Members

As a member you'll be able to receive and send messages, keep your own photobook, agenda, ask questions, participate in the chat, and make new friends. All is free and you don't need email.
Sign up (free & anonymous)

Name: Password:

---

Activity
• Now online | Member search | New members | Comment Spy
• New blogs & Questions | Recently updated profiles
• New photos: Pregnancy | Babies | Bellies | Ultrasound | Member pages
• Latest comments: Forums | Week by week | Baby development

Emma Grace Elwood Sex: girl Born: 12 July, 2008 Age: 0 years & 146 days Birthday in: 219 days Starsign: Cancer Development: See the 4 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Original due date: July 13, 2008
Type of delivery: Vaginal (with pain relief)
Duration of labor: 16 hours
Weight @ birth: 6lbs 14oz
Length @ birth: 20 in

Emma-Grace-Elwood`s birthstory

After feeling `different` all day Friday, July 11th, I ate dinner with my husband at 7:30pm and then finally went to bed around 11:30pm. At 2:30am, I woke up feeling alot of pressure. However, they weren`t very definite contractions at first. It felt very uncomfortable, as if I was constipated. Over the next couple of hours I used the bathroom several times and had very loose bowels. I started feeling more and more pressure and contractions. When I started timing the contractions, they were about 6 minutes apart. As time passed, they got stronger and closer together. I woke my husband up around 4:30am and told him that I was in labor. Just as I was waking him, I felt a trickle of fluid. A couple minutes later I felt more fluid. I wasn`t positive, but I thought my water was slowly trickling out. At about 6:00am my husband called our doctor and she advised us to go to the hospital when I got very uncomfortable. We stayed home a little longer and finally I decided that it was time. My contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about 45 seconds to a minute.

When we arrived at the hospital, I was three centimeters dialated and 90% effaced. They checked me and confirmed that my water had definitely broken. I was admitted and spent the next 4 hours laboring in the evaluation room as all of the beds in labor and delivery were full. My contractions were getting very intense so the nurse gave me fluids through an IV so that I would be ready to get an epidural as soon as I wanted one (once I got to labor and delivery). At 11:00am, I was moved to a delivery room. I had decided at that point that I was ready for an epidural. The anesthesiologist was paged immediately and within 20 minutes of arriving in the delivery room, I had my epidural. From that piont on, I felt NO PAIN, only pressure. I went to sleep on and off over the next several hours. I had made little progress at that point, only dialating to 4cm and the baby was at a -1 station. My doctor decided to administer pitocin to regulate my contractions and speed up my labor. I had been worried about pitocin, but since I already had my epidural, I didn`t feel a thing. Also, the baby tolerated it beautifully. At 5:45pm I was checked and had progressed to 6cm and the baby was at 0 station. Then, 15 minutes later, I called the nurse because I told her it felt as if the baby had moved down (I could actually feel her move down further and it felt as if my pelvis had spread). She gave a smile and said they`d see. When the doctor came in and checked, I was right. The baby had moved down! I had progressed from 6cm to 8cm in 15 minutes!!! The baby was then at a +2 position. They then turned the pitocin off and my body did the rest. Another hour passed and around 7:00pm, I told my husband to call the nurse because I was feeling the urge to push. The doctor immediately came in and I was fully dialated and effaced and was most definitely ready to start pushing. I was nervous that with the epidural I wouldn`t be able to feel when to push or where to push, but that wasn`t the case. I could feel the baby move the whole time, I felt only the pressure of contractions but no pain, and I was still able to feel how to push perfectly!! To anyone not sure about an epidural, I strongly recommend it!!! It made my experience absolutely wonderful. Anyway, the doctor told me to start pushing when I had the urge. So for the next hour and a half I pushed. And, at 8:14pm on Saturday, July 12th (one day before her due date), Emma Grace was born vaginally without any vacuum or other assistance!!!! It was the most amazing experience of my life!!!!! She has been an angel every second since birth. She is a great eater (I am breastfeeding and she latched on instantly) and a good sleeper. She is the most beautiful thing I`ve ever seen in my life. My husband and I are so happy and feel so blessed!!

---