Back at my 37 week appointment, my doctor asked me if I didn’t have Emmaline by my due date week, if I wanted to just wait it out or if I wanted to be induced. Since I had been induced with Rylie, I knew what to expect, so I said I wanted to just be induced. She let me pick the day, so I said April 4th because I thought 4.4.18 sounded cool, and I wouldn’t have to miss a Highlands College class. So we were scheduled to come into the hospital on Tuesday (4.3.18) at 10pm to start pitocin and she would be born on the 4th.
Surprisingly, I didn’t go into labor before Easter – which I totally thought I would – so I went into work on Monday (4.2.18) to wrap things up before I went on maternity leave.
Tuesday was a crazy day of last minutes errands, packing, getting Rylie ready for the next few days that we wouldn’t be caring for her and appointments before class. The plan was to leave the house at 3:45pm so I could go to a chiropractor appointment at 4:15pm. From there, we were going to leave for Highlands College where I would attempt to pay attention and then go straight from school to the hospital to be induced. Every time I looked at the clock, I seemed to be behind which stressed me out because I felt like there was a bunch to do before we needed to leave. It didn’t help that throughout the day, I felt like Emmaline was abnormally low which was causing me a lot of discomfort that I couldn’t seem to shake off. I laid down for a quick 15 minute nap and it took me quite a while to find a comfortable position.
As we were driving to the chiropractor, I started feeling intense cramping in my pelvis, and they seemed fairly consistent. I wasn’t sure if they were actual contractions though because the contractions I had with Rylie were in my belly, so because these were way lower I wasn’t sure what they were. But because they seemed to be so consistent, I decided to use the Contraction Timer app and time them. When I started timing them, they were every 4-5 minutes with a couple random time gaps (one was 2 minutes, another was 9 minutes).
When we got to the chiropractor, I had to wait to get out of the car because I was having a “discomfort” as I had titled it and I needed it to finish before I could get myself out of the car and go in. The appointment was quick so it wasn’t long before we were back on the road.
We got to Rick and Michelle’s house where we said “bye” to Rylie and because I was being induced that night and the next time I would see her we would have Emmaline, I specifically made sure to give her a big hug. <3
Back on the road towards school, my “discomforts / cramps / contractions / whatever you want to call them” were 4-5 minutes apart. I started noticing that they were getting more painful – to the point where I was bracing myself in the car and couldn’t talk while they were happening. “Are you okay?” Aaron asked me, “are you having contractions?” “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like they did with Rylie.” “Do we need to go to the hospital?” I hesitated, then said, “I don’t know. Do you think we need to go?” Aaron looked at me with wide eyes and said, “do YOU think we need to go?” haha it was such a me thing to ask someone else’s opinion for something that I was the only one who could make a decision. We were one intersection away from school and I was definitely showing signs that I was uncomfortable. I started realizing I wasn’t going to be able to focus in class and said we should probably just go into the hospital. I figured worse case scenario – they weren’t contractions and I’d just be in the hospital early for my induction. “How far apart are they?” Aaron asked. “About 4-5 minutes,” then I added sheepishly, “but the doctor said I needed to come in when they’re 10 minutes apart…” “10 MINUTES!?” Aaron said with wide eyes, “Sarah! We’re going to the hospital right now.” We mapped how far the hospital was and it was 30 minutes away. On the way, I called the hospital to let them know that even though we were scheduled to be there at 10pm, I thought I was having contractions and was on my way. They told me which floor to go to and I emailed a classmate to tell them we weren’t going to be at class.
We made it to the hospital and walked onto the Labor and Delivery floor. There were times when I could feel a contraction coming, so I would have to stop to get through it before I could keep walking. The nurse who was taking me to my room was really patient and walked slowly so I wouldn’t have to rush. The room they were going to put me in when I arrived at 10pm was still being cleaned, so they put me in another room. As I was changing into my hospital gown, I told Aaron I wanted to take one last photo of me with the bump. When I walked out, the nurse was ready for me so I decided we’d just take the photo once they were done getting me settled (which also was when Aaron would go down to the car to get our stuff). My nurse (Catherine) checked me and said I was either really dilated or not dilated at all, so she called in another nurse to check me to get her opinion. She agreed it was hard to tell, but she did think I was 7 centimeters dilated. “7!? Are you serious?” I said with wide eyes. But my water hadn’t broken yet, so they continued to get me checked in. Less than 5 minutes later, I felt like I needed to toot and what felt like a pop and a sudden gush of water streamed out. I jolted and said, “Oh my gosh – my water just broke!” which then caused them to bring in another nurse to help get things ready for delivery. The next few minutes was a mad rush of nurses coming in, being told by a nurse what to do or get, and Catherine watching the computer screen for my contractions and asking Aaron rapid fire questions about my health (since I wasn’t in the mental state to always answer). A nursing student was putting my IV in when I said I felt like I needed to push. “Don’t push Sarah!” a nurse said, and then turning to some other nurses who had just entered the room, “we need to get delivery equipment in here. Now! And get a doctor. She’s ready to push.” I overheard the nurses say that the doctor they were going to use was doing another delivery, so they were scrambling to find me another doctor.
Screaming with every contraction at this point, I knew the end was coming. A doctor came in, quickly introduced herself (I had seen her before though, so I knew who she was), and she got down and told me I could start pushing. The nurses had to correct me (something they had to do when I was pushing Rylie too) because what I was doing wasn’t being as effective as it could be. When I started doing what they had told me to, I could feel baby girl making her debut.
After being in active labor for 1 hour and 25 minutes, Emmaline Victoria Shaver arrived.
They held her up for me to see and I was instantly so overwhelmed with emotions that I started crying. Aaron cut the cord, they cleaned her up just enough to get the majority of the yuck off and then helped me get my gown unbuttoned so I could do skin to skin with her.
The minutes following her birth were so sweet. I was a crying mess and Aaron was complimenting how well I had done.
We also were laughing at how quickly everything had happened, realizing that I would have had Emmaline in class if we hadn’t come to the hospital (since I had her less than 50 minutes of arriving there).
Aaron texted the tribe and, since we had her so unexpectedly early, offered that they could come meet her. We were so excited for Rylie in particular to meet her little sister.
They didn’t stay for long since it was 9/10pm and way past Rylie’s bedtime, but we were so glad they came so Rylie could meet Emmaline.
Rylie is a big fan of her new best friend… first item on the agenda – teach Emmaline how to high-five hahahahha 🙂
To sum it up – Emmaline’s birth story was insane. She came fast and furiously which I feel like is just the beginning of her life-story 😛
Towards the end of my pregnancy with her, as her due date got closer, I trusted that God would give her the perfect birth story and she would arrive right when she was supposed to. He gave me so many desires of my heart that I didn’t even realize until a couple days after she joined our family – I went into labor without being induced AND delivered her naturally. She came into this world 100% healthy in every area and is beyond beautiful.
Aaron and I are so in love with our newest addition! <3
