Emi Alice A Birth Story

Ok, I figured I better write this since time and sleep deprivation are making my memory a little bit foggy. This is the birth story of Emi Alice- the good, the bad, the ugly, and the TMI's :) enjoy!

The Monday before Emi arrived, I was at work doing the oh so stimulating monitor tech job (can you sense my sarcasm?) when I felt like she was literally going to fall out of me. After asking a couple of coworkers what I should do, I got pushed to labor and delivery in my pimped out wheelchair (which by the way if anyone has a picture of it, I would like it for the baby book). After being monitored and checked, I was sent home and told the in deed my darling baby's head was pushing out, but my cervix was staying closed (huh, go figure). So home I went and "took it easy". Are you kidding me, I think I scrubbed my floors everyday that week hoping to get things started. Then Saturday came and I sent many texts to my coworkers (God bless them with my oh so TMI questions and comments throughout this pregnancy) about mucous plugs- thanks guys! Hey I warned you in the first paragraph :).
Well Sunday morning came and I woke up with a horrible back ache. I decided to take a shower (you would think I would have remembered Gracie's arrival with a back ache). So, like with Gracie, I decided to take a shower. I decided that the shower was not helping and maybe I should head to the hospital. By this time Ava comes into the bathroom and wants to take a shower too. I told her that I was only in there because I had a back ache. So I look out and Ava is sprawled out on the bathroom floor saying that she just needed to take a shower because her back hurt too (what a coincidence). I finally convince her to go wake up Danny, so he could take a shower and to tell him that it was very important. On a side note, why don't men ever get subtle hints? So Ava comes back and says that Dad didn't wake up, so she better just go ahead with her shower. Out of the shower I come bribing Ava along the way with a possible sleepover at Grandma's house. I wake Danny up and call my mom to tell her that we would be bringing Ava over. She was excited but, like I also told Danny, I would probably just be sent back home.
Ok, even if I did tell Danny that I would probably be sent home, you would think he would be a little bit scatter brained like you see in the movies. Not my man, no- he takes his good sweet time. He showers, gets dressed, and I get Ava ready. I tell them that I am going out to the car- again subtle hint to get a move on. I sit out in the car for five minutes- no hubby, no Ava. By this time I'm a little cranky with contractions and, well I'm not very patient, so I head inside. What do I find when I go upstairs? They are still in the bathroom! Not just that, they are experimenting what toys float and what toys sink in the water! "Are you kidding me!" and I stomp down the stairs. They must have finally gotten the hint, and away we went to Grandma's house.
On the way out of town, we turn behind my cousin's husband. Danny, "he's going to know what we are doing." On a side note, he was the first one to know about this pregnancy waaayyyy before anyone else in my family. He kept it a secret the entire time, bless his heart, but has been raked over the coals ever since by all of the female family members :). We try to act not obvious (we didn't want everyone to get their hopes up over a false alarm), but he waits for us at a stop sign. With a grin, "where are you guys going?" We finally confess, and he wishes us luck.
Once we get to Peoria, we park in the ED lot. We get wheeled up to labor and delivery and am attached to the monitor. After a little while, my contractions slow down- geez here we go again. (on a side note I was going to be induced the next day, so I was secretly hoping they would just keep me). I was also not even admitted yet and was laying in the triage room that has no tv- so Danny was bored. The same rules applied for him like Ava's birth. No talking, no laughing, no eating, no touching. Hey, I like to suffer by myself. By this time I have to go to the bathroom and when I come back I am having horrible back pain and a lot of pressure. I ring for my nurse to check me and tell Danny to go ahead and get our bags out of the car-mainly the camera. So Danny leaves, and the nurse checks me. I've dilated from a 2 to a 4 in a matter of ten minutes. Nurse, "ok, so it looks like you will be having a baby today." The baby must have heard this and decided to speed up the process. By the time they call my midwife, get my midwife, and wheel me to my room, I've dilated to a 7. My midwife comes into my room to check me, I'm a 9. WAIT! I don't have my epidural or my husband. Come to find out Danny got lost, and called my mom in a panic. Did he really think she could help him an hour away? Also note, that he didn't even know I was admitted yet, so nobody was told to start heading to the hospital. Ok, back to me, the midwife asks if she can break my water and I would probably have the baby in no time. Me, "no, I can wait for my epidural". (hehe, i'm more concerned about my epidural being there over my husband- hey natural child birth hurts like h%$&!!!!!!) Finally Danny makes it back to find the midwife going ahead and breaking my water. As soon as she breaks my water the contractions are TERRIBLE!!! It hurt, and (embarrassingly) I made sure everyone knew it. I remember hearing the midwife yelling at the nurse to get her gown, gloves, and some other things. I guess they weren't expecting her to come that fast. Well, the midwife managed to get her gloves on before I gave a push and out she came. It was amazing!!!! Here she was, this perfect little thing on my chest that I had worked so hard to keep. I was also so proud of myself for doing it without any pain medication (not that I ever, ever, ever want to do it that way again). I was worried because she wasn't crying at all, just looking around. The nurse kept telling me she was fine because she was nice and pink. I was a little confused that I got to hold her so long since Ava had to be taken away first before I got to see her. It turns out I was holding her so long because NOTHING was ready. Me, "what time was she born?" Nurse, "12:09". Me, "what? we only got here after 10:00!" I guess when she was ready to come, she was ready.
In the mean time, my mom decided to head on out since she hadn't heard anything. Danny called her once she was born and my mom was still half an hour away. She said he sounded panicked. I bet he was because he went from me just in triage to coming into the room only a couple of minutes before the baby was born. And my cousin's husband to his wife, "have you heard anything from Bethany?" My cousin, "what are you talking about?" Him, "well, I saw them driving to peoria." So needless to say he got in trouble again for not spreading the gossip.
After the great name debate, I just kind of knew that she was an Emi. She was perfect! I couldn't wait to call Ava and tell her the news. She was the first person to know her name. She was so proud and so excited. Ava to everyone, "my baby finally came out!" The next day she got to see her little sister. She was so proud and is still telling everyone, even strangers in stores, all about her little sister.
We are so blessed to have three little girls, two angels here with me and one angel waiting for me when the time is right.

