Emma's Birth Story

I've been working on this since Emma was born,

But as she turns FOUR months old today,

I'm determined to finish:)

Sam and I have learned so much these past four months,

Parenthood is better than we could have imagined.

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August 12, 2016 was the most surreal day of my life,

Our little Emma Ann was born,

And just like that our lives were changed forever:)

My mom made a comment to me a few weeks after Emma was born that has stuck with me,

She said,

"Emma has been waiting so long to come and be with you guys, she is so happy to be here with you and Sam."

It's amazing how we reconnect here on earth and really are familiar to each other.

When Emma was placed in my arms,

I knew she was my girl because she has always been my girl,

I love her a lot and this is her beautiful birth story:)

Saturday - August 6th, 2016

Six days before Emma's birthday I started experiencing some light contractions,

Haha, I was so nervous and thought she was going to be coming that very night!

Sam was working that day for my Dad at the funeral home and when I started feeling worse,

I gave him a call and told him he was done working for the day and I was coming to pick him up!

We were in Blackfoot hanging out with family and I just felt miserable.

(ha, I didn't even know miserable...labor is a beast!)

Sam and my father-in-law gave me a blessing, it was so sweet and just what I needed.

When Sam and I got home later that evening, I was just so excited to lay in my bed.

I was a nervous wreck and thought,

Baby is coming tonight.

Sunday - August 7th, 2016

Well I woke up in my bed and not in the hospital,

Which means Baby Cannon hadn't come yet, darn!!

I told Sam I wasn't going to church because

I was to nervous that my water would break at church, haha!

Plus I wasn't feeling well so I just stayed in bed.

As soon as Sam pulled out of the driveway for church, I felt great!!

Really it was the best I had felt my entire pregnancy, I was so frustrated!

Just when I thought Baby Cannon was coming, she pulls a fast one on us!;)

Monday - August 8th, 2016

I had an appointment scheduled for the following day with my doctor,

But after everything that had happened over the weekend,

I thought I should go in a day early.

I was feeling great but secretly hoping that I was dilated to a 10!;)

At the appointment, Doc said I was dilated to a 2!

(not a 10 but I'll take it!)

I told her I was a manger at a facility and it would be really great if

I could have my baby on a weekend,

She told me that if baby girl didn't come by Friday, she would induce me!

I signed the paperwork and walked out the door thinking to myself,

"This baby is coming before Friday, see you soon Doc!"

Tuesday - August 9th, 2016

This is the day I guessed Baby Cannon would come,

I seriously told the entire world I KNEW she was coming this day.

I also really wanted her to come on an odd day because my entire family has odd birthdays,

And it's just one of those important traditions I wanted to keep going!;)

This was also my sister-in-law, Hannah's birthday

and I thought it would be so fun for them to share a birthday!

But I woke up feeling fantastic, better than the day before!

Once 11:59pm rolled around, I knew she wasn't coming today...

Wednesday - August 10th, 2016

I felt great!!

I kept telling baby girl,

"Stay inside, today is an even day, come tomorrow!"

Thursday - August 11th, 2016

Today consisted of me doing many squats and walking around the apartment trying to induce labor.

Sam and I decided that we would go on one last date because if baby girl didn't come today,

We knew she would be here tomorrow!:)

At dinner I started experiencing those contractions again and was so hopeful that we would be checking into the hospital within the hour,

Because like I said we were banking on having an odd birthday;)

But 11:59 rolled around again and I knew baby girl wasn't coming that night...

If you have made it this far, bless you!!

I really just needed to blog all of that so ten years from now I remember all these sweet moments leading up to Emma's birth:)

But here we are,

August 12th, 2016!!

Yes...baby girl decided to come on an even day, ha!;)

We had to be to the hospital by 7 a.m.

I was so nervous as I was trying to get ready and get all the last minute things together.

Before Sam and I left for the hospital,

We headed into Emma's nursery and knelt and said a prayer,

It was such a sweet moment as we left our home as a family of two

and would come back a family of three:)

Emma was born on a beautiful summer day,

This was taken right before we headed into the hospital,

LOOK AT THAT BELLY!!

 We got all checked in and headed into the room our sweet girl would be born in!

