news today! She is allowed to be out from under the lights today! She'll have to be tested again tomorrow to make sure her levels haven't gone up, but hopefully she'll be off them for good!
We were able to take her home with us, but we have had to keep her hooked up to a light 24/7. It's been VERY hard. I'm so excited to be able to hold my baby like I should be able to. And to be able to change her diaper/clothes without struggling with a light. I just really hope that her blood tests tomorrow will come back with good results again so we don't have to put her back under lights.
She is a beautiful baby. We already love her so much!
Here are some pictures. :)
This is her with her light attachment.
