Introducing.....Miss Emma Grace.....

Surprise! We have a new little baby to include in our sadly (as of late), neglected blog that I am going to need to go back and post some pictures at last to from the last year!

So, Miss Emma arrived at 34 weeks, 2 days gestationally. My water broke around 11:45, as I was laying on the couch on the evening of April 13. I'd spent the day, with the girls (and then Matt), at his mom's house, with many of my close family and friends having a lovely sprinkle thrown for Miss Emma. We got home around 7 and all of us were exhausted! So, I napped on the couch, while Matt took care of the girls, and I "re-cooperated".
     Our goal, as always, had been for me to work until April 25, but I wasn't sure that was going to happen since my blood pressure had been creeping up and playing games with us at Dr. P's office for the last 2 weeks. :( Anyways, I rolled over on the couch and bam! So, off I went to call Dr. P, who sent me in to the hospital to make sure it was my water. Matt called his mom and Rick and they quickly got out of bed to come to the house to sleep, as the girls were sound asleep in their beds and we didn't want to cause them to freak out. So, we went off to the hospital, where they quickly confirmed that my water had broken. :(  So, now the question was, would I deliver tonight OR would I be hanging for a couple days to get some steriod shots in? Steriod shots aren't really effective after 34 weeks, but to be safe, Dr. P wanted to TRY to get at least 1 in me and if we were lucky and my labor didn't start/progress, we'd get 2 in. So, at 2:45am, I finally got my shot, while Matt snored away on the couch. Then, I attempted to doze all night long, but that's hard when you're having some serious contractions. Finally, at 6 am, my nurse came in and called the Dr to inform him that my contractions were getting worse, so we scheduled my C-Section for 8 am. Dr. P Came in at 7 and I tried to convince him that I wanted to have the baby at 7:30, but he laughed and told me that I had too much other stuff to do to prepare and he was waiting for the neonatologist he wanted to get in, but in an emergency he'd rush me in, but that wasn't our case.

Here's Matt in his scrubs, all ready for my c-section. They rolled me in and got my spinal started and then once they have everything all set up, they had him come in. It's so funny when you're waiting for your section, b/c all the nurses and assistants, etc. come and introduce themselves to you...like I remember who you are! :) But, it's nice.

     
    Born at 8:22 am at 4lbs, 8oz and 18.5 inches long, Miss Emma was much larger than her sisters were AND 4 weeks older than they were when they were born. All that time, effort, money, barfing (in the first 18 weeks of my pg), weekend and evening bedrest, and activities that I "missed" out on, were worth it to keep her in longer than her sisters. I'd wanted full term, but a 34 weeker was/is pretty decent.

  Miss Emma....at first they had some trouble with her, turns out that she was not only a little stuck (wanting a traditional exit  :)  ) , but also had lost a little blood b/c they had to cut through my placenta to get through to her. So, her first apgar was a 2. Initially they had thought they were going to need to intubate her, but she quickly (thankfully), perked up, so she got some oxygen, but just the nose cannula. When the Dr. brought her over to introduce her to me, I remember saying to Matt, "OH MY GOD, she looks JUST LIKE YOU!", and she does, and this is so cool, b/c both the girls 'resemble' me with their blonde hair and blue eyes. Later Matt's mom informed us that Matt's hair got lighter as he got older and then got dark when he was in grade school. AND looking through my blog, I'd forgotten that Sydney had a little brown hair when she was teeny, so MAYBE Miss Emma's hair will change too!

  Baby Foot Print! SO adorable!

 Daddy and his third (and final), Little Princess! Love it!

  Proud Big Sisters, came up to see Mama and meet Miss Emma!

 Sydney and I. The girls, despite all of our discussing that Mommy was going to be in the hospital for a couple days when the baby came, and I think partially b/c we'd left in the middle of the night and not been able to say good bye or warn them that I was going to be gone, were a little weepy that they were going to have to leave me at the hospital. We didn't want their schedule changed too much while I was in the hospital or when the baby came, so Matt went home with them each night and dropped them off at school in the morning, in the afternoons we set it up so that they could come see me and Emma.

So, hopefully, I can be a little better about keeping things updated again, but, as you can see, all is well and good in our house, if not a little hectic, busy, and insane, but we'll all settle in, eventually!