Emery Caroline has FINALLY arrived!

We are so proud to announce the arrival of Emery Caroline! Emmy arrived on Monday, May 25th at 12:26am. She weighed 6lbs 4oz and was 20 inches long. So here is her "birth story" and the exciting story of how she made her debut and her rough little start in this crazy world:

Sunday afternoon, Joan and Steve (Kevin's parents) stopped by the house. I suckered Steve into helping Kevin hang some cabinets in our laundary room that we had just finished painting, a task that I thought would take about an hour, but ended up taking them around 4 hours! I had no intentions of Steve having to help us for so long and figured the least I could do was cook them a decent dinner. So I got into the kitchen and started rummaging around to see what I could find. I noticed a few "cramping" like feelings but nothing that was very painful. As I prepared Paula Deens famous meatloaf for dinner, my "cramps" started getting a little more frequent, but still nothing very painful. I made meatloaf, green beans and potatoes, squash casserole and a cake all for dinner (maybe this was my pre-labor burst of energy or so called "nesting"). We enjoyed our dinner and still "cramping" feelings but nothing really more intense or very notable as far as "pain level" goes. So after we finished dinner, Joan and I cleaned the kitchen, I told her I thought I may be in the beginning stages of labor, but I wasn't sure! This had been my fear - that I would go into labor with her and not know it (my water broke with both Drew and Ellie, so I had never experienced labor without being induced with pitocin). So we started timing my contractions. I kept telling Joan that I would be SOOOO embarrassed if I drove all the way to the hospital thinking I was in labor and them telling me "you aren't in labor, it must be gas" (that would totally be my luck!). So I kept waiting for the contractions to become a little more painful, but they really didn't but they were coming more regularly at this point. So I decided to give the doctor a call just to see at what point they wanted me to come in. He told me to wait until my contractions were about 5 minutes apart for 30-45 mintues and they were painful enough that I could not talk through them. Ok...seems easy enough. So I go upstairs, Kevin gets in the shower, and I tell Joan about my conversation with the doctor. She said to me "I don't think I want you to be here when you hurt so bad you can't talk through your contractions" and boy was that the best advice I got all night long! I decided she was right and we should go ahead to the hospital. I showered and we leave. All the way to the hospital the contractions were a little closer together but I could definitly talk through them. We got to the hospital (which is about 30 minutes from our house) at 11:40pm. I went to triage so that they could hook me up to the monitors and check me out. To shorten things up a bit, I was monitored, checked (5cm dialated) and admitted. We walked to labor and delivery and I started to hurt. I told the nurse to go ahead and order my epidural, to which she explained that it was going to be about 20 minutes before I would be able to get it - they needed to start my IV, get antibiotics in me, and get me hooked up to the monitors. I had a big contraction and then the nurse started my IV. While she was doing that, I had another big contraction and told her I didn't think I could wait 20 minutes for an epidural. The other nurse asked me to lay down (I was sitting up trying to get through the pain at this point) so that she could check me. When she did, she said "honey you aren't getting an epidural, you are gonna have a baby like right now. Call the doctor, she is ready!" WHATTTTT????? I knew something was hurting BAD but it just happened so fast! So doctor came in, I pushed and Emmy arrived at 12:26am (less than an hour after we arrived at the hospital). No IV antibiotics, no fetal monitors, not oxygen levels, barely an IV and most importantly NO PAIN MEDS (which was not NEARLY as bad as I had anticipated or would have expected)- it was all craziness! But Emmy arrived very quickly. Since she arrived so quickly I was not able to get any antibiotics for Group B strep. For those of you that don't know, this is a naturally occuring bacteria in about 40% of women that is completely harmless to mothers, but if passed on to babies at birth can be very serious. Standard of care is to treat mothers with two rounds of antibiotics before their babies are delivered. I did not have time to get any antibiotics, so the doctors needed to watch Emmy more closely. Emmy also had a cord wrapped tightly around her neck when she was born. This too is common, but never a great thing for babies. She was VERY blue when she was first born. At first Emmy went to the regular nursery, but after the doctors reviewed her history and had the neonatologist look at her, she was admitted to the NICU. The neonatologist came in to talk with us about it and explained that Emmy just didn't look good and given her history (cord around neck, postive GBS mother, very fast delivery) she thought that it would be best for her to be in special care. I asked what the diagnosis was and her reply was "possible sepsis" I lost it - the word sepsis is NEVER a good thing. This is every pregnant woman's worst nightmare and I now know how scary it is to have a sick baby in the NICU. I cried A LOT on Monday. When we walked in the NICU I burst into tears thinking to myself "this isn't how it is supposed to be." Seeing Emmy with all kinds of wires, cords, monitors, and IVs broke my heart. And she just laid there very sick looking. We asked tons of questions and the staff was very informative and compassionate. Unfortunately the only thing we could do was wait. Time would tell what was going on :( Not an easy thing to do. Emmy improved over the day yesterday and today and was just moved out of the NICU into the regular newborn nursery. As of right now, she is still negative for the GBS infection (although they watch the cultures for 5 days). We are hoping she is able to go home with us tomorrow. God is GOOD and all of our prayers have been answered! We are so thankful that she has gotten better and is doing well!

Here are some pictures from the past few days!

Drew in front of Emmy's cart with her stats


Drew playing in the hospital bed. He LOVED it and I swear I thought he was going to break it. The motor didn't stop the whole time he was here. The bed was up and down and up and down...



Emmy - shortly after birth


Drew kissing his baby sister!

He is such a proud big brother!

He loved holding her

I am so glad that Drew was able to come and visit his baby sister! But I am really missing my Elle Bell! It was just too much driving for her and if you have ridden in the car with Ellie over the past few months, you know what I mean! But I sure do miss her and can't wait to see her when I get home! She is going to think Emmy is the best baby doll in the world! I know she will be a great big sister and Mommy's little helper!

So that is probably enough for now! I will post more pictures later this week! I got a new camera and hope to be posting more often now. And I am sure that life at home with a newborn, 19 month old and 4 year old will allow me all the time in the world to do just that, right? ;)

Hope all is well and thank everyone for all of their prayers while our baby girl was in the NICU! God is watching over us!

Love to all!