Emma Rae Spotanski born 8/6/10 at 12:05 a.m.
First look at my baby girl :)
As you have been able to see, we have been blessed with a beautiful baby girl who arrived on 8/6/10 at 12:05 a.m. after about 9 hours of labor! I guess I will try to go in chronological order for this post, so I have decided to break it up into parts so it at least looks less like rambling :)
The Beginning
Around 9:30 a.m. on the 5th of August I was looking online for way to naturally get labor going if my body and the baby was ready when I came across a post on Whattoexpect.com where a poster mentioned jumping rope 10 times. Well, after some quick thinking (because we don't have any jumpropes just laying around the house) I found one of our old Xbox controllers with a long cord and proceeded to clumsily jumprope with its cord. Since there are so many silly wivestales out there I didn't think anything about this one being accurate and went on about my day.
Around 1 p.m. when the DirecTV guys were her installing our new service I stood up from sitting on the couch only to feel a small rush of warm liquid "down-there". I hurried to the bathroom to make sure I wasn't bleeding, which I wasn't as the liquid was clear. I just figured that maybe I had involuntarily wet myself a bit and so I went on about my business for a bit longer when it happened again. After doing a bit of research I began to think that I may have been leaking amniotic fluid. I wasn't having any contractions but was eager for the DirecTV people to leave so I could call Nick to take me to the hospital to see if I was leaking fluid.
At the Hospital
Well, around 2:45 they finally left and I called Nick who came home and took me to the hospital where we arrived around 3:10. They admitted us to a labor and delivery room where a nurse checked me and confirmed that my water had broken! So after getting all hooked up to monitors they decided to give me some pitocin to get my contractions to become more regular. We called Mom and Dad who arrived a while later. I was doing good with pain management until around 9 p.m. when my main bag of waters broke (doctors thought i may have had 2 and it was the smaller one that broke earlier in the day) and not more than 10 minutes later my contractions became extremely intense, and within a matter of a few hours I dialed from a 4 to a 9! I got my epidural just in time because it wasn't too long after that that I dialated from a 6 to a 9 in 30 minutes!
Here She Comes!!!
Around 10:35 p.m. I began to task of pushing which proved to be harder and felt more unsuccessful than I had imagined. The nurse positioned a mirror so I could see the progress I was making as I pushed (sorry if this is TMI). It seemed like I wasn't making any progress for the longest time as we would see her head a bit, then it would slip out of sight again. Finally around 11:30 I began to make real progress and as I would push, her head wouldn't slip away but would stay down low! Then during one push I didn't know we were getting so close and before I knew it she was born that time at 12:05 a.m. at 6lb 0oz and 19 1/2 inches long!!!!! I had to have a few stitches, but the labor and delivery went incredibly smoothly and was right about what I was expecting, if not a little less painful.
Our Hospital Stay
The stay in the hospital was nice and I was thankful we were able to stay as long as we could (all day/night Friday and Saturday, then home on Sunday). The doctors and nurses were great as was the lactation consultant who determined that Emma wasn't "latching on" correctly to breastfeed. Therefore she gave me a nipple shield to use which helped greatly. Nick's parent's were able to come and visit us on Saturday which was great so all of Emma's grandparents could be there to see her during her first few days of life :)
At Home Day 1 and On
Well now at this point Emma is 5 1/2 weeks old! It's strange how these last weeks seem to have gone slowly, but then thinking back on everything they have really flown by! Emma sure is a vocal baby who isn't afraid to let us know when something is making her unhappy. However, when she looks at us and gives us a little grin, it makes all the difficult days, long nights, and confining weekends at home worth it :) Some changes we have noticed in her so far are that she's getting a little more head control and she's beginning to really focus on objects now :) I am looking forward to her smiling and cooing for us!
Right now she's spending a few days with Gma Kendra and Gpa Harold so that Nick and I can have a little time together which is much needed. However, it feels so weird not having her here and i miss cuddling with and talking to her! In fact I think I'm going to wrap this up so I can call and check up on her :) Will post updates when I get a chance!
My two favorite people ;)
Gazing out the glass door upstairs :)
Such a big girl! Her 1 month old photo
First grin I was able to get a picture of! It just melted my heart :)
Looking around while doing tummy time with the Boppy.
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