Pre: Emily's Birth Story

These are some of the posts that I enjoy looking back on and reading years down the road... so I'm going to start with Emily's Birth Story (before I forget everything!)

I actually am going to start quite a bit before her actually delievery...

I found out that I was pregnant with lil' Miss Emily on Mother's day. I thought it was kind of fitting, comical really. We knew we wanted to have one more baby before we moved, but we were thinking maybe an April or May baby would be nice... well, things happen when they are supposed to I guess. Ryan hadn't the slightest clue, we were trying yet afterall. So I decided it would be fun to keep it a secret until Father's day and share the news with him then.

Good intentions... but never happened. I was far too sick with this pregnancy to hide it for that long. After a couple of nauseating migraines and several days of accomplishing nothing around the house, I gave in and told him. We thought it would be fun to keep it a secret until we knew the gender and then share the news. It is really easy keeping stuff like this a secret from your family when you live 2000+ miles away. Ha!

Well, our plans were foiled slightly in August when I had to have an emergency appendectomy. Yup... my lil' appendix decided it needed to go. August 10th to be exact. It was kind of an odd experience, being pregnant, with no one knowing. I felt like such a wimp... any help I got I felt like I had to explain myself... so slowly the secret started to come out then. I of course told my mom. You don't let your mom find out weeks later that you were 18 weeks pregnant when you underwent surgery. I do have to say that I feel so blessed. Obviously, I wouldn't want to have surgery, but the timing and circumstances surrounding the situation were so aligned, I can't help but be grateful! The pain hit on a Friday and Ryan was off that evening and the following Saturday and Sunday, so he was able to help out. My friend who took the kids had a light weekend, so it wasn't super stressful to watch our kids. Being in my second trimester was the lowest risk period for needing surgery, so the risk of miscarriage was reduced. Really, any aspect I think about during the situation was taken care of. It still was terrifying and one of the most painful experiences of my life, but I felt so blessed, loved and watched over by my Heavenly Father.

Okay... skipping forward...

For some reason, my body doesn't know how to evict its tenants. I think I would still be pregnant with Sarah if medical intervention never occurred. I know this fact, and I shared it with my doctors and was hopeful of an early delivery. Or at least one on my due date. I saw a group of doctors, so I didn't always see the same one each time. One doctor, Dr. Elizabeth Krans that I saw at my 37 week appointment told me that she saw no reason to keep me pregnant past 39 weeks. I was elated by the news... but much to my excitement, the other doctors in the group didn't agree. They told me it would be better and safer if we waited for my body to progress farther. *hmphff* So we waited. It was especially stressful with Ryan going out of town frequently for Residency interviews. My due date was January 6th, and Ryan was driving to an interview in South Carolina January 2-4.... I really didn't want the one time I did go on my own to be while he was out of town. But never you fear... I didn't. I never. do.

Finally I had my 40 week appointment on my due date. I was excited because surely they would set up my induction appointment for later that week. I arranged last minute for my friend Collette to take my kiddos so Ryan could come to my appointment. I joked with the nurse taking my blood pressure about secretly wanting it to be high so they would have to induce me. I think my laughter did affect it, because I did have slightly elevated blood pressure (and I run on the low side with BP during pregnancy). Dr. Krans is who I had my appointment with, and first thing she said when she walked in was, "Why are you still pregnant?!!" She used my slightly elevated blood pressure for grounds to be admitted that night for induction! We were both shocked. So we ran home, finalized arrangements for our other three kiddos and went back to the hospital to welcome sweet little Emily into the world.