Emmett's Arrival!

Most of you who regularly check our blog probably already know that we welcomed the newest addition to our family this past Wednesday. I thought I would go ahead and post the story of how he arrived, though, for those who don't know and are interested. If you're not one who enjoys a good birth story, feel free to scroll down to the pictures! :)

Emmett Christopher Gilcreast made his entrance into the world (after a long and hard-fought battle to avoid a c-section) at 5:43 P.M. on April 15. His stats: 7 lbs, 13.8 oz / 21 inches - almost a whole pound and two inches bigger than Jackson! He is absolutely perfect and we are totally in love with him! So far he seems to be a really sweet baby - easy to please, not too fussy (although Phil and I did not sleep a wink last night because E had some really bad gas issues), and I seem to have gotten the snuggly baby I was hoping for - he loves to cuddle! We are so truly blessed - God was and is so amazingly good to us!

So, Phil and I went in to the hospital on Tuesday morning to have the version done like I mentioned before. I got an IV started (which was almost the worst part of the whole experience - they had to poke me three different times - YUCK!), and the doctor and my midwife came in to try to flip the baby. Some interns came to watch, too, since they had never seen a version done. The doc lubed up my belly, tilted the bed back so my feet were up in the air and my head was toward the floor, put two hands on my belly, pushed, and in less than 10 seconds the baby was head-down! It virtually pain-free for me and was so amazing - no one could believe how easy it was! I couldn't see anything because I was upside down, but everyone else said they could see the baby turning from outside the belly. Again - God is so good! That was a huge answered prayer.

We immediately went to a birthing room after that (around 8:30 A.M.) and got all settled. My midwife started me on pitocin to get labor going and prepared to break my water, which she hoped would keep the baby's head down and get labor moving faster. Well, since I wasn't really ready for labor yet, after checking me she found that she wasn't able to break my water. So, she put a corset-type girdle thingy around my belly (really stiff and uncomfortable), which we hoped would keep the baby from moving, and I settled in for a long day of moderately uncomfortable contractions, TV-watching, and gossip magazine-reading. At 6 P.M. she checked me again and I still hadn't made enough progress for her to be able to break my water, so she took me off of the pitocin so that I could eat something and get some sleep. Phil stayed with me that night, but neither of us slept very well, as you can probably imagine.

At 3 A.M. we started the pitocin again, and luckily, by 6:30 A.M. when my midwife arrived she was able to break my water. Whoa - did that ever do the trick! I started having some crazy painful contractions that were about a minute or two apart, but wanted to wait to get an epidural for as long as I could to make sure that I was making good progress with the labor. I held out until 11 A.M. and was again amazed at how totally awesome an epidural is! I was so snug and cozy in my bed after that and was actually able to get a little sleep.

We were all really excited and happy at this point b/c we thought things were going to be pretty easy and that we were home free for a vaginal delivery. Well, I was almost fully dilated when Emmett's heart rate started dropping with each contraction. My midwife and the nurse were hanging out in our room a lot, which was making me nervous. It turned out that the way E was facing had caused the umbilical cord to be wrapped around something and every time a contraction occurred it squeezed it and caused his heart rate to drop. Luckily, his heart rate bounced right back after each contraction, but after a few minutes it kept dropping lower, so my midwife started talking to me about a c-section. I was so upset that after everything we had done and how close we were to the end we would have to end up doing a c-section anyway. The doctor who did my version came into the room right about then and suggested that I try a last-ditch effort of getting on my elbows/forearms and knees for a bit to see if that would make Emmett change positions and give me time to get fully dilated. Let me tell you, being on your elbows and knees for a half hour after not working out for nine months is not much fun, but luckily, it WORKED! When they had me flip back over I was fully dilated and E had changed positions a bit so his heart rate was staying up. I was crying and thanking God! It took an hour of pushing and some great counting and encouragement from Phil, but Emmett arrived safely at 5:43 P.M.! I know that I could have saved everyone a bunch of time and stress by just giving in to a c-section earlier on, but I'm so glad that we all stuck it out. It was an amazing experience. Now for pictures...

Getting settled for a loooong day...

In a lot of pain here... but forgot to take one last belly picture before delivery, so we had to do that!

Ahhh - epidural relief!!Happy tears after delivery!!!Love Jackson's face in this picture...Jackson driving everyone home from the hospital! (just kidding, of course)