Bienvenido, Baby Emory!

Look at who stole our hearts this week!

Introducing: Emory Cruz Henriquez Baldwin 

Born: Wed, July 17th at 6:59 am, 6 lbs 4 oz 18.5 inches long

So here's how it all went down...so fast and crazy I still cant believe it wasn't just a dream....

Wednesday, July 17th:

2:30 am: I wake up, feeling an anxiousness like something is going on, but no contractions. Wait, did my water just break? Not sure. I wake Elvis up just in case, and we get something to eat and put away some laundry, trying to figure out why I feel an urgency to go to the hospital. 

3:30 am: Call my friend Christy to come on over to stay with Suz so we can go to the hospital. Contractions start as soon as I get in the car, 4 minutes apart but not unbearable. 

4 am: Get to the hospital, go to the observation room for them to determine whether to admit me or not. Contractions continue. 

5 am: Nurse/midwife from Australia named Suzy (i took that as a good sign!) checks me and tells me I'm at 4 cm, 70% effaced. My water had not broken, but she wants to admit me. 

5:15 am: A random male doctor comes in, doesn't even examine me or ask me anything, and tells me that many women come in all the time at 4 cm and they aren't really in labor. He says I could have already been at 4 cm for several days without knowing it. He's not convinced I'm actually in labor, and tells me to walk around the garden of the hospital for 1-2 hours and then come back to the observation room for them to determine whether to officially admit me or not. At this point, my attitude towards male doctors who haven't ever experienced labor personally is pretty negative. 

5:30 am: Elvis and I start walking around the garden. Contractions start coming every 2 minutes. 

6 am: I go back after only walking 30 min (instead of 1-2 hours they told me) and asked to be checked b/c the contractions were getting faster and harder. They tell me to keep walking b/c the doctor said to walk for an hour or two. 

6:15 am: We walked for 15 minutes, contractions 1.5 minutes apart and HARD. I go back and when they see me, they realize that this is FOR REAL. They check me and tell me that my bag of waters is about to bust, and as soon as it does, his head is coming! Basically, I went from 4 to 10 cm in 45 minutes. 

6:30 Everyone is freaking out, running me to a delivery room (since I hadn't been officially admitted to a room yet). I was Strep B positive and needed the antibiotics, but there was not time to get me an IV. 

6:45ish: I feel the need to push and start doing so without really anyone telling me it was time. My water breaks everywhere and the doctor is rushing to put on some gloves to catch this baby. 

6:59 am: Emory is born!!

 

Although overall I wasn't to happy with how the doctors didn't really take me serious and therefore, I couldn't get the antibiotics Emory needed, I did really like how baby friendly the hospital was and how much help they offered later with nursing, etc. We though we were going to have to stay 48 hours since we didn't get the strep b antibiotics, but they let us go home the next day. 

Nana and Granddaddy got here on the first plane out of RDU and were here Wednesday night to met Emory and to stay with Suz. They are all completely smitten, as you can tell:


Although this pregnancy was physically very easy, there were lots of emotions and fears to work through during the past 9 months, mostly dealing with how hard everything was after Suzy was born due to my sickness and her consequential sickness. God really healed a lot of fears and anxiety about going through that all again.

 Instead of seeing Emory's super quick and natural delivery as a result of anything I did or just "good luck", I clearly see His redeeming and healing grace through Emory's birth and through how well recovery, bonding, nursing, etc has gone this time around.

So thankful for this little 6 lb proof of God's grace!!!!