Our Little Angel Has Arrived!

Here are a couple of photos I had David take just before all of the madness. I call the one on the left the "friar tuck" look and we took the one on the right as a "just in case" photo- in case we had to go to the hospital early for some reason we wanted to remember how big I got with just one premie baby. Good thing! These were the last pregnant pictures we got. Unfortunately neither of them were very flattering. :P

So, even though you may have heard (two months ago), I will try and fill you in from the beginning. David and I found out back in July that we were expecting a new addition to the family. We felt a little nervous just like we did with Lainey, but so excited to bring another little Wilson into the world and add to our family. Because there were some concerns early in the pregnancy, David and I decided to wait a while to tell everyone we were expecting again. Our first ultrasound was in October to find out whether we would be having a boy or a girl and take all of the necessary measurements. Other than a little swelling of the bowel, everything else looked great and they told us our expected due date based on his size would be March 16th 2010- almost exactly 18 months from Lainey's due date! They wanted to see us back for another ultrasound in November to check on baby's bowel and see if it would clear up or become more swollen. At that appointment they seemed pretty hopeful that it would clear up but we thought we'd still wait until after the next appointment to tell our families since it was just a few weeks away and we would be able to give them more news without making them worry.


Our November appointment confirmed that baby still had some swollen bowel, which appeared to be in the upper part of the digestive system, indicating that he may have a blockage of some sort. At this point the doctors were seeming less hopeful that it would go away, so they decided to monitor him with ultrasounds every month to see how he is doing and if they could tell later on what might be causing the problem. By that time it was late November and we knew we would be going home for Christmas this year, so David and I decided to wait to tell our families when we went home and surprise them. We enjoyed telling them in person when we were pregnant with Lainey and seeing their reaction to the news, so we wanted to see how they reacted to this one too.


By the time we went home for Christmas I was 28 weeks along and showing quite a bit- but not to much to suck it in and zip up my big winter coat. So when David's mom got to the airport to pick us up I was all zipped up and somehow managed to avoid the welcome home hug before getting into the car. My parents usually meet us at her house to have a little reunion before things get too busy while we are home. I was expecting that they would be there when we got there so we could reveal the new Wilson to everyone at once. On the way back to the house, I found out they wouldn't be there for a couple of hours, so I searched for an excuse to go immediately to the store to kill some time. I figured David's mom would think something was up if I was lounging in her warm house in my parka! While I was out I picked up some holiday M&Ms to put into a bag to reveal the sex of the baby- not too unique, but fun anyway. I put 75 green into a bag to count and labeled the bag "boy" and 70 red in another bag and labeled the bag "girl." When I got back to the house everyone was there and I sat down next to David before giving my hello hugs. Then he announced that we had a surprise for everyone and I took off my coat. Boy were they surprised! I thought the Grandmas were going to fall over! We had Britt and Trevor, my little brothers, count the M&Ms in each bag and let us know which bag had more. I told them that the bag with the most M&Ms was the sex of the baby. They counted and revealed that we were having a boy!


We had already picked out a first name for our little guy so we shared that he would be called Emery and we filled them in with what we knew about his condition. We chose Emery because we liked the sound and meaning of the name and that it is about as common as Lainey. We like to choose somewhat different but not strange first names, since our last name is so common. Then we choose a family name for the second name so that it means something to the family as well. According to the name book, Emery is a German name that means "industrious leader" and "powerful home." We wanted a strong name because we knew that his strength would be challenged soon after he was born. We chose James because there are so many strong men in our family with the name and because my brother James spent some time in the hospital when he was young and ended up doing quite well.

It was right around Christmas that I remember feeling like I was getting bigger earlier than I did with Lainey. I thought it was just because Emery was my second baby, but at our next ultrasound on January 4th, they said I had a lot of excess amniotic fluid from Emery's condition and to expect to go into labor early. I was measuring as big at 30 weeks with Emery as I did at 41 weeks with Lainey! They said Emery's bowels looked even more swollen and decided that we should go ahead and schedule another ultrasound and consult with the pediatric surgeon. The good thing about having all of the ultrasounds is that we have a lot of ultrasound pictures of the little guy- even a few 3D!



