A month later...

So I have become one of those bloggers who used to drive me nuts! There I was following a blog and suddenly they would quit posting! It used to drive me crazy, how was I supposed to know how things were going if they couldn't update their blog? I wanted to know all about their new babies or whatever else was going on in their lives.

NO SLEEP, that is what is going on in our lives, or at least mine anyways. Maybe I should go back a bit and fill in a few details. Anyways I apologize for not keeping everyone updated. I swear I will try better. And once I get back to work I will have lots of time.

Where to start? On Saturday April 25, 2009 I got up and got ready for the day. We (Gary, Gunner and I) went to Bob Evans for breakfast and got haircuts for the boys. We also made a stop at Meijers before heading home. By the time we were almost home I was pretty uncomfortable. Thinking I just overdid it a bit (that and the combination of being constipated) I headed for bed and what I figured would be a long weekend of laying down. I got more uncomfortable as the afternoon went on. I finally managed to cure the constipation issue and felt better for a bit. I couldn't tell if I was having contractions or not I was just very uncomfortable and crampy. I finally gave in and called the on call doctor and they advised me to go to the hospital to be checked since I had a cerclage. I called Gary in the garage and told him to come get cleaned up. (He had asked hours ago if we should go to the hospital) We dropped Gunner off at my mom's house with a backpack for overnight just in case. All we told Gunner was that we were going to see the doctor to check the baby.

When we got to the hospital around 5:00 pm, they took me to triage and got me in a gown and waited for Dr. Anderson to get there to check me. The nurse didn't want to check me considering I had a cerclage. That was one painful check. I almost went through the roof. Dr. Anderson decided to remove the cerclage since I was having contractions and we didn't want to damage my cervix further. Once the cerclage was removed (which was a completely horrid feeling procedure) I went from 1 to 5. They made me lay around a bit more and once I moved from 5 to 6 they decided that was it I was staying. By this time my best friend Stefani had arrived. She works at St. Mary's and got to come in to help deliver the baby. I got moved from triage to a room and we waited for the anestethiologist.

Stefani had arranged for me to have Kristen as a nurse, which was awesome. Kristen was hilarious and took excellent care of me. Stefani and Kristen also pulled a few strings to get me a good anesthiologist. My epidural went great and once it was in I was ready for the evening, so I thought. While I was hanging out the group decided to order chineese. Once it arrived they all ditched me to go eat, Gary included. But I was fine with that. I even suggested it so I could sleep a bit. I'm not sure at which point I started to vomit, but once I did I was done. I know the first time wasn't my fault. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and now it was after 9 pm or even later, I can't be sure of the time exactly. After throwing up I was so thirsty! So dumb me guzzled the ice water Stefani brought me. I apologized to her immediately. And right after that the water all came back up. That set the pace for the night. I threw up countless times. After I was completely dialated Stefani and Kristen had me do some pushing to see how I would progress. I guess I did ok since they went ahead and called Dr. Anderson to the room. Mind you I was throwing up in between pushes all this time. Gary even had to help hold the barf bucket. There was nothing left to throw up so I just retched and heaved for awhile too. It was pretty awful. Once Dr. Anderson got to the room we got down to business and pushed for real. Myself I think I pushed for like 3 hours but they all tell me it was probably less than an hour of real pushing. I still don't believe them. The epidural was great and helped me survive it all. Dr. Anderson threatened to do an episiotomy at one point because they just didn't think the head was going to fit and the next push the head was out. I did the same thing with Gunner, once they threaten to cut I got serious. That last final push and then the gush of everything and here was baby. I believe Stefani made the "girl" call. Although when the head was out and they were suctioning the babies nose they all got in a last minute what do you think it is. Which is comical now but not funny at the time. I didn't even get too grossed out when they laid the slimy, goo covered little girl on my stomach. She looked kind of weird at the time since her face was so swollen and red. I was kind of in shock I think. They got her cleaned up and worked on her for a bit. She had a bit of fluid in her lungs she was having a hard time clearing out. They weighed her and let us hold her for a few minutes then took her to the nursery to get checked over. I was whipped. Gary made a phone call or two and I called my mom to tell her Emmerson Lucht Bruce was born at 2:22am weighing in at 7 lbs even and was 21 inches long. My mom was pretty bummed that we asked that everyone stay home and not come to the hospital till the next day, she did it though and kept Gunner for us so he was comfortable and happy.

The next day after we went to see Emmerson we got the word that even though she was doing ok, they wanted to move her down to the NICU. They wanted to start her on antibiotics since her blood counts were off and they thought she may have an infection. We were ok with her going to the NICU since we had been there and had a wonderful experience when Gunner was born. And on top of that the rules had changed and Gunner could visit her once a week and more people would be allowed in to see her than before. Gary went home that night to take care of things at home and to reassure Gunner. I slept great by myself and barely woke up when they came to check on me during the night. The next morning the doc released me and Gary picked me up on his way to work. Leaving the hospital without a baby this time was a bit sad, but not nearly the devastating blow it was with Gunner. I knew she was fine and it would only be a few days before she was ours to keep. It is amazing how different things are the second time around.