A birth like no other

I’m not sure why I decided to write about this today…  I really enjoyed reminiscing the other day and I was trying to think of another fond memory to write about.  Since my little sister is expecting baby #2, I got to thinking about the day that my niece Emma was born.

My sister was scheduled to be induced on Monday, February 16, 2009, so she arrived at the hospital about 8:00 p.m. the night before.  I took the 16^th off work and planned to drive up first thing in the morning.  My lack of experience with pregnancy and induction had me worried that she would give birth before I could drive the hour to the hospital that morning.  Boy was I wrong…

I believe they broke her water that morning to see if she would start dilating, but that didn’t work.  I arrived about 9:30, sweating and panting, expecting my niece to be crowning, but everyone was calm and collected.  I presented my sister with a special “Mommy” charm bracelet as a gift and then we all proceeded to sit around… for hours and hours and hours.

Eventually they gave her Pitocin and that sped things up.  The contractions were getting pretty bad, so she opted to get her epidural.  Her boyfriend was a needle-phobe and couldn’t stand to watch it happen, so I stayed in the room and held her hand while the anesthesiologist stuck a huge needle in her back and she turned into a happy girl again.

By late afternoon, there was quite a crowd.  Me, my Mom, my Dad, my sister’s boyfriend, his sister, and his Mom.  Around 6:30, me and my parents headed out to McDonald’s for dinner while my sister and her boyfriend had some alone time.  Around 8:00 p.m., the doctor arrived and said it was time to start pushing.  It didn’t seem so bad at first, but after awhile, I started pacing the halls.  This was a small hospital and there only seemed to be one other woman giving birth that night, so I wasn’t in anyone’s way. 

At one point, my sister stopped panting like the doctor was ordering and started making funny moaning and screaming noises.  That was all my Mom’s poor heart could take.  She took off down the hall to get away from the emotional stress of hearing her baby girl give birth.  By now, I’m sitting in the hallway across from my sister’s room with my head in my hands.  Have I mentioned before now that I’m a very anxious person?

Finally, at 10:28 p.m., my beautiful niece Emma was born.  After another hour, we all got to go in and see them.  That’s when I got really emotional… because my sister announced that her name was Emma Nicole.  Really?  I started crying… because my middle name is Nicole too!  And then my sister said that she chose that for her middle name because I meant so much to her.  Cue:  A ridiculous blubbering mess!

The End!