Emiliana's Birth Story

After fully preparing ourselves for Emiliana's scheduled c-section on Friday the 23rd, I went to bed late on Wednesday the 21st. The baby was moving a ton, which she hadn't been doing much of the past couple weeks. Thursday morning I was still in bed when I felt something... weird. Luckily I made it to the bathroom, where my water promptly broke. Jordan was still asleep with Evie in our bed and I had to yell a couple times before he woke up.

39 weeks, the last picture of Emiliana on the inside!

"Jordan! I don't think we're going to make it until tomorrow!"
"What?" *groggy mumblings*
"My water just broke!"
"What?! Are you serious!" *no longer groggy*

It was about 7:00 by that point, and I called my mom to let her know we would be dropping the girls off. I started having contractions when we got in the car. We dropped the girls off with my mom then continued on to the hospital. I don't remember when we got there, but after I made it very clear to the staff that my water had broken, I changed into a hospital gown and they got me hooked me up to a couple monitors to check on the baby and my contractions. They told me that there were a couple people in front of me (it wasn't an emergency situation, so they were just going to squeeze me in whenever they could) and that we could be there for a little while before anything happened.

It was about half an hour later that they decided they had an opening and before I had fully processed that my baby was actually coming, they were taking me away to the OR. The procedure went smoothly, but for whatever reason I kept feeling pain, so the anesthesiologist kept putting morphine in my IV. Then, I heard that first little gurgly cry, and knew that after so much waiting my baby girl was finally here!

Emiliana Vesper was born on August 22, 2013, at 10:27am. She was 8 pounds, 5.4 ounces, and 18 1/2 inches long. I was able to hold her as soon as she was born, and I immediately fell in love.

After she was whisked away to the nursery my surgery was completed and I was taken into recovery. Emiliana was there a few minutes later, but I was so high on morphine I didn't trust myself to hold her quite yet. So Jordan held her for some skin to skin time, and we quickly learned what a great nurser she would be when she latched on to his chest. I took her at that point to breastfeed her, and she latched right on with no help from me and went to town. We have had zero problems nursing, and she is quite the hungry little newborn.

 

Emiliana has been perfect from the beginning. She only cries when she is hungry, never fussy, sleeps great... just absolutely amazing. After the months of crying we endured with Catherine, I have been very happy to have such an easy going newborn.

The night she was born they took her back to the nursery for the usual vital check and blood draw. They came back and said that her bilirubin levels were high, and that she would have to spend some time under the lights. This was not alarming to me at all. Both of the older girls had jaundice, though they were never treated for it. She spent 28 hours under the bili lights, and the nurses started calling her the Bili Baby. It was difficult for me to not be able to hold her except for feedings, and Jordan worried that she was getting lonely. So he bought her a little stuffed frog named Fenwick to keep her company.

 

I was very excited when her levels dropped enough for her to come out from under the lights, because it meant we would be able to go home. Hospital stays aren't much fun, and after "sleeping" for two nights in an uncomfortable bed while already in pretty horrible pain, I was ready to get home with my husband and newborn and begin our transition to a family of five.

Ready to go!

 Emmy is already almost a week old, and this week has been full of joy, tears, a good bit of pain, and a lot of snuggling. I am so in love with our newest daughter, and I already cannot imagine my life without her. I have been so blessed by these three beautiful girls.

Welcome to the world, Emiliana.