After dropping Logan and Lia off at school and Ella off at a friend's house for a play date, I headed into Tacoma for Emmett's weekly stress test on the Thursday morning, January 10th. Since Emmett has passed his weekly stress test with "flying colors" every week since I first started having them at 32 weeks, I really didn't think that this appointment would be any different. After getting hooked up for the stress test, the nurse quickly noticed that a deceleration had occurred (a massive drop in the baby's heart rate) within the first one or two minutes of the 20 minute test. She didn't mention anything until the end of the test when she pointed out that the rest of the test was "beautiful" with the exception of this one deceleration that happened while I was having a contraction. Since I couldn't feel the contraction happening, I was very surprised to hear all of this. She said that this was not a good thing because this meant that the blood flow through the umbilical cord from the placenta to the heart was being restricted by the contraction which then caused the baby's heart rate to drop. After talking it over with the doctor, the nurse came back in and said that the doctor wanted me to check into the hospital for further monitoring and a possible induction that evening. Since I am a planner and was completely unprepared for this news, I actually burst into tears right then and there. After calming me down a bit, the nurse sent me on my way to meet with my doctor who I was already scheduled to see for my weekly appointment.
My doctor came in and explained that these decelerations put my baby through unnecessary stress and can also be very unsafe for him. She frankly said, "We just don't want the placenta to poop out on you." Since I had already hit my 38-week mark, she said that there was really no point in keeping this baby inside of me for six more days until my scheduled induction and that it would probably be the safest and smartest thing to just get the baby out today. However, since she was not the doctor on call at the hospital, she explained that Dr. El Alam would be the one to make this final decision. After talking this over with her, I asked for permission to run home to get a few things in order. After thinking about it, she asked me how much time I would need. I told her two hours (including the one-hour, round trip drive to Puyallup and back to Tacoma). Luckily she agreed and off I went!
On the drive home, I was able to reach my mom at home, Ron at work, and my friend watching Ella. I asked my mom to pack a bag and drive to Puyallup as soon as she could, I told Ron to leave work and come home and pack a bag, and I asked my friend if she could just bring Ella home for me so that I didn't have to waste extra time driving to pick her up. Everyone complied and before I knew it, Ron and I were swirling around our house trying to do a million things at once. Luckily, my mom pulled up right as we were ready to leave. I was able to go over the next two days' school schedules and activities with my mom and discuss dinner options before walking out the door with Ron and heading into the unknown!
After arriving at the hospital at 2 p.m., Ron and I checked in and were ushered up to the 14th floor where the labor and delivery floor is located. We were then asked to wait in a waiting room for about 30 minutes before being escorted to the "triage unit" where stress tests are performed. We were greeted by a very nice nurse named Ursula who took care of us until her shift ended at 7 p.m. During this time, she performed another stress test on our baby and told us that he had had three more decelerations. Dr. El Alam eventually came in to talk to us and told us the same thing that the OB earlier in the day had said. He wanted to go ahead with the induction that night to prevent the baby from being in any more danger over the next six days. Taking a big gulp, I agreed and the induction started a little before 7 p.m.
Since the labor and delivery floor was at full capacity (just like the night I checked into the same hospital almost 11 years ago to deliver Lia), Ron and I were not able to leave our tiny partition in the triage unit until 9:45 that night. As a result, the doctor actually began my induction in our little partition by first inserting a "Foley Bulb" up next to my cervix. He chose to do this first to help with my dilation (by hopefully a few centimeters) before starting pitocin. He said that the Foley Bulb would fall out on its own when I was dilated to a 4 or 5 cm and that it could take up to 12 hours. What is funny about this entire process is that I had actually started to feel contractions around 5 p.m. that evening. Every time I felt a little cramp, I wood look at the monitor and see a contraction taking place. In addition, I had gone from zero dilation that morning at my doctor's appointment to 1 cm by the time the doctor put the bulb inside of me. So, by total coincidence, I had started to go into labor on the same day. As a result, this helped my induction to go faster. This was evidenced by the fact that the Foley Bulb fell out while I was going to the bathroom just 1.5 hours later at 8:30. Although I was only dilated to 2 cm at this point, our new nurse named Kate (who had started her shift with us at 7 p.m.) said that she was pretty confident that I would be having a baby that night due to the fact that I had started to go into labor on my own and because this was my fourth delivery. And, how right she ended up being.
Although the bulb had fallen out at 8:30, the doctor waited to start my pitocen until I had got checked into my own room which finally happened about an hour later at 9:30. At 9:45, the nurse started the pitocin and by 11 p.m, the contractions were so intense and powerful that I asked for an epidural. By the time the anesthesiologist arrived to give me my epidural an half hour later, my back labor had kicked in and I was in serious pain. I was so relieved that he had arrived in time to give me an epidural as I did not want to go through natural child birth again like I did with Ella! By midnight, the epidural was done and I started to get some relief. The nurse checked me at 1 a.m. and said that I had dilated to 6 cm. She then turned off the light and let Ron and I rest for a few hours while I continued to dilate. It was a blessing that this happened in the middle of the night as I was able to just close my eyes and try to get some sleep instead of being wide awake in the middle of the day watching the minutes tick by on the clock. By 5 a.m. the pressure had gotten so bad, I called our nurse back in to check me. Sure enough, I was completely dilated to 10 cm and was fully effaced and ready to push. She quickly went to get the doctor and by 5:25, everyone was in the room ready to go. Luckily, I only had to push for 10 minutes before baby Emmett came into the world at 5:35 a.m. Even with the epidural, the pressure and pain was pretty intense during his delivery, but I am so grateful that I wasn't feeling the contractions at the same time. In addition, I was even more grateful that I was able to deliver this baby vaginally instead of by an emergency c-section which was still a real possibility due to the fact that my placenta was so close to my cervix. When Emmett finally came out and was placed upon my chest, I was just overcome by all of these feelings of relief, joy, and even some disbelief that I was finally holding this baby in my arms after so many years of waiting for him and wanting him. His healthy and successful arrival into the world was just one more miracle to add to the list of many miracles that had taken place along our journey of waiting for Emmett to come to earth and be a part of our family. I am just so grateful to Heavenly Father for healing my broken heart, hearing and answering our prayers, and for finally completing our family after so many years.
Finally checked into our labor and delivery room waiting to start the pitocin with my nurse, Kate, at my side.
Ready to go!
And here he is! Baby Emmett getting "worked on" by the nurse after his arrival into the world.
Another close up of our boy minutes after coming into the world.
Weighing baby Emmett at 8 pounds, .06 ounces, which really is amazing considering the fact that he was a 2-vessel cord baby who came 11 days early! Our nurse, Kate, called him a "little champion."
An exhausted, yet happy, mama holding our baby boy for one of the first times!
Giving him his first kiss!
An adorable and swaddled baby fast asleep in his bassinet once we moved down to the maternity floor.
We arranged to have Ron drive back to Puyallup a few hours after Emmett's birth to check the kids out of school and to pick up my mom and Ella at the house. He then drove everyone out to the hospital to meet the baby for the first time. The kids were so excited when they came into the room and saw Emmett for the first time. When they all walked in the door, I started crying because I was just so happy to finally have our family complete for the very first time. This in turn caused my mom and even Ron (who was filming the entire thing) to start crying, too.
Our first family photo. I can't believe that we are finally a family of six! This has been a dream of mine for years.
All of the children wanted to hold their baby brother. Lia got to go first!
Ella was next!
And, lastly, it was Logan's turn.
And, of course, grandma got to hold her 14th grandchild, too!
A close-up of our cutie in grandma's arms.
Mama and baby snuggling before the kids and grandma left Friday afternoon to head back home.
After a restless night sleep in the hospital, the nurse came in bright and early Saturday morning, January 12th, once she heard Emmett crying. There were several things we had to get done on our "check out" list before being allowed to leave the hospital at around noon that day. One of the things that needed to be done was getting Emmett's foot prints stamped on a certificate.
And, also his first bath. He did pretty good until the end when she had to take him out of the warm water and dry him off in the cold air.
A relaxed Emmett enjoying his bath.
Drying off a very unhappy Emmett.
Emmett all dressed in his going-home-from-the-hospital outfit.
A full body shot of our boy in his dinosaur-themed outfit.
A few pictures with mama in his new outfit all wrapped up in his new blanket before heading home.
And another one. I loved that he opened his eyes for these pictures.
One more close-up of Emmett and me.
Another kiss before hitting the road.
A close-up of our boy with his swollen eyes. Travelling through the birth canal left his eyes a little swollen and puffy.
And, we're off! Ron and I checking out of the maternity ward before heading home.
Emmett's first card ride driving home from the hospital.
Emmett was born on a beautiful, sunny, but chilly, day in January and the next day was just the same. Here is a stunning view of Mt. Rainier that I managed to take from the freeway on our drive home from Tacoma.
We arrived home at lunch time to three very excited and happy children. They were so happy to have Emmett home! Here is the picture I got of all three of them after first bringing Emmett into the house.
Another shot of the children lovingly looking down at their brother. Logan especially acted so cute after we first brought Emmett into the house. After we put him down on the floor and took these pictures, Ron and I overhead Logan asking Emmett what is his favorite candy.
While we were at the hospital, all of the children made posters for Emmett and taped them to the wall by the back door. Here is Lia's "Welcome Home" poster.
Here is the precious note that Lia wrote for Emmett that made both my mom and I cry.
Logan's darling pictures of a swaddled Emmett and of the baby and me standing next to the crib.
Ella's precious pictures of Ron and me bathing Emmett and also feeding him in bed.
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