welcome to the world, baby girl.

Our sweet baby girl has arrived! Emma Katherine Rice was welcomed into this world after a swift and easy labor (in comparison to my first) at 4:58pm on October 2, 2010 weighing 8 pounds, 10 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.

For documentation's sake, here is Emma Kate's birth story. I had an ultrasound at my appointment on September 22nd to determine Emma Kate's size. I was 36 weeks, 6 days and she was already estimated to be 6 pounds, 13 ounces. I grow some big babies! Due to my trouble delivering P (he was 8 pounds, 4 ounces), the doctor decided that it was best if they induce me at 38 weeks, 4 days. I was terrified of being induced, mostly afraid of complications or the possibility of a c-section. I tried to remain calm and trust that my doctor knew what was best, but I still hoped and prayed that I would go into labor on my own. My mom and I had a busy day on Friday, the day before I went into labor. Bought pansies for my flower garden, had my brows waxed, went to Kennesaw to pick up the glider for the nursery, dropped off the Yukon for a complete detailing, and went out to dinner for my dad's birthday. I had lots of Braxton Hicks throughout the day, but nothing too serious. At dinner, we ordered nachos as an appetizer, which contained a TON of jalapenos. Taylor joked with the waiter that the nachos may put me in labor, and if they did, he would make sure to tell all of his friends that McGuire's nachos will induce labor. The waiter joked back that we would get a year's worth of free meals if it worked. (We have yet to redeem our prize....I'll add that to my "to do" list.) I woke up at 4am the next morning (October 2nd) with stronger than normal contractions, nothing painful, but enough to keep me from going back to sleep. By 6am, I told Taylor that I thought we would have our baby girl in our arms by that evening. He never believed me. He didn't believe me until we got to the hospital and I got checked for dilation....

I was able to fall asleep for a couple of hours that morning and woke up again around 9am. By this time, my contractions were regular and strong, still not too painful, but coming consistently every 3 or 4 minutes. We got showers. I packed the rest of my hospital bag and added a few things to Emma Kate's bag. (Yes, I still was not packed.) I did a load of laundry, hung pictures up in the nursery, and cleaned the downstairs of the house. (Crazy, huh?) Taylor still did not believe that I was in labor, even though I insisted that this was "it". I put a call into the midwife around 10am to see when I should go in to the hospital. The midwife never called me back. We called Taylor's parents to come get P. We took a walk in the neighborhood and I called Cheryl, a family friend and newly retired OB. (She actually delivered Phoenix.) I told her about my contractions, duration, frequency, etc. She told me not to wait on the midwife to call me back. Her exact words were, "You need to go on to the hospital. This is your second baby. Go on to the hospital now." With that response, I started to get a little panicky. Could I really have this baby soon? We loaded up the car, realized that we were out of gas and hadn't had lunch, so we made those things our priority. By this time, the contractions were stronger. Still not too painful, but I was having to breathe through them. We stopped at McDonald's. I ate a cheeseburger happy meal. (Nice, huh?) We stopped to get gas then we headed to the hospital. As we pulled into the hospital parking lot, the midwife finally returned my call. In between pauses for contractions, I told her about my labor thus far and made her promise that if I went inside the hospital that they would not send me home. (I had a LONG labor with P. I wanted to have this baby. Now.) She claimed that by listening to me on the phone, I was definitely in labor and they would not be sending me home. She claimed that I would be around 3 cm dilated and that I would deliver our baby girl no later than 10pm that same day. Taylor still did not believe that I was really in labor. Part of me doubted it, too. Contractions were consistent and strong, but I was managing them too well to be dilated to 3cm.