They already had the little warming bed ready to go for when she was born:)

They started me on Pitocin around 8 a.m and I was still dilated to a 2!

I started feeling some contractions around 9 a.m but they were manageable,

I asked my nurse when I could have an epidural and she said she would go find my Doc and ask her.

Let me tell you, I was so nervous for labor, like kill me now is what I kept telling myself leading me up to this day, haha! So I wanted to make sure I could get that epidural ASAP!!

My nurse came back in and said that once I dilated to a 3 and was showing consistant contractions, I could have my epidural.

So I did my best to relax and let my body do it's thing.

At noon my nurse came in a checked me again and said that I was a 3!

YAY YAY YAY!!

Unfortunately the hospital was PACKED that day and everyone needed their bums numbed,

So I didn't see my anesthesiologist until 3 and I was so relieved to see him!!

When I got my epidural Sam started to get light headed, HA!!

So my nurse was kind enough to hold my hand through the entire thing!

P.s epidurals are so not bad to receive, BEST CREATION ON THIS EARTH!!

And then this is where things got CRAZY!!

My body did not want to take the epidural,

The only thing that went numb was my right leg...

Kill me now, right?!

The anesthesiologist kept coming in every 10 minutes saying...

"Just give it 10 more minutes, it will take!"

When 6:00 finally rolled around I was dilated to a 6 and my right leg was still the only thing numb,

My anesthesiologist said that he would try again. HALLELUJAH!!

Luckily Sam was able to make it through this epidural, haha;)

My body finally took the epidural and went completely numb around 7:30!

The nurse checked me right after I went numb and I was a 10!!

(Picture taken right after I went numb, yes yes yes!!)

My nurse told me to "labor down" for an hour because baby was still so high and STUCK!

I had to keep a peanut ball between my legs for an hour in hopes that it would help baby get unstuck,

If not, I would be going in for a c-section.

Sam and I turned on the tv and watched Tangled together,

It was our last little bit just the two of us and it was so special:)

Up to this point we had planned on naming Emma, Piper!

We were in love with the name and had already started calling her Piper for the past few weeks.

But we both started feeling like Piper wasn't her name as soon as I dilated to a 10 and decided to add two more names to the pool, Oaklie and Emma, and see what she looked like when she was born.

When my nurse came in an hour later she said we could try a few trial pushes and see if baby was unstuck.

(Picture taken right before I started pushing. I'm pretty sure I was thinking, 

"How am I supposed to push when I'm so numb?!)

Things were looking up from there!

I pushed over two hours to get our sweet babe here,

But when Sam exclaimed,

"I see her head!"

I lost it completely.

I was moments away from holding my little girl in my arms,

From being a mom!

And then our sweet Emma entered the world at 10:50 pm,

She was absolutely perfect and I was overcome with so much love as they placed her on my chest:)

Emma didn't want to cry for us when she was born,

So the nurses quickly took her away and got all the stuff out of her lungs and throat.

They quickly brought her back to me but placed her so I couldn't see her face,

I could just see her cute little head in her cap.

When they turned her around my heart just melted.

My girl was finally here and never knew a love like this could exist!

She was so cute and hungry right away, haha!

And so was I,

I remember I literally drank 10 sprites after delivery,

And was craving a cheese burger!

Every time for the next three days if a nurse would ask if I wanted something,

I would tell them to bring me a sprite, ha!

This was the picture we sent our families once we got into our recovery room,

We were so excited to share the news:)

The next morning our babe was still nameless,

We were having such a hard time choosing a name.

So much responsibility;)

But Sam snapped this picture and we just knew her name was Emma Ann:)

This picture reminded me of a little pioneer baby with her cap on,

And I knew that Emma was the perfect name for her!

It was such a beautiful, timeless name.

We were in love!!

Emma was so alert from the beginning,

We couldn't get over her eyes, her hair, and that she was ours!

We were so anxious to bring Emma home,

We were excited to start our lives as a family of three:)

We love you so much Emma,

You have brought us so much happiness.

As I always tell Emma,

"You're my girl"

"And I'm your momma!"

Emma Ann Cannon

August 12, 2016

10:50 pm

8 lbs 3 0z

20.75 inches