Emerson's Birth Story, Part One

Well, my life has changed drastically since my last post, in one way for the worse and in one way for the better. On November 7, 2011, my mother passed away unexpectedly, thus explaining my absence from blogging. I have not been able to bring myself to write about it, and I don't know when I will be able to.

On the other hand, another big change has happened since my last post. Emerson arrived! Before I forget too many of the details, I wanted to write her birth story down so that one day she can go back and read about it.

My due date was always January 17, but all along I felt like she would arrive early. Everyone who saw me also seemed to think that I "wouldn't make it" til my due date, as I had been carrying low throughout the whole pregnancy. But each week, as I went for my checkups and we neared January 17, I began to lose hope that she would arrive by her due date. I had made some initial progress early on (effacing to 50% at week 36), but from there, it just stayed the same until week 39. At my 39 week appointment, Michael went with me, as we knew we would be making some decisions regarding induction, as my doctor had mentioned it several times before.

When he went to check me, I was excited to hear that I had dilated 1-2 centimeters, which was enough for my doctor to do a "membrane sweep" (ouch!) and also enough for him to prompt us to schedule an induction. Now, I know many people are not fans of inductions, as they feel that they should let nature run its course and the baby come on its own, but as my doctor explained it, the longer the baby stays in there, the bigger it gets, thus the tougher the delivery may get. So, he had said all along that as long as I was progressed enough for him to break my water, an induction would be a good choice.

After we talked to the doctor, we got the induction scheduled for the following Thursday, January 19, which was the earliest date they had available at the time. The woman who scheduled it let me know that they often had earlier openings come available, so she would call if that were to happen. Once it was scheduled, we called our families to let them know that we would be meeting Miss Emmie by the next Thursday!

Fast forward to the next day -- Friday, January 13. I was sitting at my desk, knowing it would be my last day at work for a while, as I was going to take the whole week off before her birth to relax and get some things done, when my phone rang and I saw that it was my doctor's office calling. I answered and it was the lady who had scheduled my induction, letting me know that my appointment had been bumped to Monday, January 16 and to be at the hospital at 4:30 a.m. I immediately called Michael, who almost dropped the phone from shock and excitement. All of the sudden, we went from having nearly a week left just the two of us to having one weekend left!

This is getting long, so I am going to break it up into parts. Stay tuned!