We checked in to the hospital around 12:30pm. I also told the nurses that I did not want to be sent home. Apparently, by looking at me, they, too, decided that I was definitely in real labor. Dr. McIntosh came in to check me around 1pm. Dilated to 4cm! Taylor was so excited that he gave fist bumps to the doctor. Hilarious! We definitely weren't going home. Pitocin was started. My nurse, who spoke zero English, supposedly called for my epidural. Again, this was around 1pm. Pitocin was bumped up around 3pm. Contractions were really intense. Still no sign of epidural lady. Felt like I needed to push around 3:30pm. Made Taylor help me into the bathroom. Sat on the toilet and had to push. Could not help myself. Screamed at Taylor to go get the nurse. No. Strike that. "Go get Dr. M. Tell her I want a new nurse. Tell her I want my epidural!" I think those were my exact words. Dr. M came quickly. Told me that I moved fast and that I would probably be too close to completely dilated to get an epidural. You've got to be kidding me??!!?? Was checked and found to be at 8 1/2cm, almost 9. Dr. M was extremely nice and hurried the anesthesiologist our way for my epidural. By 4pm, I was much more relaxed, but still feeling everything on my right side. I've heard of this happening, but never quite understood it. It was interesting. At least I only felt half of my contractions. Midwife took over on-call duty. She came in. Introduced herself. She pulled up a chair next to Taylor. Drank a coke. Sent a few text messages. Told us her life story. And told me to let her know when I felt the urge to push. She was really fun and made me much more relaxed for the quasi-natural birth I was about to experience. I started pushing at 4:30pm, and Emma Kate was born at 4:58pm. I experienced very little pain and thoroughly enjoyed this labor. Apparently Emma Kate was really ready to meet her mama and daddy. She breathed prematurely in the birth canal and experienced lots of breathing problems immediately after she was born. She was blue and floppy for a minute or so. The nurses suctioned her well, but she just swallowed too much fluid. The respiratory therapists were paged and arrived in our room within 7 minutes of her birth. They suctioned her, gave her oxygen, and after about 15 minutes, decided that she needed to go to the NICU for observation and further monitoring. After crying hysterically the entire time she was being worked on, one of the respiratory therapists handed her to me and said, "Hold her for a minute. She's your baby. You deserve to hold her."

The NICU monitored baby Emma that evening. Taylor and I were allowed to see her, but we were not allowed to hold her. I was devastated. After carrying her for nine months, I wanted nothing more than to hold my sweet girl. At 11pm, the doctors decided to admit our baby girl because she was still experiencing rapid breathing and her oxygen saturation was still intermittently dipping. They called for a chest x-ray to make sure there was no other underlying cause for her breathing problems. We were told that we could not go visit her until they called us. My nurse came in our room at 2am the next morning to tell me that the chest x-ray came back fine and that I was allowed to go see her. Taylor was asleep, but I just had to see my baby girl, so I stumbled down to the NICU. The sweet nurse let me hold her for the first time since she was in the NICU. I immediately fell in love with our sweet girl.

Emma Kate was kept in the NICU for 4 days, mainly because she was started on preventative antibiotics for the possibility of infection, and they wanted to wait for the 3 day cultures to come back clean before they discharged her, Our insurance only allowed me to stay in the hospital as a patient for 2 nights, but I made it clear to the NICU staff and to my nurses that I was not leaving until my baby girl could leave with us. The staff at HMC was incredible and arranged for us to stay in our room, just not as a patient. Kind of like a hotel, I guess. I began pumping colostrum the evening that she was born and brought it up to the NICU at every feeding time....every 3 hours. The NICU team would not feed her by mouth until Day 2 for fear of her aspirating, and even then, they would not let me breastfeed. She received formula along with a syringe full of what little milk/colostrum I was able to pump until Day 3, when the sweet neonatologist allowed me to begin nursing. The NICU nurses and lactation consultant were incredible. They served as my advocate, pushing the doctors to allow me to nurse my daughter. What NICU would not want that for their babies? I still don't understand. I met some incredible nurses during our stay, 3 in particular that were sent by God. Meg was the overnight nurse. She was there 2 of our three nights and kept my mind occupied. We talked about books and babies, beer and boobies. She was incredible. Tammy, the lactation consultant, was awesome. She taught me some great, but rather hilarious, pumping techniques and other techniques to boost my milk supply. I still hear "Press, Compress, Release" every time I nurse EK. And Roquelle. She was another NICU nurse that "tells it like it is". Even though she was rather straight forward, she also helped push the doctors to allow me to breastfeed and helped us get everything in order for our discharge. I will never forget these special people.

I added some of my favorite pictures of Emma Kate's birth and our stay at the hospital. I also included a slide show of all of the pictures. We are so glad to be home with our sweet girl. I thank God that she is healthy and home with us. We are adjusting well and loving every minute of our time together as a family of four.