Emery's Story

Warning: Long post and lots of pictures. Read it all because its worth it!!! Oh, and if there are spelling and grammar mistakes, let it go because I am not proof-reading and I am on drugs right now!!!

My c-section was scheduled for 3:3o pm on Friday, November 4th. Did you know that you aren't allowed to eat or drink for 8 hours prior? Yep...it is one of the meanest things to do to a pregnant woman! I was dizzy, light-headed, and sick before the surgery even started!

Anyways, we got there a couple of hours early, got all set up, and after they had pumped me full of fluid, I headed back to the OR. My anesthesiologist came in and gave me the quickest, least painful spinal of my life. It was literally done in 30 seconds. More than amazing!! It quicks in within 30 seconds, which is so weird. I hate not being able to move my legs or feel even whether I have a blanket on or not! The c-section went really well. I got a little sick from my blood pressure dropping from the spinal, but once they fixed that, I was golden. Previously, Dr. Goff told me that I could have more babies if I wanted to, since he has performed 5-6 c-sections on women before. Once he cut me open, though, he said, "So, this is your last one, right?" Apparently my uterus is so thin that he called it a window. He could see the amniotic fluid and everything else through it and said there was no way I should be having any more. It was a good thing that Nate and I had already felt like she should be our last, but it was kind of nice to have that door be completely shut so I won't have any regrets. It was really cool because at this hospital, they use a sheet with a window in front.

I wasn't able to see the actual birth, which is just fine with me, but I did get to see her the second Dr. Goff pulled her out. He held her up to the window for me to see and it was love at first sight!! They took a while to sew me all up, but Emery and Nate were with me the whole time.

I was wheeled back into my post-op room to recover for a while and the baby got to stay with me the entire time. It was so great. I think holding her and spending all of that time with her really distracted me and kept me from getting sick because that is the first time I didn't get sick post-op. Dr. Goff even came in and hung out with us on the couch for a while and just chatted. It went so great!

Then came the bomb.....this hospital does not have a nursery. Um....WHAT?!!!! Dr. Goff felt so bad that he forgot to mention that this hospital did away with theirs a few months ago to promote "mother/baby bonding". I could not believe it. There is NO WAY I would have delivered at this hospital had I known.

Yes, the rooms were beyond gorgeous and the staff was pretty great, too, but no nursery? The mothers keep the baby with them 24/7. They do EVERYTHING in your room, which means that they not only come in to check your vitals and give your meds, but they also wake you up every time they have to check the baby's vitals and give any shots, etc. They only give one bath when they are first born and there is no relief for moms! The last thing I want to do the night I have a c-section is spend hours rocking and walking a crying baby in my room. I am exhausted, as I am sure all new mothers are. I was SO Looking forward to the little break every night to get a bit of sleep. I couldn't believe it. Nate and I were both so devestated! I know that sounds dramatic, but it was true.

Luckily, Nate was able to spend the night with us in the room.

My parents brought the other kids over to meet their new sister.
I was so worried how Griffin was going to react, hoping that he wouldn't feel replaced. Ha!!! Turns out that I am the one who has been replaced!! Griffin was in love from the second he saw her. He just wants to hug and kiss her endlessly. Its pretty sweet. Treyton went straight for my dinner that was still sitting out and honestly couldn't focus on the baby until he had eaten everything. It was like he had never eaten before!! Since then, though, he is always asking to hold Emmie and give her kisses and is incredibly sweet with her. Jayci loved her from the beginning, too. She is sweet and soft and its so cute to see her with her little sister.

That night, the baby (who was still unnamed until the 3rd day) did pretty well. Our nurse that first night was amazing. She offered to take the baby out for us into the nurses station so we could get a little rest. She took her for over four hours. It was the sweetest and most thoughtful thing! Unfortunately, we (or I since Nate was completely out) were awoken by an EARTHQUAKE. WHAT THE!!! At first, I thought it was just the percocet. But nope. It was a 4.7 quake. Crazy!!!

The next morning, Nate left to go take the other kids to home depot for their monthly craft as planned and my mom was going to come over later. So, I was left to my own devices. Emery decided to be extremely difficult that morning. I had to walk her back and forth for two hours. It had on.ly been 16 hours since my surgery and I was having to walk a sobbing baby back and forth. It was so exhausting. She wouldn't sleep, she wasn't eating well, and I was so tired. The lactation consultant came in later and saved my life. She could tell something was wrong with Emery and began to check her out. Turns out that she was tongue tied and couldn't stick her tongue out far enough to suck and nurse well. So not only was I hurting really bad but she was super frustrated and wasn't getting enough to eat. The consultant called my Dr. and had him come over from his hospital (he really is amazing) and clipped her tongue right then and there. It was like night and day. Emery was such a different and happy baby! It was awesome.

Well, my mom decided to stay over that night to help out. We went to bed and lo and behold...ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE!!! My mom almost slept through this one! I had to yell at her to get her to wake up and get to a doorway. This one was a 5.7. No damage, but still scary when you are on the fourth floor of the hospital recovering with a brand new baby!

The next morning, the lactation consultant came back over to check on us. She chatted for a while and was on her way out when she peeked over behind me at Emery. She ran over to her and picked her up and started pounding on her back and yelling at me to call the nurse asap. Holy crap. I was so freaked out. Emmie had started arching her back and turning blue and couldn't breath. Really quickly, there were about six nurses in my room trying to get her to breath again. It was incredibly scary. They were able to get her breathing again pretty quickly, but it was still the scariest thing. Her color came back and she started moving around again. They told me it could be a few different things and just to keep an eye on her. Well, this was another time I REALLY wish they had a nursery with nurses who could actually monitor her. I was so scared to look away or take a nap or even go to the bathroom that day. I called home and asked Nate to skip church and come over to be with us. I really didn't want to be alone and I was so nervous it would happen again and I wouldn't have the clarity of mind to do what I needed to do to get her breathing again. Luckily, she didn't have any more incidents and seemed to be doing really well. I, however, was in more and more pain as the day went on. Because I wasn't able to really rest the day after she was born but had to walk her around and try to calm her, I was in so much pain.

My blood pressure was super high for me. The painkillers they had me on weren't helping so my nurse called my doctor. They put me on another painkiller and Dr. Goff realized that the nurses misread his orders and weren't giving me the painkillers as often as they should have. Awesome. Thanks, guys.

Anyways, we were discharged the next morning with orders to come back the next day to have Emery's bili's checked because she was jaundiced, but they don't have a nursery there or bili lights to actually take care of the problem. Again, awesome. What is the point of being in the hospital if you don' t have any resources there?!! I was so annoyed.

We were welcomed home by lots of excited faces and I was so happy to be back home!

This post is getting extremely long, so I'm going to end the story here and pick up on another post in a few days. If you made it through this, congrats!!

We are just so excited to have EMERY MARIE SHARP in our family. She is the most precious, tiny baby. She is so sweet and we all are completely in love with her already. I just stare at her and can't get over how lucky I am !