THE EVANS FAMILY: Ember Renee Evans

Here is the abbreviated birth story of Ember Renee Evans (since I was in labor 41 hours... I figured I would need to shorten it some)

It all started on Monday, October 29 around 3:00 in the afternoon when I started having contractions from anywhere from 6 to 20 minutes apart with them averaging between 8-12 minutes apart. I didn't think much of it because I had heard and read multiple times that contractions can go for a while and then stop and also that they don't mean too much until they are 3-5 minutes apart. Monday night I did not get more than maybe an hour and a half of sleep because they were bad enough that they would wake me up every time I tried to go to sleep.

When Tuesday morning rolled around, I was having some very PAINFUL contractions but they were still over 8 minutes apart. While Dustin was getting ready for work at 4 am, I called North Country and talked to the OB/GYN on call (who sounded very tired) and she said we don't need to do anything until they are closer together, my water breaks, or I am having lots of bleeding. None of those were true so Dustin went to work and I continued to have contractions at home all day Tuesday. I was only eating very little (saltine crackers, juice, etc) because the contractions were starting to make me nauseous.

Tuesday afternoon rolled around and we headed to our ultrasound appointment to make sure everything is looking good still. Everything looked good with the baby and my fluids. Luckily they could also squeeze us in for a pelvic exam where we got our hopes up high when the nurse practitioner told us that we were 6 CM dilated she could feel the head, and we needed to get to the hospital. She called FMC ahead of time and told Tisha (the OB/GYN on call) that we were coming in and it was going to be easy and fun!! So, we excitedly went home, ate a little bit of food, finished packing, got Maci taken care of, and then headed to the hospital.

We got there, checked in, filled out some paper work, and got settled in our room. They monitored me and the baby for about 15-20 minutes then we were free to walk around some. Contractions were still bearable at this point. For the next 6 hours or so, the routine of the baby being monitored for 15 minutes and then us walking, me taking a bath, or bouncing on the exercise ball repeated for about 45 minutes repeated. They checked me again around midnight to 1 am and said I was about 9 centimeters dilated and needed to wait for the feeling that I needed to push.

The next 5 hours or so were very uncomfortable.... no that is an under exaggeration .. they were awful and painful and I wanted to give up many many times (especially when I hear a new baby crying in the room next to us knowing they got there hours AFTER we did). I could no longer sit through contractions, I threw up a few times after some really painful ones, and it took Dustin and the nurse constantly reassuring me that I could keep going and reminding me that our little girl was coming. (Our nurse Krista and Dustin were both amazing! One or the other of them was with me during each contraction encouraging me through it, rubbing my back, or squeezing my hips together to relieve the back pain)

Around 4 or 5 am, they broke my water and gave me an IV to get some fluids in me since I was throwing up anything I had drank. Breaking my water made the contractions come closer and closer together. They had me try getting through contractions in countless different ways. I was still not feeling the urge to push so finally they decided to just let me try and see what happens. I also got to try pushing on my back, on each side, kneeling... and progress was happening but slowly. Because of the shift change, there were about 8-10 people in the room at this time ALL encouraging me and keeping me going. Soon, they could see the head and I got a chance to feel it. A little while later, they had me look down and I saw her little head of hair. Finally, the head was out and from there it was quick! Our baby girl was here on October 31st at 7:43 am!!

They put her on my chest for about 2 seconds and then took her to the baby incubator because she was grunting rather than breathing as she should be. They kept her in our room for about 5-10 minutes before deciding to take her down to ICU to monitor her there. Dustin went with her for a while. It is an unexplainable feeling to be exhausted after labor and then have them take your newborn baby away from you not quite sure if she is going to be ok. I'm sure I would have cried or stressed out more if I had the energy to.

I was not doing well physically at this point as I had not slept in 48 hours and barely eaten or drank anything. I was very weak. The placenta came out easily (strangely enough I felt perfectly when I needed to push with this). Tisha sewed up my two 1st degree tears and my one 2nd degree tear. I ate and drank very little so that I would take some IB Pro-fen for the pain. Mima Evans and Grandma and Grandpa Flin showed up shortly after our little one was taken from the room and were surprised to hear she had arrived and then shocked that she wasn't in the room.

They moved us up to the recovery floor but we still had no baby. I ordered breakfast and picked around at that a little bit and just tried to relax and not stress that my baby was not with me. Finally, after about 3 hours, they brought us our little girl back to our room with a good report that she was breathing just fine and they thought she would be just fine. I finally got to hold her and the moment is indescribable and it made every painful contraction and each long hour of labor worth it 100%. Labor and delivery was definitely longer and more painful than I was prepared for, but the outcome was also far better than I could have imagine!!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD EMBER RENEE EVANS!! 6 LBS 8 OZ, 19 INCHES LONG!

(I guess I didn't do well at keeping this short :)

On the way to the hospital!