Saturday October 22 was a pretty busy day. I spent the day cleaning the whole house, finishing baby projects and kid wrangling, while Brian taught a few lessons, helped a family move some furniture, and came home to help finish Operation Get Your House in Order. After a long day of kids/manual labor, it was no big surprise that our post-kid-bedtime peace and quiet was interrupted with a long string of contractions. It had become an evening ritual that week, and I drew a bath, started in on a VERY large glass of water, and waited for the contractions to settle down and fade away.
After a few minutes in the bath, I decided the contractions were getting faster, not slower, and Brian began timing them. It took only about 30 minutes before they were 2 minutes apart (um, excuse me, what?) but the intensity was still very bearable and we debated whether or not it was even worth calling the hospital. Brian finally called the Birthing Center- deciding to err on the side of caution- and they told us to come in (of course!) so we did. It was comforting to just pick up the already-packed overnight bag and camera and be on our way, although we figured there was a 99% chance that we would just be coming right back.
After an hour in the triage unit, the doctor had determined that my water was NOT broken, that I was only dilated to a measly 2.5, but he was not ready to send me home with contractions that were still 2 minutes apart and increasing in intensity. After another hour of observation, the intensity had increased so much that he decided the best thing to do was just call the transition team at Children's and get the C-section going. At that point we had no objections, as it was clear by the contractions that labor was REAL and that Emmett wasn't going to wait a minute longer.
After several hours of unmedicated labor leading up to some indescribably life-changingly intense contractions that will forever change my definition of "worst pain ever", I was rolled into the operating room and delivered the most beautiful baby boy that you will ever meet. Emmett Dean was born on October 23 at 2:42 in the morning, weighing in at 7 lbs, 15 oz. and 19.25" long. He has beautiful blue eyes and light brown with hints of red hair, perfect skin and an amazing ability to tolerate all the poking, prodding, testing and pain that the first few days of his life brought him. He was taken to Children's Hospital a few hours after birth, and got to meet his siblings a few hours later, which was a truly beautiful experience for all of them.
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