She's here!
Emery Alice Giraud arrived on October 19th, 2011 at 5:48 am, weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz and 20 1/2 inches long, with lots of beautiful dark hair. It has been an exciting and wonderful 2 weeks as we get to know her and her little personality.
Here's the labor story:
Tuesday October 18th I had my 39 week check. I wasn't due for another 5 days, but of course we were anxious and hoping I would come early. But seeing as it was my first I was trying not to get my hopes up. When the nurse practicioner checked to see my progress I was so excited when she said I was dilated to 3.5 cm and that my body was ready and she was sure I would not even make it to my due date. Gavin and I were so excited. She also stripped my membranes, which gave me a horrible contraction. The first thing that I thought during the contraction was "Oh yeah, I'm definitely getting an epidural." Up to that point anytime people would ask me if I was going to get an epidural my answer would always be that I didn't know. I didn't really want one because the thought of them freaks me out, but it seemed silly to me to say "Oh there's no way I'm getting an epidural" when I had never experienced the pain before so how would I know if I wanted one or not? What if I got in there and wanted one? I wanted to keep my options open. Gavin was rooting for me to go without one however, so I didn't tell him my thoughts during my doctor's appointment.
So we left the appointment, but my contractions continued. They weren't horrible and were pretty inconsistent, but it was still exciting that they continued. Our next stop was Taco Tuesday at Cafe Rio with some friends Andy and Hilary. Hilary was pregnant with their second child and she always has good advice for me so I was happy to meet up with them and share our news. They mentioned they were going with her nephew to a movie that night and Gavin, realizing that this might be our last chance to see a movie together for a very long time, decided we should go see a movie too. So we headed over to the dollar theater and saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I don't know why but I just think it's so funny that I watched that movie as my labor began. So random. I was worried that my water would break or something during the movie, but luckily it didn't.
We went home around 9:00 pm, and my contractions started getting more intense. By 10:00 they were FIERCE, but they never got consistent. I kept waiting for them to be the textbook 5 minutes apart for 1 minute lasting for 1 hour, but they never got to that point. They would come 1 minute apart and last 1 minute and then come again in 2 or 3 minutes and last longer. I started throwing up and was feeling pretty miserable so Gavin grabbed our bags and we hopped in the car (that's a lie, I definitely did not hop) and drove to the hospital. Wouldn't you know it, on the drive over there my contractions eased up, still painful, but not nearly as intense as they were. We get to the hospital and sit in the parking lot for about 10 minutes because I can't decide whether or not to go in. Pretty soon I started throwing up again and I'm like "Forget this, I'm going in!" My other thought was again "I'm totally getting an epidural". So we check in and the nurse says I'm still only dilated to a 3.5 cm so I'll have to walk around for an hour so see if that gets my labor going more. That was a long hour. My contractions were coming one minute apart and lasting about 45 seconds. I was so tired I could barely keep going, but Gavin was a huge support and helped me keep my pace up. When the hour was over I was dilated to a 5 and they admitted me. I was so glad because there was NO WAY I was going home in feeling like I did.
They asked if I wanted an epidural and I said I wanted to first just try some IV pain meds and see how that worked. And let me tell you they WORKED. Within a few seconds of administration I was feeling it and I asked her if it should be working already. She started an explanation about how she had just administered it and it might take a little....well I didn't hear the rest because I was TOTALLY out of it. She had some questions to ask me but I was totally worthless. I would fall asleep halfway through my answer, if I even heard her at all. Good thing Gavin was there. I don't remember a whole lot of the next few hours, just that the contractions would come and they would hurt like crazy and I would just squeeze Gavin's hand as hard as I could till they were over, then I would fall asleep. I was soooo loopy. The pain medication definitely didn't take the pain away, it just relaxed me enough that I could handle it. After a few hours I felt like I needed to push, so the nurse came in and for 2 1/2 hours I pushed. It was so hard and I struggled making all my pushes really effective, probably because I was pretty exhausted. The nurse was great though and after I pushed Gavin would say "Good job Tiffany, that was great, you're doing so well" and the nurse was like, "No, that wasn't as good of a push" or "you need to push harder". No nonsense from her! She was awesome, and I'm really grateful she was there. The thing that I found the most helpful though was by far Gavin's support. Because of the medication and being so tired I think I didn't open my eyes for most of the time, any time I tried I couldn't really focus on anything and they would just roll back. But as each contraction started and I would have to push I would crack my eyes open to see Gavin standing right by my bed, 100% attentive and ready, encouraging me and telling me how great I was doing. I couldn't have done it without him, he was the best coach ever!
After all that fun, Emery Alice Giraud was born at 5:48 am. I couldn't believe that the little girl that was just inside of me was now outside of me. What a crazy experience! She was so beautiful and had lots of dark hair, which I had wanted so bad. During pregnancy I kept having dreams about her and she always had lots of dark hair.
She's now 2 WEEKS OLD, I can't believe it. The days go by so fast when my only goal each day is to feed her and change her diapers. I can lose a whole hour just staring at her beautiful little face and watching her make faces in her sleep.
Welcome to the world Emery Alice!
