Hello and Goodbye June

Emri's Birth Story

I know it's been forever since I've updated... but I guess that's what happens when you have a baby.

So I'll do a little recapping...

My due date Feb. 15 came and went without a baby, I ended up going a week over and

getting induced, Feb. 22. I had a hard time sleeping the night before, I was so nervous and anxious. We were supposed to be at the hospital between 7:30 and 8:00am but I was up at 6:00, I believe, running around trying to make sure everything was

ready to bring BABY home!

And I couldn't sleep anymore.

So we got to the hospital early and checked in and then we had to wait. That is the hardest waiting I had to do all pregnancy. I was thinking about backing out, then thinking OK I'm ready NOW. But eventually we got in a room and my nurse asked me a million questions and eventually, what kind of pain medication I wanted. Haha! I told her I didn't want any... nothing! And I saw it on her face, she didn't think I could do it. Hehe. But she respected my wish, I told her not to even ask me. Then I got all hooked up to everything and they started me on pitocin about 9am. I didn't really start "feeling" the contractions 'til about 11am. They were the meh, it kind of hurts contractions until around 2pm they were getting REALLY bad.

And I was thinking that I still had hours and hours to go. It was getting tougher and tougher to hold off from saying GIVE ME SOMETHING! But I kept going back and forth in my head, I really didn't want to get anything. I just kept thinking, people do this ALL the time, I can do it, I can. But the pain was so intense I couldn't focus on anything else and I finally broke and said I want an epidural. I was so tired I just wanted to sleep. BUT THEN, my body took over and pushed instinctively. I didn't say anything the first time but then it happened again and so I told the nurse I was pushing. So she said well maybe I was further than we thought. Sure enough, she said, you're at a 9! That was the best news! I knew I could do it from here on out. So I said exnay on the epidural, I don't want it! Anyway, because I was induced they shut off the pitocin after that and I thought my body would just take over at that point, but unfortunately it didn't. I went from pushing to feeling NOTHING. That was super frustrating.

So I had to wait to work up to the pain again, so fun. Then I pushed for an hour and a half and we said hello to little Emri and 3:10pm on the 22nd! I got lucky and had a really short labor, SO much shorter than I was expecting (which was marvelous!) And I managed to make it without ANY medication! I was so glad I was able to do that.

Anyway, it was the best day, rough, but so rewarding. I couldn't believe we finally had our precious little one with us. She was 6lbs 15oz and 19 inches long. A perfect baby!

The first few days of her life were a little rough though, probably more on Tyler and me than on Emri. But she had jaundice and had to go under the bili lights which kept us in the hospital an extra night. And we had a hard time getting her to eat and latch and she dropped down to about 6lbs 4oz (which is pretty normal). But she was slow to gain over the first couple of months. She got things figured out at about 2 months and now my happy 4 month old is getting to be a lil' chunker!

It is so amazing to watch our little one grow from day to day, month to month. She is a very good baby, and very happy. She smiles and even giggles from time to time. She is changing to much and getting smarter with each day. We are so in love with our little one, she is such a special blessing and it is so wonderful to have such a new and sweet spirit in our home.

I hope to keep this updated and with new pictures from here on out. We have lots going on here, I'll try to keep y'all posted on what's happenin'!