What a miracle you are- actually, both you and your brother are miracle babies. I don't say that in a biased my-kids-can-do-no-wrong type of way. Having experienced as many difficulties in trying to conceive combined with losing babies makes you realize that having two perfectly healthy babies after so many struggles and losses is simply a miracle.
Let me start by saying that your official due date was October 28th. About two weeks prior to your due date, your amazing momma was becoming increasingly more and more uncomfortable, as most moms get in the last trimester and worsening as 40 weeks approach. We began doing more walking to ensure that you would come on time, hoping that by staying active, labor would sort of come on its own and do its own thing.
We like to say that when a challenge arises, Tiff's body just sort of takes the challenge as its own personal goal- cue in, emergency appendectomy at 32 weeks. After a long hilly walk through the National Zoo, chasing after your 3 year old brother, you made quiet a bit of progress in descending. During the following week's check up, dilation measurements came in at five cm! We were expecting at 2 weeks to go still to be, maybe, in a most hopeful scenario at one cm; five, to us, meant you could come any minute. The doctor advised that we shouldnt go far because "this baby" could come any day. We left the doctor's office feeling elated, we might get to meet our long awaited baby Emma two weeks early.
Later that evening, Tiff started feeling some pain and discomfort and a whole lot of back pain. "Here it is," we thought, the moment we've been waiting on for the past 9 months. Much to our dismay, we made our way to the hospital that evening and were sent right back home by the on call doctor who disagreed with the prior 5 cm check, stating Tiff was at most 1 cm- "text book" he declared. Every day of that week was spent going to back to the doctor and trying to figure out when the OB's office deemed it right time to go to the hospital- it seemed as though we were caught in a battle of disagreements between two egos.
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| Our last appointment before Emma's Arrival |
Exhausted of the back and forth, Friday morning we went to see the midwives (thankful for the last minute change from the obstetrician's office) and were reassured that Tiff was indeed 5cm dilated and that the pain Tiff had been feeling was because she was having a complete back labor situation- rather than having the regular contractions, she was having back pain. The OB's office had completely dismissed her back pain. Essentially, the way the baby was sitting was sideways; gravity had done its job in getting the head down, we just needed the body to turn slightly to engage. The midwives scheduled an early Saturday morning induction to prevent you from surprising us- you know how irony works? At 2am, tiff woke me up and we headed to the hospital- it was time, we knew it.
Every day that we went in to the hospital earlier that week, the birthing inn was practically empty- saturday, October 21, at 2am, 18 women laboring at the same time, not a single bed available, was the day and time you decided to arrive. We were asked to sit down while a room was finished getting cleaned (we should have done early check in). Between 3am-4am we were admitted and all the necessary set up began, including the epidural. Contractions were coming in every 4-5 minutes and things were looking good. Mommy and daddy took a much needed nap while things progressed. Around 6am, Julie, the on call midwife came in to check in and talk to us. During the dilation check, Julie made a face that was followed by a "I have never seen this before." I dont know what it is about our situations but I never want to hear those words in a medical situation yet we seem to hear them a lot lately. Turns out, Emma's head had engaged and then disengaged and was moving around like crazy (she made a head bobbing back and forth motion to paint the picture of what she "felt" was happening). Julie didn't feel comfortable breaking her water because the last thing she wanted was for the baby's arm to get in front of her head.
Julie sat with us as her shift was ending soon and the change of nurses was coming up as well (7am) and we were now waiting on Monica, the midwife who would deliver you. Julie estimated you'd be born by noon- from the very beginning, you set the time and schedule, our sweet Emma would not be told when she'd be born. At 6:30am, as we casually chatted about, I noticed Tiff's water had broken on its own. Another surprise, at this point, we knew that the clock to deliver had started. Monica came in a little early to introduce herself, the nurses from the morning shift came in to do their rounds. Monica performed her first check to see if she had made further progress; in 30 minutes, Tiff went from 6 to 10 cm dilated, baby Emma was on her way. The next 40 minutes were a complete haze. The nurse called the nursery and asked for a set up right away- "this baby is coming now!", Monica turned to Julie and said that she should catch the baby since she'd been there all along, the entire room was filled with the most beautiful chaos I have ever seen. Nurses from both shifts and two overlapping midwives, the most amazing medical octopus I have ever seen.
Stirrups went up, Julie scrubbed in, major delivery lights kicked on and Tiff pushed, once, twice and the third time was it, 15 minutes of pushing, one beautiful baby girl was born-at 8:50am, on your own time, Emma Grace was born.
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| A few minutes after birth |
The moment I first saw you I knew our bond would be unbreakable. It was hard to concentrate on anything other than your perfect little face.
As soon as we brought Mason to the hospital to meet you, he asked to hold you, kissed your hands and said "I love baby Emma." This was the sweetest moment, completely unplanned, completely Mason- the most amazing big brother.
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| Mason Meets Emma |
Love you always baby girl,
Mommy, Daddy & Mason
