Jordyn Emmert Photography

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He’s finally here! Meet the newest member of our little family!

We welcomed the newest member of our family, Owen Daniel, on May 17th at 6:10 pm (On his due date!). 

For those of you who caught the post a few weeks back (which ironically went live on Owen’s due date while I was in labor) my labor was far from what I expected it would be this time around (If you missed it you can find it here Spoiler Alert: I did manage not to suffocate my husband this time around…and he was actually able to witness the birth of his child 😉 ). After a 3 hour active labor with William one of the biggest concerns my Dr and I had was having time to make it to the hospital…so not a problem XD.

This little man’s birth story really begins on the 16th. For nearly 3 weeks before hand I had been experiencing false labor and was dilated to a 3. I had been having contractions on and off again. They would start out sporadic and then just about the time they would get close together and consistent they would disappear altogether. But around 3 am on Thursday the 16th they hit again, and they didn’t go away. They were fairly close together, and moderately uncomfortable, but very inconsistent. (eg: 10 minutes, then 3 minutes, then 1 minute, then back to 10)  By the time my husbands alarm went off at 6 I had decided he better call into work. 

I had experienced this the first time around with William, and it lasted for two days before I went into active labor, but once that happened it was full speed ahead, and I knew that if things went faster this time around there wouldn’t be time for him to get home.

So for the first part of the day we just hung around the house. A couple of my sisters were staying with us at the time (in case we had to leave suddenly for the hospital so someone would be around to watch William until Mom could get here), so we watched a couple of movies and had lunch. My contractions were getting more and more uncomfortable at this point so I decided maybe we should just head into Enid and see a movie or something so we would be closer to the hospital. Mom came and got William and we made it into Enid around 4:30. The movie we wanted to see didn’t start until 8 so we walked around the mall until 7, had dinner, then headed there. For some strange reason the movie was delayed by nearly an hour (and this was a 3 hour long movie), and at this point I’m in a fair amount of pain and getting rather cranky 😛 . We got out of the movie at midnight, and by this point the contractions were letting up some. I was pretty frustrated, and feeling like I would be pregnant for the rest of my life because I would obviously never just go into full blown labor (which is super illogical because I was scheduled to be induced on Monday anyway 😉 ). 

I decided we better go ahead and go to into labor and delivery just to make sure before we drove the hour plus back home. 

After monitoring me for about an hour and telling me what I already knew (that I was having lots of contractions but they weren’t consistent) they decided maybe I just had an “irritable uterus”. So they made me drink a ton of water and watched it some more and decided that wasn’t the case. So then they decided to have me walk for a while. 

They unplugged my monitor cords, draped them around my neck, and instructed me to walk the halls for an hour and see what happened. Let me just tell you walking halls in a hospital gown at 2:00 am is not fun. 

After the longest hour of walking ever (okay..that may be a slight exaggeration) they hooked me back up and decided “pretty much everything was the same”. They told me we were going to get to go home, but wanted to watch me for a bit longer just to be sure.

George went outside for some air, and about that time my contractions started to regulate. The nurse informed that I was definitely in early labor but she didn’t expect active labor to begin anytime soon, so a little before 4:00 am they finally let us go home. 

On the way home my contractions continued to get stronger and more intense, but I didn’t even tell George because the last thing I wanted at that point was to go back to the hospital. We made it home a few minutes before 5:00 and headed straight to bed. George knocked out immediately, but my contractions were bad enough at this point I couldn’t sleep at all. I started having some pretty intense back labor, so I got up and took a shower, and gathered things up around my house. Then around 7:30 I went back to bed. By 8:00 my contractions were bad enough that I woke George up. He asked if I was ready to go back to the hospital, and I told him no I wanted to go see William first. 

He said ok, but then we decided we were both too tired and we just laid there instead 😛  

Finally around 11:00 we got up and drove to my moms to see William for a few minutes and head to the hospital. At this point my contractions were about 4 minutes apart and bad enough I couldn’t talk through them, so it was kind of a silly visit, but I was still glad to go hug on him before we headed out. 

By the time we left my mom’s I was starting to panic a bit, things were picking up fast, and I was beginning to think we should have left for the hospital much sooner. 

When we got to the hospital I was at a 5 and totally effaced. They got us to our room and I wanted to get in the tub to help with the back labor, but they had to find monitors that would work with the water first so the nurse suggested I use the birthing ball while I wait. (I also found out at this point that my Dr was out of town, so Owen was going to be delivered by someone I had never met…so that was fun. He turned out to be super nice and laid back though 😉 )

They were gone for about thirty minutes and by the time they came back I had already progressed to a 7 (I had to fight for my bath at that point because it was hospital policy to be in or around your bed once you were at an 8). But, our nurse was super sweet (and patient…which you’ll get to hear more about in a bit 😛 ) and she let me. 

When I got in the tub I told George he better go ahead and have Mom head our way with William because at this point I’m expecting that this baby is going to be here in an hour or less. So he went ahead and called her. I set in the tub for about 45 minutes before I felt like I needed to go ahead and get out. 

I was only at an 8 at this point, but wasn’t too discouraged because I went from an 8 to a 10 and pushing in like 5 minutes the first time around. 

I was however completely exhausted, so I decided on getting in the bed.  ( To tell you how exhausted I was, I was in the transition stage of labor at this point, in terrible pain, and kept falling asleep). 

Another 30 minutes or so went by with no progress and the nurse suggested I let them break my water because she thought that would speed things along. 

For a bit of backstory my mom’s labor stalled a bit with one of my brothers (her third child) so they broke her water. He wound up being sunny side up, and almost 11 pounds, and she was unable to deliver him and had an emergency C-section, so I was leery to have my water broken to say the least. (Especially because I delivered my first son sunny side up, and suspected this little one might be as well due to the back labor.) I asked if there was any way they could check, but she said that in doing so she would probably break my water because it was bulging so much.

After another hour of nothing, my labor was starting to stall, and I was losing my last bit of energy fast, so George encouraged me to let them  go ahead and break it and I did.

 Almost immediately I went from an 8 to a 9 and a half and felt like I needed to push, and she gave me the go ahead. 

After hours of pushing (and me being so exhausted I was falling asleep while pushing and people were starting to get pretty frustrated all around). It was discovered that Owen was indeed sunny side up, and also stuck on my pelvic bone.

Thankfully my nurse was able to have me try several different positions and he was eventually able to slip free. At that point though it was full speed ahead and there was no stopping him. 

I was on my hands and knees when he got free and she told me I needed to get back on my back right away. 

I seriously didn’t think I could. George informed me that I argued with her and told her the baby was just going to have to be born like that, and she of course said no. 

They got me back in position and the dr walked in the room just in time to catch the baby…and he was huge 😛

Well not really, but after a six pound baby he seemed it. 

He came out the same short little 19 inches long but weighed over 2 lbs more than his big brother (8lbs 4oz). 

Big brother was able to come meet him about 15 minutes later, and we got to come home after just 24 hours (pretty much on the dot). He even got his first bath at home!

We are all doing great and love our new little man. 

Of course big brother had to have his picture taken too when he saw mama taking pictures of Owen’s bath (oh..and he calls him “baby O” it’s the cutest!)

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meet the photographer jordym

Fueled by equal parts coffee and passion, I spend my days capturing the kinds of images that make you stop, smile and ask time to please slow down. Your story, your love, is beautiful and I can’t wait to capture it in images you will treasure for years to come! I believe in real moments, serving my couples well, and doing it all for GOD’s glory

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