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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Emily is Here!

Emily Jen-Man Chang surprised us all a little bit early and is here! She was born on October 26, 2009, at 8:35 pm, weighing in at 7 pounds 2 ounces, 20 inches long.

On Monday, October 26th, I went to work like any other day. I had contractions all weekend, but nothing progressed although something felt different than the braxton hicks contractions I'd been having they never turned into anything. I left work at lunch time, stopped by the mall to exchange some clothes and pick up some gifts for Kaden's teachers. Then I went to Kaden's school to pick him up and go to the pediatrician since he had been pulling on his ears all weekend. I was still having contractions and started to look at the clock to see if they developed into a pattern. I took Kaden to the pediatrician and the contractions started to pick up. As we left the doctor's office, I called Rob and he said to go ahead and come home. I got just a bit further down the road when I pulled over to call him back and tell him to meet me at the hospital.

I went to the OB's office and they verified that I was indeed in labor almost 2 weeks early and sent me up to labor & delivery. This whole time I'd been taking care of things and carting Kaden around with me while I WAS IN LABOR! Those of you who have held Kaden know how solid, heavy and strong he his and I am fairly amazed that I made it! It's pretty amazing what mothers are able to do when it comes to taking care of their kids. Once we got sent upstairs to labor & delivery, Rob called my friend Jen to ask if she could come get Kaden for a sleepover. She was a blessing who saved us that night since my mom was planning on getting here for the scheduled c-section! My mom immediatley took off and drove through the night to arrive the next morning.

Since Emily was breech and we needed a c-section, I thought I would go straight into surgery and not have to go through all the labor pains anymore. However, it took FOREVER! Nobody could get an IV started on me and I ended up with 15 needle sticks before it was all said and done. The anesthesiologist actually ended up being the only person who could get me hooked up. Since it was after hours, there was just 1 anesthesiologist on call and he was busy with an emergency and kept calling in to say 20 more minutes till he could come in for my surgery. I was getting slightly frustrated by the end of it and by the time he got there I could have pushed if Emily had not been breech. I ended up doing all the labor except for pushing before I could get any drugs and get the surgery! Thankfully I was able to stay awake for the surgery and could tell when the pulled Emily out- hearing her cry for the first time was so amazing and such a relief after such a difficult pregnancy! She was just perfect!

My mom stayed with us for 2 weeks and was an enormous help to me and Kaden's buddy. She was able to take him to the Halloween events at his school. They really bonded during this time and I am so glad they had that time!

C-sections are NOT fun and I would have definitely preferred to be able to deliver her myself. Thankfully, after 3 weeks I am starting to feel like a human again and have somehow lost all the weight I gained with the second pregnancy- probably thanks to being able to nurse this time. Everything with getting pregnant, the pregnancy, the delivery, and nursing has been completely different this time than it was the first time! Somehow I have been able to experience infertility, a surprise pregnancy, delivering a vaginally and via c-section, not being able to nurse and having no trouble nursing all over the course of the past few years. As different as these experiences are, they left me with a son and a daughter that I am completely in love with and will cherish every moment with them. I am truly blessed and immensly grateful!

My beautiful baby girl!




















Meeting Gramma for the first time.
















Both my babies!















Kaden kind of likes his baby sister :-)
















My favorite pic of Baba and his girl so far