Well, the doctor was right on. I started getting more uncomfortable by the day and my belly kept getting harder with all of the fluid. Then on Friday, January 29th I was leaning over to put Lainey down for a nap in her crib and the first contraction hit me at 10:00am. I had been having a lot of the braxton hicks contractions while I was in Oregon and the first week of January but they were never concerning and they never hurt. This one hurt. I didn't exactly know what to expect if I went into labor at home, since I was induced at 41 weeks with Lainey, so I figured I'd just wait it out and relax and they might go away. I tried to sleep while Lainey was napping but they kept coming every 7 to 10 minutes. We had a knitting date scheduled with Emily and Anita, a little girl and mommy from our church, but I didn't want to cancel it because I thought it may be just false labor. They came over and I continued to have contractions- it made it a little hard to concentrate on knitting (sorry Anita), but it took my mind off of the contractions. After they left, the contractions kept getting worse and it was getting harder to play with Lainey, so I called the labor and delivery triage at U of M around 4:00pm to see what they thought I should do. The nurse said I should drink about 48oz of water and wait 2 hours to call her back...hahahaha- easy for her to say. So I did. Since the contractions were worse when I was walking around, and Lainey seemed to know something was up, she wanted to be held. I decided to introduce her to Beauty and The Beast. She was glued to it the whole time and my contractions were coming about every 5 - 7 minutes. I called back at 6 and the nurse said I may as well come in and they could at least check me to see if I was actually in labor- hahaha! I called David and told him he'd have to cancel his dinner with the oral surgery department because we needed to go to the hospital. By the time we finally left, my house was cleaned from top to bottom and the bags were packed and David was looking at me like don't we need to go? I think I was in denial that this was actually happening because I didn't want to have him so early. I felt so unprepared! We finally made it to the hospital at 8:00pm and the got me back to check out how I was doing. The nurses were just making small talk while I worked on maintaining my composure through the contractions. They finally measured me and found that I was dilated to 6cm. I'll never forget the look on the nurse's face- "Wow" she said, "you sure are in labor!" Hahaha- no kidding! :)

There was a lot more rushing around at that point and they got me set up in a room to deliver. They gave me a shot to hopefully help prepare Emery's lungs, which would be most effective if I could manage to hold him in for another 24 hours. So they also gave me something to slow down the contractions and prolong the labor. I never would have thought I would have wanted labor to last any longer than necessary! At that point the contractions were coming every 1 - 2 minutes. With Lainey, I had decided not to have an epidural or any other pain medications during labor and had intended to do the same with this one. Unfortunately, the doctor said there was a chance that they may need to do an emergency c - section if his chord came down before his head. They say that happens when there is a lot of extra fluid. The doctor said that she wanted to do the delivery in the operating room and that if I didn't already have the epidural in place that they would have to put me under general anesthesia for the c - section. In that case, I wouldn't see him when he was born. After all of the ups and downs of this pregnancy I wasn't willing to risk not seeing him if I could help it. So, kicking and screaming (not really), I got an epidural with this one. It did make the labor easier to tolerate but I missed experiencing everything the way I did with Lainey. I remember saying to David, "hmm, is this what the ORs you work in look like?" It seemed strange to me that I was able to carry on a sane conversation like there was nothing going on- just a couple of minutes before I started pushing!

As you can see here, just a few minutes before the pushing started, an epidural takes the "fun" out of the laboring. :0) I was feeling very little pain at that point but was completely able to move my legs and move around in bed, much to my surprise! They made David get into the standard Daddy-OR garb- I think he looks better in scrubs. :)

I labored at the hospital all of Friday night and into the morning. The doctor checked my progress shortly before the shift change and decided that they would break my water, since I was completely dilated and otherwise ready to deliver. They transferred us over to the OR and got me all set up to deliver. I never thought I'd be getting set to deliver on a flat, narrow little operating table with stirrups the size of knee high boots. When the doctor broke my water it looked like my belly was deflating because of the large amount of amniotic fluid I was carrying around. The urge to push immediately followed and with three pushes he was out. The doctor held him up for me to see as soon as he came out. I remember him taking a couple of breaths and letting out a little cry before they took him from the room to make sure he was ok.


David got to be there for that part. He said his belly was very big right from the beginning. They removed a bunch of fluid from his belly and put a breathing tube in for him to breath easier, since his belly was so big it was pushing up on his lungs. That and the fact that he was early at 33 weeks made it more difficult for him to breath....I guess I should finally get some photos of him up here!....