Introducing Miss Emily Paige Ottinger

As I'm sure you know by now, Emily Paige made her appearance January 19, 2010 at 9:08am, one day shy of her induction date.

Her Birth Story:

Monday night, I began having some painful contractions. Nothing out of the ordinary, so I took a bath, took 2 Tylenol PMs, and we went to bed around 11:30. I vaguely remember waking up a couple of times with some intense contractions and going back to sleep. Then, around 2:00am, I woke up to a contraction and couldn't fall back asleep. Ten minutes later, another very painful contraction. Six minutes later, another. Four minutes later, another. Two minutes later, another. This time, I got up to go to the restroom. I walked around the bathroom for maybe 5 minutes before I woke Kyle up and told him we needed to leave. When you have been having contractions for 10+ weeks, you get to ignore the 5-1-1 rule (contractions for 5 minutes, lasting 1 minute, for 1 hour). You also get to ignore this rule when you skip straight to contractions 2 minutes apart that are so intense you feel like you are going to have a baby on the bathroom floor.

He called our friends, Dan and Kate, to come stay with Kason and he called L&D to let them know we were on our way. I, for some strange reason, decided I should straighten my hair and put on makeup. This was not easy with contractions so intense I was moaning into a pillow (didn't want to wake Kason) every 2 minutes. Kyle kept asking me what I was doing and I don't think I was really coherent enough to answer. Finally, I realized I was being ridiculous and got dressed.

Dan and Kate arrived around 3:00am. I somehow managed to get downstairs between contractions only to crawl up onto all fours on the couch and moan into a pillow. Our friends are newly married and I really hope I did not scare them out of having children. Kyle was gathering up a few last minute things with me telling him we had to leave NOW.

We got in the car and headed to the hospital. Car rides while you are in labor are no fun! I was convinced if we didn't get to the hospital soon, I would be delivering in the car, so I insisted Kyle run all the red lights.

Around 3:30am, we arrived at the hospital. As soon as a contraction passed, I headed into the ER. Luckily, it was almost empty, so there was only one poor man that had to witness my contractions. The ER triage person so how much pain I was in so I got a free pass straight to L&D skipping triage in antepartum.

There were two nurses waiting for me upstairs. I was immediately changed into a gown and checked for progress (4-5cm dilated at this point). An IV was started and the questions and signing of papers began. I'm still not really sure what I signed. I would've signed just about anything at that point to get some pain meds. I was contracting every 2 minutes and they were PAINFUL! After about an hour, the anesthesiologist came in and Kyle had to leave the room so I could get my epidural. It was now 5am and in the hour it took to get admitted and to get my epidural, I had progressed to 7cm.

Unfortunately, this is where the song repeats from Kason's birth. The epidural did not work completely. I was left with a hot spot on my left hip and only had partial relief for about an hour, if even that long. The hot spot hurt the entire time and increased with each contraction. After a little while, the contractions were again unbearable and I was writhing, moaning, and at times, screaming in pain. Labor was progressing very quickly, but the epidural did seem to slow it down. It took 3.5 hours to go from 8-10cm and get to push. That was the worst 3.5 hours...but, we made it through. At one point, a nurse came in and said I was scaring the patient next door. I'm not really sure why she thought I would care, though. I was in pain and I bet her epidural worked.

Three different anesthesiologists came in the room that day. One to administer the epidural, one to give a bolus (that didn't do a thing), and another to give a second bolus (that also didn't do a thing). Immediately after the third anesthesiologist finished and left, my water broke and I felt immense pressure. I never felt the urge to push with Kason because he stayed so high up until my doctor used the vacuum, so this was new to me. I had just been checked before my water broke and the nurse said I still had a lip and couldn't push. My body had a mind of its own, though, and was pushing all on its own. During this time, my doctor had been in the room twice. She had just left to go to her office, but before she even made it down the hall, she turned around and came back. She came in the room and said, "Let's have a baby".

At this point, I was focused. No more screaming in pain, just pushing, waiting on my baby girl. After a few good contractions and about 10-15 minutes, Emily made her entrance into the world. She was placed on my chest and cried immediately. Such a different experience than with Kason who was whisked away by the NICU nurses and neonatologist. After a few minutes the nurse took her to clean her off a bit, suction her, and weigh her. 7lb 10.7oz and 19 inches long. We got to spend the first hour in the room with her. She nursed and Kyle and I were both able to hold her and spend time with her before she went to the nursery to be bathed.

While the pain was much more intense than with Kason and the epidural didn't work for the second time, the labor was quick and Emily was healthy, so all in all it was a great experience. We now believe that my body just doesn't respond to epidurals like most do and am leaning towards a more natural experience in the future, so I don't have to be strapped to a bed while writhing in pain.

We came home around lunchtime on Thursday. Emily is doing great...nursing like a champ and sleeping well. Fingers crossed she will keep this up. She had her first pedi appointment yesterday and is up 6oz from our discharge on Thursday. She lost 7.5oz in the hospital and is expected to be back at birth weight by 2 weeks. So, she is well on her way and then some! We go back to the pedi next Monday for another weigh-in and her second newborn screening test. Speaking of weight - my goal for this pregnancy was to stay under 30 lbs (I gained 37 with Kason). As of my last dr. appointment at 38w6d, I had gained 22 lbs and as of today, I am only 5 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight! Yay!!

Kason is adjusting fairly well. Tantrums are much more frequent, but tapering off, and he is so sweet and gentle with his baby sister. He tries to give her her paci whenever she is crying and pushes her very gently in her swing. And, when he thinks we're not looking, he will go over and wave at her and say, "Hi Emmy" in the sweetest little voice. So cute! He is a great big brother already!!!

Now for the pictures. Enjoy!