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

17 comments:

Marin said...

oh she is soooooooooo BEAUTIFUL!!! Ohh I am so glad everything went so well. Your birth story sounds a lot like Carden's birth story. Except my water broke at 1am and then contractions didn't start until aroun 3am and then the epidural was around 5am and then it totally sped me up and within 20 minutes i was a 10!!!! It is just amazing how the body prepares itself! It is so amazing!!! Oh I am just so happy that everything went so well. wish we could be there to congratulate you both!!!!

Eric and Lindsay said...

ERIN and JAMES!!! She is sooo adorable!! Congratulations!!! I just love her cute little self! My mom is here and she says you did good! Her labor time was 2 1/2 hours so she is so proud of you for the quick birth!!! Congrats girl!!

Lindsay Rasmussen said...

Soo cute!! She is such a doll! Congrats to your little family! And wow, you are impressive erin!! congrats!

Chris and Ellie said...

Congratulations Erin!!! She is so beautiful. I'm glad things went well with you.:D

Unknown said...

Congratulations! Little Emma is so adorable! I am so glad to hear that everything went well...enjoy everyday with her, they grow so fast!

Mike and Crystal said...

Oh I'm glad everything went okay! She is so beautiful and I love the name :) Congrats!

Amy said...

Congratulations! What a beautiful baby! Glad to know that you are both doing well and the delivery was quick! ;)
Enjoy that little baby and try to get some rest.

Mike and Alyssa Althoff said...

Congratulations! She is gorgeous! I can't wait to see her in person!! You are amazing Erin.

Katie Briggs said...

She is SO cute. I really hope it's not too long before I meet her...but until then please please please keep taking and posting pictures for those of us to see who love her (and you guys) but aren't near by to see her in person! Also, way to go James on all those acceptances. You really have a big choice ahead of you. I, of course, am going to root for an east coast school, but I'm guessing both of your families wouldn't appreciate that so much...but I would!!!

Anyway, congrats again. I'm so happy for you guys. And P.S. I love how your little baby countdown says that there are still three days to go...and here she is a week old already!

Anjuli said...

She's beautiful and so tiny. Congratulations!

JamiLeigh said...

Erin, she is absolutely adorable. Can I come see you early next week? I want to give your baby a present and visit you.

Jami

Kayli Sue said...

Yay! She is so cute!!! Psh and for the reprimand...I'm just flat out jealous! I thought I was never going to go into labor. Some ladies just have all the luck. She is sooo cute though!!

AEllsworth said...

Congrats on everything!! She is beautiful! Way to go guys!

Nate and Liss said...

Erin, she is SOO cute!! Love her name by the way. You are going to be an amazing Mom. Can't wait to meet her in person sometime!

Anonymous said...

Erin and James -- she is beautiful. I LOVE the one of her in the biliblanket. She AND the blanket are glowing. What a great birth.

And congratulations to James for getting into so many schools. Of course, we'll be praying for Duke!! :-D

Take care and don't forget to sleep first before anything else. :)

Lizzy

Unknown said...

She is BEAUTIFUL! She does remind me a little bit of Eliza like your Mom (Kristen) said. I am falling in love with her just looking at her pictures! I can't wait to meet her and see you two. What a happy time for you. You all look wonderful.

Claire said...

hahaha I love the ones of her in the light blanket thing. she looks like a little glow worm. so cute.