I haven't posted Emily's birth story here, so here it is!
Emily had a two vessel cord - which means she had one vein and one artery, instead of two veins and one artery. So I had to have extra ultrasounds to make sure she was okay.
A couple of weeks before my EDD, I had my last ultrasound. Throughout my pregnancy, Emily was measuring a bit small, but all of a sudden at my last one she was estimated to be 8 lbs.
My ob was concerned about letting me go past my due date due to complications that can arise from the two vessel cord, so my induction date was set for my due date, October 17th.
Todd and I got to the hospital very early in the morning. They set me up in a room, and started me on pitocen. This started my contractions really going (I don't think I had any real contractions on my own).
I never wanted to do a natural birth, so I had requested an epidural as soon as I could get one. I was only 3 or 4 cm dilated, so my ob broke my water. This really made the contractions come, and the person who did the epidurals was backed up.
So I labored through the contractions for what seemed like forever (though I think it was only an hour or so). I was in so much pain that I was in tears by the time I got the epidural.
I felt so much better once I had the epidural, and I managed to get some sleep. I was in labor for 14 hours when my ob came in (he had been checking on me all day), checked me and I was still only at 4 cm.
At that point, he recommended a c-section because I was just not progressing. Todd and I agreed, and I got taken off to the OR (pretty fast too, especially since it wasn't really an emergency).
I had been cold in the regular laboring room, but I was so freezing when we got into the OR. I was pretty nervous, and I was a little freaked out since I was given more drugs in my epidural for the section. The part that really freaked me out was that I couldn't feel / move my feet.
We got going, and Todd held my hand. But halfway through, I started feeling a very sharp pain. The drugs weren't doing their job. It really, really hurt (as much as those awful contractions from earlier in the day).
I remember squeezing Todd's hand hard, and my ob telling me it was almost over, that my baby was nearly here. And then I heard Emily cry!
They knocked me out for a couple minutes to finish up. Todd didn't get to cut the cord since he was still holding my hand, but he took some pictures while they were checking her out.
We went off to the recovery room, where they piled on heated blankets because I was so cold I was trembling. They waited until some feeling came back, then Emily was put to my breast. She didn't latch on my left, but when she was put on my left, she latched right on.
It wasn't the most ideal birth since it sucked for me, but Emily was fine. She was 7 lbs, 15 ounces. She has a big head (and I'm not very big) so she was a bit stuck in the birth canal (which gave her her folded elf ear).
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