Emerson Marie Cameron blessed us with her arrival on Monday, February 16, 2009 @ 8:58 p.m. She tipped the scales at 6 lbs. 11 oz. & 18" long. She has a full head of dark brown hair (which her Mom can't wait to get a barrette in!) and dark blue eyes.
Cal and I were a bit surprised to hear, "It's a girl!" but we are thrilled and have been told many times in the past few days that we now have a "millionaires family!" Blake met Emerson for the first time on Tuesday morning. My Mom and Dad stayed overnight with him at our house and brought him in to see his Mom and Dad and meet his baby sister! He has been amazing with his little sister and hasn't shown too many signs of jealousy. I think he definitely knew a baby was coming and it helps that we practiced saying our baby name choices with him (we taught him to call Emerson, "Em"). He really enjoys holding her on his lap and loves to point out her ears, hands, nose, mittens and socks!! I think he's wondering why she's wearing mittens in the house?!
Cal is doing great! I am so, so, SO glad he is on vacation right now and doesn't go back to work until March 10. He's enjoying being a Dad of 2 and doing an amazing job of it :) He's so great with Blake and Emerson and it melts my heart to watch him snuggle and talk to Emerson!
I'm doing good too! I have to tell you, this labour was much different from Blake's! The first few hours were pretty much the same but the last hour was way different! I went into the hospital on Monday morning for a NST and they decided that since I was already 41 weeks, 1 day and due to be induced Tuesday they would induce me Monday. They didn't have any inductions booked for Monday, due to the STAT holiday and weren't that busy. So I had a cervadil put in at 10:55 am approx. and by 11:05 am contractions had already started!! They chose to use cervadil because I was 2 cm dilated and my cervix was thin and anterior. Apparently this is the least invasive method of induction, as compared to the "gel" and the "drip". When I started feeling contractions it was just like what I felt with Blake when I went into the hospital. So that went on and on and I walked laps around the unit and then it started getting a bit more painful so I went into the shower for awhile and then I decided to get something for pain. So the nurse was checking me out and while she was doing that my water broke. At that point I was 3.5 cm dilated. 20 minutes later I was begging and crying for an epidural and 9 cm dilated. My poor Mom joined us at this crazy time! Talk about painful!!! Can't even describe it. The nurse kept telling me to not run away and breath and it's going to be more fast and furious because it's my 2nd baby, etc, etc. I knew (well, hoped) it would be faster with the 2nd but didn't bank on it being so fast that I didn't have the epidural in time! As the anesthesiologist was doing the epidural I was fighting not to push and trying to sit still amongst back to back contractions. The epidural did kick in right before I delivered, but not completely. I know it wasn't near as painful as if I wouldn't have had anything, but I could feel my legs completely and everything else involved! With Blake I could still feel a bit, but not this much. Anyways the pushing was very short and once I calmed down and was breathing better she popped out quite easily! When they unhooked the epidural they discarded the medication that didn't have time to run through. Yikes!! Unlike Blake's delivery, Dr. Lidkea and the nurses didn't really instruct me to do anything in particular they just kind of let me push when I wanted and for how long I wanted to. I now think that it may have been because I wasn't all numb and could feel what my body wanted me to do! It was a bit surreal. I made comments through out the day about being outnumbered and at least I have a female dog so when Emerson was born Dr. Lidkea said, "Surprise! It's a girl!" My Mom, Cal and I were all a bit surprised! My Dad has thought we were having a girl all along though! Emerson was immediately put on me and we snuggled and cuddled her for about 1/2 hour before they took her to be measured, etc. I'm recovering fine and feeling great, other than being very tired :)
Emerson and I had a visit from the Healthy Beginnings Nurse yesterday. She had dropped to 6lbs. 5 oz. which is perfectly normal. I suspect she'll be back up to birth weight very soon, as my milk is now in. The first few nights she's been eating all night and sleeping more during the day, but we'll try to turn that around in the next few days! When Blake was born he didn't say a word for quite a few days, but Emerson is the opposite - she lets you know when she wants something! Due to her fast delivery she had a bit more than the usual amount of amniotic fluid left in her belly and has been spitting that up over the past few days. On Tuesday it was coming out of her nose and her mouth, which was scary at first. Her blood sugars were low when she was born. They checked them due to the fact that she was quite small for her gestational age. But they were back up by Tuesday afternoon thankfully!
She's absolutely perfect and her resemblance to Blake at birth is remarkable! Cal and I were comparing pictures and in some of them you wouldn't be able to tell if it was Blake or Emerson (except for the fact that the female/male anatomy gives it away)!!!! I was also surprised at how small Emerson was. All along I've been told the baby is a bigger baby. I'm never listening to that again! They said the same thing with Blake.
We hope everyone gets a chance to meet our little princess very soon! Thank you to everyone for all your love and well wishes. Talk to you soon :)
Lots of love,
Cal, Tracy, Blake and Emerson
XOXOX
