Emery Rigdon Ramsey

Emery Rigdon Ramsey was born Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 3:10 pm.  He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.  

From the beginning of this pregnancy I wanted to go into labor on my own.  I got my wish and it was intense to say the least!  I was 39 weeks and 3 days when it happened.  Nearly everyday Glen would ask why I'm not in labor.  When he asked me that Wednesday night when he got home from work I thought maybe I was.  I pushed the thought away - I was sure the contractions I was having were just Braxton Hicks.  As the evening went on the contractions never eased but got closer and stronger.  I tried everything they tell you - drink lots of water, lay on your left side, change positions.  Nothing worked.   

By midnight the contractions were about 5 minutes apart and more painful, so I called my mom to see if she thought this was the real deal.  She thought it was the beginning but that I should try to get some sleep.  I tried to sleep but laying down the pain was much worse.  I woke Glen around 1:30 am and we were at the hospital by 2:30 (with Eloise in tow) and my parents were on their way up.

Once there I was hooked up to monitor my contractions.  They were steady coming every 3 to 5 minutes.  By this time it was getting hard to talk through them.  They checked me and I was still only 2 cm and 50% effaced.  If you can believe it they sent me home with Tylenol for the pain and benadryl to help me sleep.  Neither worked.  We were back at the hospital at 6am.  I couldn't talk, walk, heck I could barely breath through the contractions by this point.  Luckily my parents made it to the hospital just after us.  I was sure I was freaking poor Eloise out, I was in so much pain!

This time I was 4 cm and they kept me.  I couldn't get the epidural fast enough.  I had to wait for my blood work to come back - which seemed to take forever.  After the epidural was in I was in heaven.  Things were progressing quickly too.  My water broke on it's own and at 11 I was 8 cm.  My nurse thought we'd have a baby by lunch. 

As with Eloise I had to be put on oxygen and I started running a fever.  Not good.  Emery would have to have antibiotics now.  I also got the shakes.  My nurses had never seen someone shake so bad.  Along with the shakes my hands were falling asleep and turning blue.  The anesthesiologist was called in to see if it had anything to do with my epidural.  He said it wasn't happening because of the epidural so they guessed it was because of transition.  It lasted about an hour and was craze scary. 

Then for some reason I stalled at 9 cm for hours.  They were talking about a c section which I did not want.  My doctor was amazing and knew how badly I wanted to avoid a c section he said we'd try pushing and see what happens.  Less than 30 minutes of pushing and Emery was born.  Huge improvement over the 2 hours with Eloise!

I wanted him placed on my chest after birth but we knew there was some sort of infection because of my fever.  Dr. Rubio said if Emery was breathing he'd be put on my chest.  He wasn't put on my chest.  His cry was very garbled when it finally came.  They let me hold him long enough for me to kiss him and get a couple pictures before he was rushed off the the nursery.

He was diagnosed with TTN - transient tachypnea newborn.  Poor guy couldn't get enough oxygen on his own.  You can see is flared nostrils.  That's a symptom of ttn.  He was put on oxygen for a little over a day.  Because he was breathing so fast we couldn't feed him till he was off the oxygen - breathing in milk is a bad thing! 

On top of the ttn his blood work came back all crazy.  Levels that should be high were far too low and others that should be low came back too high.  Poor guy!  He had a couple x-rays of his chest to make sure there was no infection there and put on antibiotics for 5 days.  It was the best being able to hold him again.  I could not wait till he could get out of that nursery and in our room!

 It was hard being in the hospital for so long.  I missed Eloise so much even though my parents brought her to the hospital everyday.  They first day he was in our room Eloise wouldn't let anyone hold him but her!  She loves Emery so much.

 Emery and I had a hard time getting the breast feeding thing down so I was pretty much forced to give him a bottle.  It was such an emotional time for me.  Eloise was more than happy she was able to feed him.

 One set of proud grandparents with their 12th grandchild!

 Our sweet little Emery had a rough go his first week of life.  He had to have four different IVs because they kept blowing. 

Two of them were in his head - so sad!  Now his bruises are all healed and his jaundice is gone.  When we left the hospital he weighed 7lbs 5 oz, at his 2 week Dr apt he was 8lbs 3oz.  He's a healthy growing boy! 

 Oh we just love this little man.  We're all still getting to know each other and adjusting to being a family of four but we wouldn't trade him for anything!