Introducing Emi Alice

Emi Alice McGraw arrived very quickly Sunday July 17th, 2011, weighing 6lbs 4oz and 19 inches long.


Sorry for the delay, I've been a bit sleep deprived the past couple of weeks. More pictures and a birth story to come soon.... hopefully :)

Baby update

Last Friday I got my cerclage out. After that I had to be monitored for an hour. The doctor didn't like some of the decels. she was having, so off we went for another sono. At the sono, BGM was breathing very shallow, had a very low heart rate, and took 20minutes to move. So off I went to be admitted to labor and delivery. Wouldn't you know that she looked fine at the sono there. Oh, my girls will be the death of me someday.
Today I had another appointment. My doc decided that if our little girl has not made her grand entrance by the 18th, we will be inducing. It seems like such a long way away, but it's only a week and a half from now!!! Wow, I can't believe it. I have been feeling really guilty lately. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I feel bad that Ava's life will never be the same again. She only has a week and a half left of being the only one getting attention. After that, she will have to share, and I just feel so bad for her. I hope other parents feel the same way. I am going to make a point to have just mom and Ava days. I just hope I don't traumatize her from all of this. I know everyone is laughing at me right now because siblings are the norm, but I just feel awful.

Ava's Painting Party

This year's bday theme was painting, since it is one of Ava's true loves :)
Odd angle, but the fruit tray includes all the colors of the rainbow. The rest of the menu included: fair sized hot dogs (they were huge!), different colored ketchup and mustard with paint brushes to paint onto the hotdogs, a salad (that also had every color of the rainbow), chips and dip (again, had a chip for every color), potato salad (my grandma,"you can't have a party without potato salad"), and my Aunt Kay's baked beans (she knows that baked beans is one of the things I've been craving with this pregnancy- along with corn on the cob :) )

I just have to point out the shirt. I found this on a clearance rack last year and saved it for this year's party. Yes, I know the themes way in advanced. Hey, that's how you get the best deals, and yes I already have something in mind for next year but not set in stone yet.

