She's Here!

Emerson Kate arrived yesterday, June 16, 2009 at 9:45am. Here's the play by play...

I went into labor on Monday night, having pretty consistant contractions starting at about 6pm. We called the Dr. and since I was already at 4cm last Wednesday, the nurse said to go on in. Aaron & I arrived at the hospital at about 8:45pm, got checked in and situated in L&D and then they checked my progress. I was at 5cm. The nurse contacted the on-call doctor to see how she wanted to proceed. The oncall contacted Dr Cone and he said he'd come in when it was time - whew! I was thrilled because naturally I wanted MY doctor! I continued to labor, with contractions that were 2 minutes apart. They started my IV fluids and then around 3am my contractions started to subside. I was still having them, but they were much more irregular and less intense. The nurse later concluded that I had been dehydrated and that had caused the contractions. At 6am the on-call doctor came & checked my progress, which really hadn't changed so Dr. Cone told him to break my water and start pitocin. We were committed! I immediately asked for the epidural. I got it around 7:30am. My nurse, Bridget speculated that Emerson would make her debut around 10:45am. I'm not sure what time she checked me, but I was at a 7 shortly after the pitocin was administered. Then around 8:45am I was an 8. We sat there chatting about random stuff -- Bridget and her husband are house-hunting -- stuff like that and then I started noticing that my contraction were creating more & more pressure, so about 9:20, I said "I think you should check me again. I'm feeling a lot of pressure." She did and immediately ran to the phone to call Dr. Cone. She said "we are a 10 and complete." I swear that man got from his office to the hospital, which is across the street, in about 2 min. Everyone was shocked at how fast he appeared. As soon as he got there, he said "ok, let's push." I pushed a grand total of 4 times (not 4 sets, but 4 total pushes) and at 9:45am (1 hour before Bridget had guessed) she was here!

She's precious & looks JUST LIKE JACKSON did! She looks like a little Mexican baby with the thickest head of black hair. Jackson's wasn't this dark and he didn't have as much, but they look exactly alike in the face. Even their facial expressions and cries are the same. When she cries really hard she makes a noise like a donkey. It's too funny! Nursing is SOOO much easier this time around and it helps that she is much more patient that Jackson was! My parents brought Jackson over last night and he pretty much ignored her except for when Aaron sort of forced an interaction. He tolerated her for a bit, patted her head and even gave her a hug, but then he wanted to get down and play with the curtain. You could tell by the look on his face that he was scared. The hospital does this adorable thing though for the siblings. They provide a sibling cake that allows the sibling to celebrate the baby's birthday. Cake is ALWAYS a hit with Jackson! Today was better! He still was timid around her, but he gave her a kiss on the head, patted her hair and put her pappy in her mouth. I was so happy after being devastated with his reaction the day before. Even though I knew that would probably happen, it is still heart wrenching when you see it & experience it in person!

We will be going home tomorrow and I will post pictures then, but until then you can view her newborn pics at http://our365.com/. You'll have to enter the first 3 letters of our last name hil and then her password is Emmekate.