Emerie's Birth Story

We are so happy to have little Miss Emerie Belle Snow in our home! As you can see, we decided on the name but we are still figuring out what spelling we like the best:) She is such a sweet little baby and so far only cries when we change her diaper, or if she is getting hungry. Madison has actually been the emotional one lately and has had a rough adjustment. She has thrown numerous academy award winning tantrums and has yet to learn how to be gentle with her little sister. She has her sweet moments when she is interested in the baby as you can see in the picture however we still have a long ways to go.

Here are the details of Emerie's birth-day. Wednesday morning I woke up with awful contractions that sent pain throughout my back, hips and legs. My legs kept going numb and I could hardly walk. This pain came and went in varying degrees of intensity for about an hour. I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk to the car if we had to go to the hospital however a little bit after 9:00 the pain stopped. I had an ob appointment scheduled at 9:40 that day so we decided to go in and see how I was progressing. We packed our bags in the car just in case we ended up going to the hospital. We dropped Madison off at our friends house before going to the appointment. My doctor said I was in the process of labor and strongly suggested, since my pain was so intense, that we go to the hospital so I could be augmented/induced. I was hesitant since I wanted everything to happen on it's own but I am so glad we ended up going in. Emerie came out with the cord wrapped around her neck so it wouldn't have been good to wait any longer. We are so blessed she wasn't in any distress during labor and that she came out a perfectly healthy little girl.

Before going to the hospital we stopped to see Madison and drop off her overnight bag. It broke my heart to leave her and I cried knowing she would be so confused as to where we were. I knew she was in good hands, I am just a sensitive mom and very emotional when I am pregnant:) Thanks again Glen and Jill for watching Madison for us!

At the hospital they started the pitocin and after a few hours broke my water. I made sure they had the epidural coming right after the water broke. I had heard too many stories of people who didn't get the epidural until almost too late and I wasn't prepared to be in that kind of pain. The contractions were coming on stronger and I was very grateful to see the anesthesiologist walk in the room.

Unfortunately my epidural experience wasn't the greatest. Having had back surgery in the same area where they usually put the epidural makes things harder, evidently. With Madison's birth the epidural went great. This time around they gave me the shot and after they did the test dose of medication I started getting very tired and couldn't stop yawning. Soon after that my lips felt numb, I couldn't keep my eyes open and I was having a hard time breathing. Basically, my blood pressure had dropped and I was passing out. Jake remained very calm throughout the whole thing. They stopped the medicine, gave, me some oxygen and ephedra and soon I was coming to again. It was a very weird feeling. I had two of these passing out episodes so the Doc decided to let the epidural medication wear off completely and then place another one in a different site a few hours later. The epidural had apparently gone too deep, you can ask Jake for the medical details since it's a little over my head. They assured me this only happens to 1% of people who get an epidural. Despite the mishap I didn't want to deliver "natural" so I was at ground zero again in having painful contractions but dead set on waiting for a second epidural.

This time around it worked great and sometime after 10:00 that night I was ready to push. Fortunately Lost was over by then so Jake and I were able to see last weeks whole episode! I only had to push for about 10 minutes and we were able to welcome little Emerie into the world.
We are so blessed that things went well and so excited to have a new little baby in our home.