Emma’s Birth Story

Here’s Emma’s birth story!

I was sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office when Sherry texted me. One thing led to another and she asked if I was going to have newborn pictures taken. Now, I had thought about the possibility of doing a newborn session before and kept putting it off, but in that moment it just clicked, and I booked my session immediately. And I’m so glad I did! You see, two years ago when we had Kenneth, the photographer side of me thought she could take his newborn photos. I even bought him a cute newborn outfit. But guess what?! This momma was WAY too tired the first couple of weeks postpartum to take any photos. Do I regret not investing in a newborn session back then? I totally do. So this time I knew better and hired someone to take Emma’s newborn pictures.

If you’re curious to read more about Emma’s birth story, here’s how it happened!

She was so ready to come into our family, it only took her about an hour and a half from the time we got to the hospital to come into the world! How crazy is that?! And I thought for sure that this time around I knew what I was doing. Little did I know that this birth would go in a totally opposite direction than planned.

The day of her birth I had contractions all day but they were irregular. Some were about 10-12 minutes apart, others would only come every half an hour. We called the hospital and they said to just relax because it’s probably nothing, and if the contractions get to be 4-5 minutes apart, THEN go to the hospital. So obviously we went on with our day like any other regular day. Around 4:45 p.m. I felt as if my water had broken and that’s when I started to panic. I called Tim and told him to come home. He got home in record time! In the meantime, I took a shower and packed some last-minute things for the hospital. It wasn’t until I set foot in the car to go to the hospital that my contractions started to be 3-4 minutes apart… and they were not very pleasant! I remember my two year old in the back seat, trying to understand what was going on, repeatedly saying “mommy, okay?” every time a contraction would kick in.

We finally made it to the hospital. I could barely walk and was hurting more than ever before. They took me to a delivery room and started going through some routine questions. I’m telling you, silly questions like “do you have any signs of depression?” or “do you have any bad will towards anybody?” seem like a joke to you when you are in labor. From there on, everything went completely different than I thought it would. The first thing I did was to ask for the epidural, because having given birth before, I knew for sure that I did not want to experience a natural delivery. My previous delivery was a breeze and I thought this would be the same. I was so wrong!!

My contractions started being so bad that I asked for the epidural right away. They told me that they needed to go through their list of questions first. Some time later they told me that they needed to run some blood tests before they could give me the epidural. All this time my contractions were like 2-3 minute apart and lasted for about 1 and 1/2 minutes each. So as soon as one ended another one would come. In between tears and yelling, I kept begging them for an epidural.

About 2o minutes later the “epidural guy” came in. I felt like he was my saving grace. In my mind I was telling myself, “only a few more minutes and then you won’t feel a thing”. They tried to have me sit up but it took a minute because goodness, I was hurting so bad! I finally got in position when all of a sudden my water broke. Then I heard the nurse saying “there’s no time for the epidural, this baby is coming NOW”. I was like “Are you kidding me?! This can’t be happening. I can’t give birth naturally, I just CAN’T!”. So the “epidural guy” starts packing his stuff (after he had everything out and ready to give me the shot) and leaves the room. As he was leaving I started yelling at him “No, no, no, no! You come back in here right now!” He didn’t listen! Haha! About 10 minutes later, baby Emma was born. Without.Any.Pain.Medication!!! When you are experiencing the birth pain and you keep asking… no, not asking, begging them to give you the epidural and they just won’t listen to you, you start feeling like no one is paying any attention to you, nobody cares. I still haven’t forgiven them for not giving me the epidural. Ha!

Apparently, I did say a few things to the staff there while in labor that my husband had to keep apologizing for me. Haha! It was a very fast delivery, but also a very painful one.

If you are expecting and are having contractions, even if they are irregular, but some are about 10 minutes apart, go.to.the.hospital.right.nowl! Don’t wait until the contractions are 4-5 minutes apart like they tell you over the phone because, had I been a few minutes late to the hospital, I could have seriously given birth in the car. And that would have been even less pleasant!

And that’s it friends! That’s how baby Emma came into the world. Had I gotten an epidural and labored a little longer she would have shared a birthday with her little cousin who turned one the next day and her uncle — we got to the hospital shortly after 6 p.m. and Emma was born at 7:38 p.m.

Here are some of my favorite shots from our session with Sherry of Sherry Conrad Photography. I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty hard to choose just a few as I LOVE them all!

And that’s Emma’s birth story. How adorable is she?! To see my maternity pictures click here!