Emma Louise Eystad- 10/10/2010

Do you believe it--Emma Louise Eystad has graced us with her presence! It was a great week-end..here are the highlights and details :)



Friday-
Dr's appt went better than it has been in the past. I went in and she offered to schedule an induction for the following week. I offered Thursday (10/14) but she wanted Tuesday or Wed at the latest. I loved the idea. Then, she asked if I minded if she scraped my membranes. It was perfect since I was going to ask her to do it. Yes, it hurt but it was all very worth it.


I began having cramping and contractions instantly and they lasted through the night. Corey really wanted to go to the first night of the Fall Classic in Alexandria and I agreed that we should do something outside the house, even though I didn't feel too well. We left the race track and I was having contractions about every 5-6 minutes apart but I would have a couple and then they would go away and they were sparatic. Once we got home, I fell asleep for the night.

Saturday-
I woke up with some cramping but nothing major. Now that there was an induction date in mind I felt like I had a bunch of things to do, they are all minor and were not "needed." The only required thing was to go to the grocery store. Corey and I hung out at the house for a while and then decided to hit the road and run errands. I was having minor contractions and a lot of cramping.

We got to town and decided to drive through our old neighborhood, as we did that we saw our friend Siri had just gotten home so we decided to stop and say "hi" after our convo we decided to all go out to lunch to Famous Dave's. First, we stopped at Shopko to look for something and ended up picking up some munchy food. I also picked up Caster Oil, even though I didn't really want to do it I figured I would drink some that afternoon and hope to push things for her due date.

At Famous Dave's we had lunch and as I jumped off the tall bar stool I felt a gush of liquid..which I wrote off as urine. I ran to the bathroom and came back out announcing it was a good time to leave. We dropped Siri off and I begged Corey to go to Crafts Direct. I really wanted him to paint this thing for her room. I figured, we were right next door so we would stop there and then just spend the extra $$ and have our groceries delivered since I was no longer up for it and contractions had started again. As we left Crafts Direct, I had more liquid escape my body. I got in the car and called the first person I could think of that delivered recently and didn't get induced-Jennifer Unger. She told me she was thinking my water broke and it wasn't just 'random' which is what I kind of wrote it off as. My contractions began to get more regular between 4 and 6 minutes. Even though we were in town we decided to run home and get our packed bags...even though we had just discussed it that morning that we should leave it in the car. My contractions continued to stay regular and my pants...wetter. By the time we got to our house..which didn't take much time since I told Corey to "step on it" since my contractions were getting stronger..and the entire front of my pants were wet. We ran in the house, grabbed our things (and the puppie's overnight bag) and I changed. We headed back in to town and I called the hospital to let them know to expect us. We also called Siri back since she had planned to watch Odie. She met us at the hospital and got him.

Here are the highlights for the rest of the day:
3:37pm: Checked in to the hospital and got settled in to the Triage area. Water was still leaking. I changed in to a gown and was checked. Dilated to 3. Contractions were 4-5 min. apart and getting stronger.
5:30- received Epidural- yes it was early but I was dilated to 3.5 and they were getting stronger and longer. My nurse recommended that whenever I wanted it to get it.
8:00- received Petocin to continue my contractions.
9:00- we are used to be sleeping by this time..so with the epidural I was comfortable and we were resting. We watched the Twins and The Office episodes. Contractions were 3-5 min apart.
9:30- dilated to 5 with lots of pressure, also got a headache.
10:15- Emma's heartbeat went up and I had a fever & headache so they started me on oxygen.

Sunday
12am- dilated to 5.5
12:40am- dilated to 9--Corey took a walk and found 10 babies in the Nursery--Busy Saturday!
1:40 am- dilated to 10
2:00 am- started pushing
5:01am- delivery--Yes I pushed for 3 full hours during every contraction. Even with the epidural the pressure and "ring of fire" (not to mention my extreme exhaustion) was enough to make me scream, cry, and even swear.

Emma was 8 lbs 10 ounces and 21" long. I wonder how she fit in my belly! Once delivered they cleaned both of us up and about 6am we moved to a new room. We requested they take Emma to the nursery so we could try and get sleep before hosting visitors. We slept from 7-9 before we woke up and got ready for the day.

Sunday was a day full of visitors and the NFL (it just wouldn't be the same without it!).

We are debating about being discharged today (Monday) we will see how Emma and I are doing around 12pm and we will make the decision.

Even though delivery was way different (and parts worse) than I had imagined, everything happened just as I had prayed it would. My water broke on my own, we went in on our own, and she was born 10/10/2010. We couldn't be happier.

For all those of you worried about Corey- he was fantastic!!! He even watched the birth and cut the umbilical cord- he was a champ and is a very proud daddy :)