Emmelyn Anne Has Arrived!

Emmelyn Anne arrived healthy and happy on January 14, 2009 at 3:49 PM. She was 19.5 inches long and 7 pounds, 15 ounces.

On the 13th we had our 39 week check-up and I was 2 centimeters dilated, 90% effaced and at 0 station. We knew she was ready to come soon, but we didn't expect it to be that night.

My water broke at 11:30 PM on the 13th and after talking to our doctor we decided to ride it out at home until the contractions were closer. The contractions started at about 6 minutes apart and were as close as 3 minutes apart when I decided to take a shower in preparation for the ride to the hospital. Unfortunately, taking a shower only made the length between my contractions longer and they began to fluctuate from 3 minutes apart to sometimes 15 minutes apart.

After an entire night of counting contractions and trying to sleep, we decided to head to the hospital at 7 AM so someone else could count them and I could rest. Upon arriving at the hospital we found out that I was only 3 centimeters dilated after a whole night of contractions. Granted, they were mild, but I was hoping for a little more dilation after a whole night.

The doctor decided to augment my labor with pitocin. We started an epidural and pitocin at approximately the same time on the 14th. I believe it was around 11 AM. The doctor told us that we could expect to have the baby around 8 PM that evening. That seemed like a lifetime away at that point. We had both been awake since the morning of the 13th and we hadn't even really started active labor yet.

I continued to contract more and could tell that they were closer and more intense due to the pitocin. The epidural was working well at keeping the edge off and I was pretty comfortable. The doctor came back to check on me at about 2:30 PM and I was 6 centimeters dilated. I thought that was a pretty good progression, but apparently he didn't agree. He decided to up my pitocin level from 4 to 7. The only problem was that he also forgot to have the epidural ramped up at the same time.

Within minutes I began to have severe contractions less than a minute apart. It was like I didn't even have an epidural and it was the worse pain I ever felt. The only way to get through them was to hold as hard as I could onto the bed rails and squeeze. Breathing exercises also seemed to help a little, but not much. I was begging for the anesthesiologist to return and fix my epidural, but he just happened to be in another surgery. It took him 20 minutes to return and by that time I was fully dilated to 10 centimeters. That's right, I dilated 4 centimeters in 20 minutes. Luckily, the anesthesiologist gave me several doses of another medication that kicked in right as I started to push. This was a godsend because I was able to push without any feeling at all and Emmelyn arrived 40 minutes later at 3:49 PM.

All in all, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't change a thing. The painful contractions lasted only 20 minutes rather than 20 hours and I couldn't feel a thing when pushing, which I think is ideal. I hate to admit it, but I think the labor was pretty easy compared to what I expected. It may have technically lasted 17 hours, but it was only painful for about 20 minutes. I'll take that any day!