Thursday, April 15, 2010

Our Little Emma

Well first I should tell everyone about James, he is AMAZING. I don't know how much I've written about his graduate applications, but he applied to
University of Arizona- got in
University of Utah- got in and got a scholarship
Boston College- got in and got a scholarship
Vanderbilt- got in and got a scholarship
University of Rochester- got in and got a scholarship
Duke- still waiting to hear back

Isn't that amazing? He was so worried about not getting in, and now it seems like he really has every option at his fingertips. I guess we'll be doing a lot of praying over the next few weeks so we can make a decision.

Anyway, so to reprimand all of you who said that I'd probably be dialated to a 3 for a while. WRONG! I went in the next week for an appointment, and the doctor had me 100 percent effaced and between 3 and a half and 4 centimeters. Granted that is between half and one centimeter in a week, but I hadn't felt anything up until this point. But, the doctor wanted to schedule me for an induction. After James and I talked about it for a while, we agreed that a week from that Wednesday we would go in to be induced so that it would be easier on James so the baby would be here before finals. But, I started to feel contractions that night, which continued on to the next day, but I was still hoping that it would be a little while. But, Thursday night they started getting a lot worse. I was trying to let James sleep, but at about 1:30 Friday morning, I had to wake him up and knew we had to go to the hospital. Needless to say it took James a little while to get himself up and ready, so by the time we actually got to the hospital it was 2:00, and I think I was checked in soon after that. The nurse checked me and said I was 4.5, she said she'd come back and check on me in 20 minutes to see if I had progressed any. When she came back she was surprised that I was at a 5, but able to tolerate the pain. So they admitted me into the hospital. They hooked me up to an IV and were going through asking a bunch of questions after admitting me. The nurse left and came back about twenty minutes later and I had progressed to a 6. At this point I was having a harder time and wanted some pain medication, but didn't want to get an epidural yet in case it slowed me down. Well the pain medication completely made me dizzy, but didn't do much for the pain, except made me relax a little bit, so the contractions were more effective . . . so within about 5 minutes I asked for the epidural. I kind of felt like a wimp trying to suffer through it with other pain medication, and then asking a short time later for the epidural. But, when she checked me for the epidural I had progressed to a 7 in about 10-15 minutes of time! The epidural was SO WONDERFUL! I didn't feel a thing, and it was nice to relax after all of that pain, but in just over an hour I was fully dialated, surprising the nurses, they called the doctor, and told me to start pushing. Well after three contractions of pushing the nurses told me to stop because the baby was right there. So we waited another 10 minutes for the doctor to get there, which he did at just after 6. By the time he was dressed and washed up, he had me push for one contraction and told me not to push anymore, and during the next contraction he just slid her out. At 6:12 a.m. on Friday, April 9th our first child was born. Everyone was so amazed that I was only there for 4 hours, and that I was only pushing for 4 contractions. It was by far a shocking delivery for the doctor, nurses, as well as James and I.

We named her Emma Kathleen Sweeney. We had a list of names, but she didn't look like any of the others, particularly because she came out with dark brown hair. I also wanted to use my name in part, but I really didn't like using "Erin" as a middle name, it just didn't fit with anything, and I thought it sounded funny. So I'm passing on my middle name. But she was born 6 pounds 14 ounces, and was 19 inches long. But, she is absolutely beautiful. We've been taking tons of pictures, but I've only uploaded a few from my camera, but here are the ones that I have.

-I love the picture of her in the carseat, it just shows how small she is. That was on the way to the doctors appointment where we found out little Emma was a bit jaundiced, even though the doctor said she most likely wasn't because she didn't look like it nor show any signs of it. And the pictures of her in the blue are after they delivered the bilibed and the biliblanket. We love just so cute!
just so cute!
her! Isn't she

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Last One :(



This will probably be our last blog before we become three, but we're so excited about that. I guess unless the baby does come on time, but the doctor was pretty sure the baby was going to come early. Or unless we get lots of news from graduate schools. But, good news, I have completely finished my capstone paper. I put my nose to the grindstone and wrote it in just over two days! All of my finals are taken care of except for one test which I am going to be scheduling a time to take with my professor, but I finally feel able to have this baby, like life won't be too strained if she came early. I haven't really had any free time since our last appointment because the doctor made me nervous so I've been getting all of my school work done, but after I finished my capstone paper, this is what I did. My friend Alyssa showed me how to do it, and I found some cute ideas . . . so this is what I did with all of those white onesies. Just kidding . . . not all of them, I still feel like I have tons! But it made me feel crafty and like I was able to do something fun for the baby, since I am totally not up to making a quilt or sewing anything. So I learned how to applique!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

37 and a half weeks!

Dear Baby,

We went to the doctors yesterday and you're starting to make mommy nervous. The doctor measured me to be 3 centimeters dialated and 80 percent effaced already. I was hoping to have another 3 and a half weeks, not less than 2 and a half. We're really excited for you to come, but mommy and daddy aren't done with school yet. I guess that's not an excuse since it is my fault that my capstone paper isn't finished yet. So I will work my hardest to get it finished within the next week- because we're so excited to meet you! But, we do wish you would stay inside mommy a little longer so that you can be as big and healthy as you can be.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy