Introducing... Emersyn Love

I'm so happy to announce the birth of our second sweet little girl, Emersyn Love. She arrived 2 weeks early on Saturday May 23rd at 4:10 pm. She weighed 5 lbs 7 oz and she is 18 inches tall. She is a tiny little bit, but we are pleased with how big she actually is since she was on the small side all throughout the pregnancy. She's doing great! She is eating a lot, and sleeping well. She's so sweet already and we are so in love with her.

Our Birth Story:
On Friday morning I was feeling some strong Braxton Hicks contractions and also noticed a bit of "bloody show" when I went to the bathroom. I wasn't too concerned, and just got online to read what it might mean and from what I read it could have meant labor was approaching soon or could still be days or even weeks away. I just thought maybe my body is preparing and I still probably was a ways off from delivery. I went on my day and took Taylor to meet Daddy for lunch and then to Costco for some grocery shopping. We went to my Aunt's house that nite and while there I felt more and more contractions that were pretty uncomfortable, still just assuming it was nothing I just dealt with it and assumed they'd probably fizzle off at some point. ( A bit in denial you think? ) Well since I was pretty sure Emersyn was still breech when I woke up the next morning with more bloody show and still having contractions I thought I should at least call the labor nurse at the hospital and get her advice on what I should do if I go into labor or if they wanted to see me. She said that even if she's breech I would wait until I am in actual labor before coming in and then they'd check her with an ultrasound and determine if she is breech and whether or not I'd need a C-section or not. So after that I took Taylor to her ballet class and just like the day before was planning on going on about my day. While at the class my husband called me on the Dance Studio's phone ( I left my cell in the car, didn't think I needed it, her class is only 45 min long ) and he told me my midwife was trying to get a hold of me and wanted to see me immediately to be evaluated. I didn't understand why she wanted to see me, and when I called her back I even let her know my contractions weren't consistent and not close together ( trying to convince her I was fine ) she wanted to see me anyways and told me to come in right then. I was feeling a bit nervous about her urgency to see me, but figured I go in, get checked out, and sent home. So at about 11:00 am we all go (Daddy, Taylor & me ) to L&D at Willamette Falls Hospital and I get checked into a room and the nurse gets me all strapped up to the monitors and checks my cervix. Right before this my husband said he was feeling really nervous and I told him " Don't be, this is nothing, I am sure I am not dilated at all " I then was going about what we needed to do before we left for a birthday party we were attending at 1:30 that afternoon. All changed when the nurse let us know I was dilated 4 cm and having regular contractions about 10 min apart ( they didn't even hurt that bad, uncomfortable yes, but bearable, I couldn't believe they were dilating me! ) she then said " We're having a baby today! ".... then fear set in. My baby was probably still breech and this meant a c-section for sure. She called my midwife and the on call OB and ordered and ultrasound. It was all going on so fast! The OB came in and did the ultrasound, and determined that yes indeed she was breech. Then he told me we could try an external version to try and turn her around. I was so nervouse about this, I knew it was decision I'd have to make but very scared to make it, I read a lot of controversial material about them and I was panicked. I couldn't make the decision, I kept telling them I didn't want to hurt my baby, I just wanted to do whatever would be best for her. Well he thought that she might turn easily because of her small size and he felt confident in trying and told me he wouldn't force her at all. I agreed to do it. They gave me the terbutaline to relax my uterus ( scary stuff, it makes your heartbeat super fast and you get really anxious ) and then he started to press and push on my stomach. Not even a minute goes by and he checks the ultrasound machine and the nurse & midwife both squeal "Yay!!" and he got her to turn around!! I just started crying at that moment, and I kept thanking him over and over again. I couldn't believe it! All those weeks of stress and trying to get her to turn with exercises and she just turned lickity split, just like that. So amazing!
Well it wasn't over yet! Now it was time to start to get labor going again and get her out... especially since she tried to turn back around again and the nurse had to hold her in place while the midwife broke my water and then we got her to go into the pelvis a bit... head down! They checked my cervix again and I was dilated at a 6 and they could feel her head and her hand was on top of her head and the midwife could feel her little fingers! So crazy!
We had to start pitocin to get my contractions stronger, they dilated me to an 8 on their own, but weren't pushing her down and I wasn't effacing. I wasn't planning on getting an epidural at that point, I figured I wasn't too far off and I didn't have much longer to go. Well the pitocin made it pretty excruciating and although it was only 2 hours of really really hard labor, it seemed like an eternity! Then she ended up coming out posterior! It was very hard, but well worth it, I pushed her out in 3 contractions, but it wasn't easy at all. She came out with her legs spread eagle ( result of being frank breech for so long ) and her arms reaching out wide, ready to take on the world. She was ( and still is ) the tiniest baby I had ever seen! She laid on my chest just staring with her big dark eyes looking up at me causing her little forhead to wrinkle up. Aaaaw, it was a great day, hard at times, scary at times, but mostly just wonderful and amazing. I feel so blessed! I have 2 beautiful daughters! Life is deffinitely good!