Emma Margaret

Around 10:00 pm on April 30th (my due date), the Braxton Hicks contractions started getting a lot stronger...but still did not hurt at all. They were a little consistent for about 40 min. and then started going all over the place, again. So, at midnight I decided to go to bed. At 1:30 am on May 1st, I jolted out of bed with a very painful contraction. About three mins. later I had another one! After a few of those, we decided to call my parents. They needed to come up and stay with Lea so we could head to the hospital. By 2 am, my contractions were only 2 min. apart! We called our friend, Amie, to come over because we didn't think we could wait for my parents. Once Amie arrived, we rushed to the hospital, arriving just before 2:30 am. I was taken to a room right away and as we walked through the door, I told the nurses I needed to push! Just after I sat down on the bed, my water broke and Emma was crowning. She was born at 2:49 am. :)

A big girl, weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces and measuring 21 1/2 inches long. Everything happened SO fast... unfortunately, that meant she swallowed a lot of fluid. Also, her oxygen levels were low. I got to hold her for maybe 20 seconds and then she was taken to the Special Care Nursery. They hooked her up with oxygen and also discovered that her blood glucose level was low, so she got an IV for glucose fluids, too. We didn't get back to see her until about 5:00 am.

Check out all that hair!!

I haven't been able to nurse her, yet, because of the oxygen. She was just taken off of it, though, at around 7:00 am. So, as long as she is doing well without it, I can go nurse her! Now, we're just waiting on the glucose IV. They have already started weaning her off the glucose so our hopes are high that she will be done with that soon, too. But that's not the end of it... I had GBS (Group B Strep) with this pregnancy and since my labor was SO fast, I was unable to get an antibiotic in time. So, little Miss Emma has to have two antibiotics (one every 12 hours and the other every 24 hours) to be sure that she doesn't get GBS.

It sure is strange sitting in a big, empty, quiet hospital room with NO baby! I can't wait to have her here with me. Until then I am just resting and twiddling my thumbs with Kevin. :)