Emily's Here!!!

Emily Marie Rail was born on Friday, February 2oth at 7:19 pm. She weighs 7 pounds and 11 ounces and is 21.5 inches long. She has a little bit of red hair, loves to scream, and all her parts appear to be in fine working condition.

Gwen and Daddy get to finally meet "Baby Sister" as Gwen calls her all the time. When she uses her name it's "Emmy". Does that mean I have a little singer in Gwen and Emily will be our actress? Emily does seem to like adding to the drama so far. Here's her story:

We went in for our induction on Friday morning around 8:00 am. After checking in and getting to our delivery room, Jonathan took Gwen over to the cafeteria for breakfast. I got my IV started and tried to relax until they came back. Neither Jonathan or I got much sleep the night before because we were so excited. Also, Jonathan's still super sick and he was up fighting with his sore throat and congestion which meant I was too.

Shortly after their breakfast, Gwen's cousin Noah and her Aunt Laura came to take Gwen out for the day until the baby got here. The plan was to take the two toddlers to the Trax station and ride the train downtown for lunch and activities. It took them over 20 minutes to walk the 100 yards to the station by the hospital because Gwen and Noah decided to rest and lay down on the sidewalk for a while. They both think that each other is hilarious. Well, turns out that Aunt Laura needed to get some cash for the train and had to walk back to the hospital to find an ATM. That took an additional 20 minutes plus an extended potty break and now it was already lunch time. Nothing was happening on my end of things, so they came back to the room to have Jonathan help move Gwen's car seat to Laura's van. They gave up on the train idea and decided on a fast food place with a play area instead and the park after. I cannot thank Laura and Noah enough for coming and playing with Gwen.

Around noon I got my epidural which was the most painful thing I've had done. I was mostly grateful for it later, but oh boy it was not fun getting it. The anesthesiologist had a hard time getting the needle between my vertebrae and I could feel him grinding it back and forth on my spine. Then it kept making shooting pain go down my right leg. When it did finally work, it numbed my right side twice as much as my left. This became an issue because later Emily's heart rate would drop if I moved off my right side, but then gravity worked against the epidural and I could feel everything on my left. Not a good experience at all. I talked to my nurse who said that "natural" childbirth is nothing compared to having pitocin which makes the contractions come really hard and fast. So, in the end, I'm glad I had the epidural because when I could feel my left half it really hurt and made me nauseated.

Heidi and her two girls came and took Gwen off of Laura's hands and took her to our house for her nap and dinner. Again, she deserves a million and a half thanks for all her help. My other two older sisters have kids with dog allergies and can't spend any time in our house because of Boot. There was a lot of sitting around and waiting, or in my case laying on my right side with an oxygen mask on and trying not to be too worried about Emily's heart rate. Around 6:00 I started to dilate faster and Emily started to have more drops in her heart rate. It ended up being a rush to get her out before we had to resort to a c-section. Luckily, all my crunches at the gym paid off because I only had to push once to get her head out and once more for the rest of her body. Emily came out screaming and didn't stop for about 10 minutes. She was mad, but that's it, nothing was wrong with her and they don't know why her heart rate kept dropping so low.

Our hospital stay was uneventful. Jonathan went home each evening to be with Gwen and to take care of himself. We came home yesterday (Sunday) and things have gone pretty smoothly. It will be easier if Jonathan ever starts feeling better. He gets this bad tonsillitis a couple times a year and it puts him out of commission for about 10 days or so. So, right now I'm taking care of a needy two year old, a newborn, and a sick husband. Today I made an appointment with an ENT doctor to talk about getting his tonsils out. Might as well do it this year because we already met our insurance deductible with having a baby. Ugh. Luckily, I feel pretty good. Again, I think all the exercise over the last year has helped because my body has been able to recover nicely. At times, I tend to do too much and push myself a little too hard, but after a little rest I feel better.

We got Gwen and Emily matching outfits for going home from the hospital and to wear later for family pictures. They say big sister and little sister on them.

Gwen demonstrating what the bulb suctions are used for. What a silly girl I have.

Gwen modeling her big sister shirt. I love her smile in this picture.

My little sister, Megan and her fiance Joel. They came over to visit last night. Gwen is in love with Joel. No, really, she's got the biggest crush on him. She "calls" him on the phone all the time and always wants to know if when we're going out if he's going to be there. It's so cute to watch her flirt with him.