Contractions again. I had been getting them every night all week fairly consistently, so it wasn’t a big surprise for me to be having them. I recorded them, as I had the previous nights. On this night they seemed to be a little more intense. On June 27th the first contraction is recorded at 9:08 PM. And it continues. . . 9:18,9:28, 9:39, 9:46, 10:01, 10:24, 10:37, 10:53, . . . time to doze off while watching The Office on Netflix. . . the short sleep was kind of pointless because I kept waking up in pain when another contraction came. Now it’s time to start recording them again: 12:07, 12:17, 12:28. . attempting more sleep but not working very well. Now I’m wondering if I might actually be in labor. I was pretty hesitant to get my hopes up because I was positive I was going into labor pretty much every night for over a week. 28 June 2013 - 2:18am, 2:28, 3:12, 3:18, 3:25, 3:35. . . ok, time to wake Brett up and pack things up for a trip to the hospital. Brett ran down to wake my mom up and have her move her slumber upstairs so she could hear the boys when they woke up. Still coming. . . 3:39, 3:42, 3:45. . . now we’re in the car. . .3:48, 3:50, 3:52, 3:56, 4:01, 4:04 (this last recorded one was in the hospital parking lot holding onto Brett’s hand)
After signing in and getting hooked up to machines I had the fun of being monitored for an hour. The babies heart rate dipped quite a bit during my contractions, so the nurses kept a close eye on him, but it was never bad enough to worry. After being monitored they prepped me for surgery. Here we are in our monkey suits ready to go:
The anesthesiologist gave me my spinal, and it didn’t bother me because I was so excited and ready to meet my little man. I know I don’t have a perfect memory of my other births, in fact big parts of them were really a blur, but I didn’t feel like my numbness was the same this time around. I was a little concerned, because it seemed like I had more sensation this time than I did with my previous three C-sections. I was assured that everything was fine. Things seemed to be going well too. When they made the first incision I could barely feel it. My regular Ob was out of town so one of Dr. Jones’ associates performed the surgery. Brett and I were talking about Hyrum’s birthday party coming up to keep me distracted from the details of what happened behind the ‘curtain’. A little while into it I started to feel pain, and the pain was increasing. I couldn’t think about anything else other than the pain. I started throwing up. With my body lying down on the table and unable to move my arms I just had to tilt my head to the side and Brett caught it in a vomit bag. I am so glad that Brett is not squeamish and is so helpful in yucky situations. The pain was so bad that I don’t remember much of what else went on. I remember them showing me our beautiful baby boy and I was so happy and relieved to hear his cries. However, I was in so much pain that I struggled to even turn my head to look over at him when they took a picture. Brett went with Emmett to be checked out and cleaned. With the other boys, Brett has gone with the nurses to take the baby to the nursery. I was so scared that I was going to die that I asked Brett to stay with me until my pain had stopped. Brett told me the anesthesiologist inserted two syringes of drugs into my IV and shortly after I started to calm down and feel better. As soon as I was okay Brett went to find our cute little miracle and wait for me to join them.
Brett and I went into this birth with different ideas for his name. We had gone back and forth with favorites and finally decided that we would make a final decision when our little Fishy got here. When we saw him we both knew that he was Emmett. There was no hesitation between us. This little man born at 6:54 am on June 28th was Emmett Rigby Partridge. We had been waiting for him to join our family for what seemed like forever, and now that he is here we cannot be happier. He is loved beyond belief by Brett and I and his three older brothers, who still call him ‘Mystery Baby’ or ‘Fishy’.
I was so happy to hold him for the first time about an hour after the surgery.
He had some visitors on his first day of life that were very happy to meet him. Owen loved holding him too, even though we didn’t get a picture. His three older brothers are happy to have a new member of the family and I can tell they are going to be great big brothers for him.
I stayed in the hospital to recover for the full four days. I loved having that time to really bond with Emmett. I love holding him and having him sleep on my chest. He is so small and warm. He makes the cutest little squeak noises and doesn’t cry too much. As for me, the recovery is going pretty well. Pain medicine alters my ability to function so much that I get off it as soon as possible. I stopped taking them before I left the hospital and have been doing fine. This is my first C-section that has given me bad bruising around my incision. I was pretty worried about it when three different nurses commented on how they had never seen bruising so bad. My lower abdomen had a very black and blue bruise about 6 inches long and 4 inches high above the incision and a smaller one just below. Now, nine days later I can see a big improvement in the bruising. The coloring on a lot of it has now changed to yellow and it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as it did last week.
My mom was able to keep up with laundry, dishes, cleaning the house, and the boys. I’m very grateful that she could come, and I’m glad the boys were able to spend some good time with her. She left early yesterday morning and so we’ve now survived two days with our family of six. I feel very blessed.
The boys have been so great with Emmett over the past week. Owen has surprised me the most. Sometimes he can be rough and too hard with him, but usually he is very sweet. He LOVES holding Emmett and snuggling with him. I am excited to see what great friends they will be. I have more pictures and fun things to post, but for now it’s time for me to go to sleep. I feel very happy and complete with my beautiful bigger family.
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