Catching Up

So this is how our little one began. This was from my 20 week ultrasound. The first pic on the left is her freaky alien skull photo that always makes me laugh. In the one on the right you can see her little hand; bottom left is a shot looking down on her legs; and bottom right is a profile. It was kind of funny because the doctor was getting frustrated 'cause emma was moving so much that it made it difficult for the doctor to check the baby like she needed to.

Here's one of the first pictures of her right after she was born on Sunday Sept. 9th at 1:08 pm. I'd been having contractions almost all day saturday and was trying to keep myself busy so i would kick myself into labor. By 10pm they were getting a little more intense, and by 11 we finally decided to clock them. Then at 11:30 during a particularly uncomfortable contraction i went to get up (since i was laying down) and felt a pop. As soon as i got up, i found my water broke, so off we went to orem community hospital.

When we got there, no one was at the front desk, so as i'm trying to breath through some incredibly painful contractions, brad run's out to see if he can find someone. Meanwhile i yell through the glass window to see if anyone would hear me. Finally a nurse came and buzzed us in. She got me ready with iv's and what-not and called for the anesthesiologist. When he finally got there around 1 or 2 am it was this big bear of a granpa looking man in a plaid shirt, jeans, and slippers. Apparently he was on call. He was such a sweet gentle giant who talked me through it all.

By that time Rheanna had gotten there and even though she was pretty vocal about not wanting to see the delivery, she sat to watch me get my epidural (which for those of you who don't know, involves a big needle getting stuck in between vertebrae in your lower back). She covered her face with her hands but peeked through her fingers. The man had to do it a couple of times becuase the needle wasn't taking. Suprisingly it wasn't that bad, it felt really weird, but not very painful. Oh, so your supposed to hold really still, but as soon as my water broke, my body began shaking tons so that made me a bit nervous while i was getting the epidural, but all went well. (Katie, i'm sorry for all the gramatical errors, want to be my editor? ;) )

So then after that was taken care of, mom newbold got to the hospital and we all got cozy (well as cozy as you can get in a hospital) for the night. I didn't really sleep at all, i just laid there trying not to shake, or throw up. Yes folks, i had morning sickness to the end, not to mention i was just getting over a very nasty cold. So by 6 am i had only progressed to 5cm and the new nurse Debbi (who would become a favorite of ours) began the pitocin to see if they could get the ball rolling. After a couple of hours i still hadn't progressed as much as they had wanted and uped my dosage more and began talking about a c-section if i didn't progress within the next couple of hours. And that's when i seriously began to pray. I was so scared, but sure enough my contractions picked up and began to be regular and i progressed and thanked God every time a contraction came (mind you i couldn't feel them...oh sweet sweet epidural, how i love you so!).

So the nurse went to call my doctor who had gone to church after he had last checked me. When she came back she had brad grab a leg told my brother jacob to get out of the room (he didn't protest) and while she grabbed the other i began pushing. Who knew holding one's breath could take so much energy! Well i of course wanted to see everything, so while nurse Debbi went to find a mirror for me, she told Rheanna to get up, grab a leg and help me push...so much for not seeing my delivery. ;) Within 30 min of pushing, our little Emma arrived. It was amazing! Seriously, labor and delivery was probably the easiest part of my pregnancy.

While everyone gathered around little emma while the doctors cleaned her up i lay half awake with a fever in bed. I finally felt like i could rest. i've never been so tired in my life. The rest of that day is a bit of a blur.

Although i don't really care for this picture to be revealed to the world, me looking so sexy and all, i figure i'll make the sacrifice. This was the next day. I think Eddie might have taken this one. As you might notice, she's a bit yellow with jaundice. Rheanna has pictures of that on her camera that i'll try and get. They're pretty funny. We had to keep her under lights in a machine that looked like a tanning bed for babies.

This was taken right after her first bath. Such a proud papa. It's funny 'cause after Emma was born, almost everyone forgot about me. (That was to be expected.) Plus, i was pretty out of it anyways. Anywho, everyone left the room to go watch Emma get her first bath (which i expected and was ok with), and the nurse had taken off the machine that monitored my blood pressure which caused an alarm to go off. I laid there trying to sleep expecting someone to take note of the alarm for like 10-15 min. Needless to say i got little rest, and when i finally called for a nurse, no more than a minute or two passed by when brad came back with the

baby. Asi es!

Sorry if this is all funky. Again i'm learning how to do this little by little. Plus i have to write this in like 1 or 2 min intervals, or if i'm lucky and emma naps without me holding her, 10-30 min. I think i started writing this blog at 2 or 3 pm and it's now 9. All in a days work. ;) I really do love being a mom...i now understand why we celebrate mothers day...mom's really deserve it, thanks mom for all you've done, you're truly one of a kind! I'll try doing a blog on Emma's blessing tomorrow.