Emahry's Birth Story ~ Part 2

If you're just joining in, you can read Part 1 of Emahry's Birth Story HERE.
You can also read Jonathan's condensed birth story HERE.

The morning of Emahry's "due date" dawned with absolutely no sign of her immediate arrival. I tried to not be too anxious and instead worked on scrapbooking her ultrasound pictures and the photos from our 4 baby showers. (I know, 4 baby showers is absolutely ridiculous, but can you really tell someone that they can't throw you a shower? 1 from family back home, 1 from friends in TN, 1 from my fifth graders, and 1 from the faculty and staff at the elementary school where I worked.)

The next day began much the same way, with Tim going off to school and me staying home to get some last minute things completed. That evening we were invited to go hiking with some friends. Never the ones to turn down a trip to the mountains we heartily agreed to go. Looking back, that might not have been the best thing to do since the Smokies were a good hour drive from our home on campus.

Thankfully nothing happened and we all were able to enjoy ourselves in the beauty of the mountains with the setting sun lighting the trail. On our hike Tim and the other guys ran the 3 mile trail to get to the waterfall before dark. I was obviously in no shape to run 6 miles, but my friend and I did power walk 1 1/2 miles of the trail before turning around to walk back to the car. So in total I briskly hiked 3 miles while being nine months pregnant and 1 day past my "due date".

Tim and I had no trouble falling asleep when we arrived back home, but around 1 A.M the next morning we were both awake and having a difficult time sleeping. Tim actually got up and cleaned the house while I tried to rest in bed. At 3:15 A.M. Tim came into the bedroom to tell me that he was going to go to Wal-mart to pick up some snack food. I stood up to use the bathroom and knew immediately that my water had broken. I called to Tim that he better stay home and asked him to bring me a towel. It was now 3:19 A.M. I remember checking because I knew I would need to tell the midwives what time my water had broken.

Around 4 A.M. on May 9th, I started having contractions. They were irregularly spaced, but were all 2-6 minutes apart and were lasting about a minute each. I was surprised, because I expected them to start out farther apart. We called the birthing center and were told to meet the midwife there to do a non-stress test around 5 A.M.

During the test the midwife kept commenting on the closeness and length of each contraction. This got my hopes up that Emahry would be born some time in the next 5 or 6 hours. However, since the contractions still weren't regular, we were told that we could go home and labor there for awhile.

On the way home we stopped at Wal-mart to pick up some snacks. It was awkward shopping and having to lean on the cart during each contraction. Finally, we arrived at home where I could get comfortable.

By 8:45 A.M. we were back at the birthing center. By this time, my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and lasting 1 to 1 1/2 minutes each. The midwife requested that I let her check me since I had been having strong contractions every 2-6 minutes for almost five hours. I was slightly disappointed when she told me that I was only 3 cm dilated.

Emahry's Birth Story Part 1
Emahry's Birth Story Part 2
Emahry's Birth Story Part 3
Jonathan's Condensed Birth Story