Stacy Family: 2016

Finally I'm writing the birth story of our sweet baby girl. At 38 wks 3 days (above pics) I went in for my 38 week doctor appointment and Doctor Katsuyama was a little concerned about baby being big. He stripped my membranes and I was measuring at 3 cm dilated but only about 30% effaced and baby girl was still sitting pretty high up. He got me into an ultrasound appointment right away that afternoon so they could measure baby girl and make a better estimated guess on the size. At this point I was totally excited to see baby girl again and sort of hoping the doc would say lets go ahead and get this baby out! Well baby was measuring at 8 lbs. 14 oz. (WOAH! ) (give or take a pound they said) and results were sent over to my doc. He said the soonest he could induce me was 39 weeks so the date was set for induction on August 28th at midnight. Four days away!!! I had lots and lots of false labor those days leading up to the induction and I thought for sure baby girl would come sooner. But I wasn't that lucky. Thursday evening finally came and Mark and I made preparations for the kids to go to Aunt Kristin's house for the night and we put them to bed there and went home to take a quick nap before heading to the hospital at midnight. Grandma Stacy drove in that evening and came to join us at the hospital for the exciting induction, with hopes that baby girl would arrive before 5am when Grandma had to drive back to work.

This whole induction thing was new to me and it was kind of fun walking into the hospital not in any pain and just being checked into a room and hooked up. I look way too excited in these pics! Doc wanted me hooked up on IV and antibiotics for Strep B so there was no chance of a repeat of what happened with Lilly's birth. Then the Pitocin got started around 3am and the contractions started rolling. I decided to ask for the epidural once the pain was getting a little more intense but by that point the anesthesiologists were all busy and wouldn't be available for at least a half an hour!!! WHAT?!!? NOOOO!!! I was dilated to a 4+ and hurting through terrible contractions and ended up waiting an HOUR before they got me the epidural. Worst pain of my LIFE!! Then, Epidural was in and life was good. It was about 4:30 am. At this point Kristin and April had come to the hospital (that's their normal wakeup time anyways) and I was soo excited to have them there!! Mark doesn't do well with needles and epidurals so it was nice to have Kristin there to help support me through that while Mark and Linda and April walked the halls. So now I was happy and ready to get this baby out. Linda decided she wasn't going to make it to work on time if she stayed til baby came so she left around 4 or 4:30. My doctor came in and checked me and broke my water (A LOT of water came out). He left and we just let my body do the rest of the work. Pain free!! I love medicine.

Some time passes. I don't remember how much but my doc came back to check me and I was 9.5 cm dilated and almost ready to push this baby out. The doc and nurses make preparations and then its time to push around 7 am. Doc gave me the go ahead and then told me to stop. Next thing I know I'm rolled to my side and an oxygen mask is thrown on my face. The nurse tries to find baby girls heartbeat on the monitor and is struggling. She tells me everything is going to be ok. Just need to get the baby some oxygen and her heart rate back up. Doc looks concerned and makes a call on the phone, and then my room starts filling up with nurses and doctors making preparations. I ask what is going on? Dr. Katsuyama looked at me very seriously and said the baby has CHORD PROLAPSE. What?! Chord Prolapse is when the umbilical chord gets ahead of the baby in the birth canal and her oxygen supply gets cut off as she moves down and out and gets pinched. Basically the chord was hanging out ahead of my baby. Most times this ends up in an emergency C Section. My doc looked at me and said very seriously "I know you have pushed all four of your other babies out and so I'm going to give you one minute to push this baby out while using the vacuum suction on baby's head. If she doesn't come then we WILL go into an emergency C Section." I was NOT going to have a c section on my last baby!! This scared me to death and I knew I had to push and pray as hard as I could to make this baby girl come out. I remember Mark grabbing my hand and saying you can do this and then it was time. Nurses were yelling and counting keeping track of the time and I pushed 3 times as best I could and baby girl was out in less than a minute! It was the craziest scariest most exciting moment of my life (along with all four of my other childbirths). I was SOOO relieved and grateful to see that chubby baby girl. Childbirth is one the most incredible unforgettable experiences I will ever experience and I am so grateful I have been so blessed to be a mother to 5 beautiful babies. I am so grateful our sweet Emmeline Grace made it into this world safely and we just love her to pieces!!
Emmeline Grace Stacy born August 28, 2015 at 7:36 am, weighing in at 8 lbs 12 oz. and 20.5 inches long. She is beautiful with tons of dark hair and already has a Stacy stamp. She is definitely one of ours. <3
(Thank you Kristin for these amazing pictures that will be forever cherished!)