Friday, October 10, 2008

Introducing Emma Grace

So, obviously, she's here! As you can imagine, life has been crazy since little miss Emma's arrival on October 3. She's now a week old and ever bit as beautiful as the day we met her. Check out some photos below. More to come, of course.


Here's a brief summary of our birth story. The doctors decided to induce me on Wednesday, October 1 due to slightly elevated blood pressure, which they were concerned would continue to increase. We arrived at the hospital at 9pm that night, expecting to have a medication that would help soften the cervix and prepare for labor. Well, I was already contracting on my own according to the monitors, so instead they started the pitocin on a low setting to keep them coming regularly. That continued overnight. At 8:30am the next morning, the doctor tried breaking my water but failed because I was only 2cm and not very effaced. So the pitocin was increased throughout the day until 5pm, at which time Dr. Adkins WAS able to break my water.

Now, up to this point in the labor game, my contractions were NOT bad. I could feel them and was even uncomfortable at times, but kept thinking "this isn't bad at all." Once the water broke, however, TRUE labor contractions began and the whole ballgame changed! I was only able to tolerate those contractions about 45 minutes before asking for an epidural (no hero here)....God bless the inventor of the epidural. After several more hours of contracting and laboring, I was not dilating much at all and Emma was still high up.

At one point in the evening we had a scare. The nurse tried flipping me from laying on one side to another hoping to encourage Emma to drop lower and help me dilate. However, as soon as I got to one side, her heart rate dropped significantly and before we knew it there was an intense rush of nurses helping to lie me back, put oxygen on me and help get her heart rate back up. Took several minutes, but all ended up being OK. But it sure was scary and upsetting. After that episode, the nurse called the doctor and it was decided that Emma was getting tired of labor and needed to go ahead and make her entrance - so a C-section was planned.

So, Emma Grace Tysinger arrived into this world on Friday, October 3 at 12:57am. She weighed 6lbs 13oz and was 18.5 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and has had her eyes wide open and been holding her head up from the very beginning. We left the hospital on Monday, October 6 and have been getting to know each other at home with dad ever since. I'm feeling great and Emma is a wonderful baby - doesn't cry much and smiles at us (even if she doesn't know it yet). Although I expect it to be hard to find time, I will try and give updates as often as I can. Thanks for the love and support!

5 comments:

Shannon said...

Congratulations! She's beautiful! She's only about 2 hours younger than my daughter! Isn't it wonderful?

Nikki said...

Oh Teresa she is so beautiful! Thanks for posting your birth story, I was anxious to hear how it all went. I can't believe how tiny she is! So cute!!! Congrats again mommy!

The Zombson's said...

Absoulutely precious! Congratulations!!

Cynthia said...

Congratulations!!!! She is sooo beautiful!!

Jennifer Terrero said...

CONGRATS on your baby girl!!!!! I can only imagine how your heart must hurt with joy seeing her little face. CONGRATS again!!!!!