My attitude through this whole pregnancy has been, I can handle it. This is the easy part, so I'm just gonna let it ride. I was doing fine and just kept thinking, "I can wait" because once she's here, life will be so much harder. Sure I was uncomfortable, huge, super tired, and had a hard time keeping up with Owen, but I just kept up this attitude and taking it all in stride.
Until, the end of September. That was when I realized that I could no longer function pregnant. She had to come out, because handling 2 kids couldn't be worse than handling one while practically having to be rolled out the door.
I was READY, and the doctor kept giving me false hope that it would be ANY DAY. So I planned on ANY DAY. One week passed then two and then three. I hit my due date, October 13 and she wasn't here. They finally scheduled me to be induced on Monday the 17th of October. I had been having contractions for weeks but nothing consistent enough to justify a hospital visit.
And then Saturday, October 15th came. We had a family party for Payton's birthday, and got Owen to bed. All the sudden I started having some more intense and painful contractions that were going in my legs. It hurt very differently than all the others I'd been having. I called the hospital and they said the baby may be on a nerve and that was causing the pain down my legs, but welcomed me to come down. The contractions still weren't consistent enough and the pain in my legs started easing up. So I decided to sleep on it.
All through the night I kept having contractions that were more painful and I remembered the type of pain from Owen. Even though they weren't totally consistent in their time spans and they were about 10 minutes apart, I just knew there was NO WAY I was going to get as far along as I let myself get with Owen and I also knew I needed 4 hours of antibiotics before she could come. When we woke up the next morning, Sunday, I told Bart we were going to the hospital and called my mom to come over to watch Owen. We got him fed and got everything together and headed out the door by about 9:30.
I think Bart was skeptical if it was really time to go and was stressed we'd be sent home. When we got to the hospital it was pretty dead. They didn't have much going on but they let me know my doctor was actually at the hospital that day. That gave Bart hope that maybe we'd just do this today instead of waiting until tomorrow.
That was exactly what happened. My doctor came in and basically said we're here so let's get the party started.
This whole delivery seemed to go well and I felt better prepared because I knew what to expect. They got me my epidural by noon and broke my water soon after. Everything progressed and all was well. The one thing that was different with this delivery was that I started getting super light headed and about to faint. They said my blood pressure kept dropping and they were trying to regulate it and keep it up where it needed to be. They said the cause was the epidural, it would make your veins expand but the blood wasn't flowing fast enough through them. Basically, I was afraid to hit my epidural button because I was feeling so sick. So I felt this delivery much more than I felt with Owen's. Because I was in so much pain by the time I got to the hospital with Owen, I hit the button non-stop and don't remember feeling anything, they had to tell me when my contractions were coming. Not this time I felt them.
I wasn't dilating like they wanted so they gave me a little platocin. I kept telling the nurse I needed my bladder emptied, but they kept saying that I didn't and I finally got them to check and they were shocked that I went from a 5 to a 10 in 30 minutes. So they called the doctor and got everything ready to go. I had to push a little longer than I did with Owen and that totally wore me out. I had no idea pushing was that exhausting. But at 3:37 she arrived safe and sound. Our beautiful little angel, Emme Marie Liechty. I was so overwhelmed with love and admiration for this precious little thing and couldn't believe this was "her", my daughter.
Everything went much smoother this time around, no NICU, no oxygen scares. Just special time with my baby girl. She figured out the whole nursing thing right off the bat. We brought her home 2 days later and we continue to fall more and more in love with her every minute and so does Owie.
We are so grateful to have you here sweet little Emme!!!