I made all of the cupcakes (along with Ava's help). Since Ava's favorite color is red, she got one cupcake heaped with frosting for each year :) I then set up a "decoration station" for everyone to decorate their own cupcakes. The "paint can" was filled with all different kinds of sprinkles. The "paint cans" were made from the giant economy sized canned goods that schools use (I have my connections :) ). They held all of the silverware, sprinkles, napkins, and wet wipes.

Not to brag, but didn't they turn out awesome!?

This is when the rain started to pour. I was hoping it would miss us, but no luck. Thankfully, my grandma has huge trees in her yard, so everyone stayed dry (until the end). One of the kid's activities was a squirt gun fight. Not just any squirt gun fight, though. Each kid (and some adults) put on a white tshirt and chased after each other with their squirters that were filled with....paint! A little background story, we decided to test this out a couple of weeks before hand to make sure it would work. Well, the paint looked great on the shirts but didn't look so great stained on Ava's skin for a week. The worst was her blue splattered face that she sported for the week. So, more testing had to be done, and I'm happy to say all of the children washed clean in the rain :). The shirts turned out really cool too. The kids ran around painting each other for a couple of hours.

Another activity, that I didn't get because of the rain and me rushing to get everything in, was finger painting. I covered a buffet table with paper. Did you know that you can get the end rolls of the newspaper from the newspaper company for free or really cheap? Who knew? The day before I made finger paints of every color. We spooned them all out into bowls and let the kids have at it. Our youngest guests, 10 months, particularly enjoyed this.

All in all, this was a great party. I'm just bummed that it got rained out. Our parties usually last around six hours. What can I say, our family knows how to have fun. We promised all of the kids that we would have a "do over day" on a nice day to do squirt guns, finger paint, and swimming. Well, better start planning for next year's party :)

Ava Finnli is 4!

Well, I can't believe I have a 4 year old! She is truly the light of my life. Over the past months, I've noticed she is turning into a little person. The things she says and understands is unbelievable. Here is a little interview with my amazing 4 year old.

What's your favorite color: red and pink
What's your favorite food: pizza and broccoli
What's your favorite movie: Rapunzel
What's your favorite thing to do: play outside
Who's your best friend: (Aunt) Laney
What do you want to be when you grow up: a sunshine fairy

I lost her interest after that. She's still a busy bee and is always on the go. Enjoy the pics!

35 weeks baby!

I never would have imagined I would have lasted to this point. I get my cerclage removed this Friday. Most of my family think I'll go right into labor on Friday. I think I'll have to be induced because I'll be overdue. It will be just my luck that I've worked so hard to keep BGM in, she won't want to come out. I have been having a lot of contractions the past couple of days and horrible back pain, so we will see. We have everything ready, but still no name.
As for Ava, she has been busy having her birthday and going on vacation with Grandma. I will update about that later, so I can give the post its proper attention :)

Getting There

Well, I'm 31 weeks. Can I get a hallelujah!!!! I'm pretty impressed with myself considering my perinatologist thought I would be lucky to get to 28 weeks. I'll be getting my stitch out at 36 weeks. I'm hoping to go right into labor, but my luck I'll be close to 42 weeks :). I feel like I have gotten twice the size of my normal self overnight. The other night, Danny took Ava and I out to our favorite mexican restaurant. I literally tried on all of my maternity pants and nothing fit. I'm serious, everything was tight and uncomfortable. Call it hormones, body image issues, or just having a pity party over my huge self, but I had a break down. I know that you are supposed to get big when you are pregnant, but I never really did with Ava, and I feel like I will never get back to my normal size.
Well besides my mental breakdown, everything has been going pretty good. I've been trying to plan Ava's next birthday party and get the baby's room ready before I get my stitch out-just in case. Maybe I should put it off, and then maybe I'll go into labor right away. What do ya think?