Welcome Emma Elizabeth Brennan

We welcomed our beautiful daughter Emma Elizabeth on Thursday, December 4th 2014 

at 3:20pm. She weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was 21 inches long. She was delivered by Doctor Linda Sodoma at Banner Gateway Hospital in Gilbert, AZ.

Her due date was Dec. 21st, so she came 17 days early! Mommy was very happy to not be dealing with pregnancy aches and pains anymore! No more throwing up or heartburn/reflux! Yay! So, here is the story of her unexpected early arrival:

On Wednesday, Dec 3rd I went to work at 7:30 am like usual and then had a Doctor's appointment after work. The doctor said I was completely closed and to come in next week for the ultra sound to measure our little girl and that she didn't think she would come early at all! (dang it) Then I went to an eyebrow appointment (whew, good timing), then stopped by the Orange Patch store/boutique for some fresh squeezed OJ made locally (seriously the best if you haven't tried it yet), a Christmas tree skirt for our first family Christmas and a cute Christmas decoration for the wall. Then dropped them off at home and quickly left to meet up with Daddy, Oma and Papa Brennan for dinner. Then Paul and I went to Home Depot to look for a Christmas tree and then Lowes since we didn't find anything there. We did get some garland to wrap around the banisters in our home. No Christmas tree yet! Then home we went. I had started sleeping on the recliner for at least 4 nights by this point and it felt so much better on my groin, why didn't I start sleeping there back in Sept when that terrible pain started! Sleeping was the worst, each time I rolled over or tried to get out of bed it felt like knives were being shoved up into my groin area, I know - too graphic! So, I got all settled into my little area on the recliner with my water, cell phone (need my alarm to wake up) and laid down with Paul on the opposite couch watching TV. I was all cozy and then decided to use the restroom one more time before falling asleep. As I pushed the recliner down my water broke! On my drive home from Lowe's I sent Allison a text message and she happened to send me one at the exact same time. So, I called her. Well, when my water broke, I called her and she was so excited to hear my voice. Apparently she told Craig the second she saw me calling "Abbey's water broke" or something along those lines. She knows me well, because I'm not a big phone talked, so knew something must be up. I don't know why I called her, but I didn't want to go to the hospital for no reason and since she's already been through this, I thought well I'll see what she says. Sure enough she said, yes, go to the hospital. So, I took a shower and Paul did some laundry for me. Then the soon to be dad showered while I packed the remaining items for the hospital bag! Yes, so many people told me have it ready to go before Thanksgiving, but of course I procrastinated, do you expect anything different?! Like me, Emma decided to make her parents be prompt! Ready or not she was coming! We were pretty excited!!! We headed to the hospital around 12:30pm. By this point I was starting to feel some pain, but prior to my water breaking I was feeling no pain - as far as contractions go! ;) We checked in, went to triage, where the confirmed my water did break. Then we were moved into the delivery room pretty quickly. Next thing I remember from this crazy and overwhelming night was it being after 6am and the anesthesiologist came in and it was someone Paul knew growing up. He said he was off at 7am if I decided to wait for the epidural then someone else would be administering it. I got my new nurse Deb at 7am and she was awesome. I don't even remember the one before her! The one before Deb said you can get the epidural whenever you want, but it will slow down the process, so I kept putting it off. Deb said, I'm a huge believer in getting it whenever you want and are ready. She said that I was so tense and that it helps labor if I allow myself to relax more, so I said I'd wait awhile longer (to be honest I was completely scared to get the shot, so the longer I waited the more I felt I could prepare myself, ha, or at least that was my theory). So, I was at 5cm when I finally decided I could use the epidural and was getting ridiculously tired of getting up to pee from all the fluids I was hooked up to and getting up was not pleasant, especially with my groin pain getting worse. This was around 9am I believe. Then I finally got some sleep after being up over 24 hours and not being able to sleep through the contractions before then. It was very weird not feeling my legs and not something I loved, not to mention whoever gave me the epidural made it a very unpleasant experience, I did not enjoy that and Paul was even weirded out by the way it was done. I didn't like that she was talking to me and I couldn't read her lips and every time I tried to look at Paul or the nurse to have them repeat what she said the nurse would jerk my head down (since my chin was supposed to be towards my chest), so you can imagine not knowing what was being said to me was making my anxiety grow even more. I sound like a wimp I know, but this was probably the worst part for me. But it was totally worth being able to get some sleep! Poor Paul never feel asleep or so he says, but I swear I saw his eyes closed a few times. :) I appreciate Paul letting me nap.  I felt bad not entertaining him, so decided to play him at a game of chess. (He taught me on our honeymoon and we would play a few times here and there on the iPad. I won!!! I think he was overly tired and anxious/excited! I was totally relaxed, so I tried not to rub it in too much. :) Then I was getting sleepy and decided to be done after one game and take a nap. After napping on each side for awhile I told the purse I was feeling a lot of pressure! So, she checked me and said baby Brennan was finally faced down and ready to come! Oh my goodness! I couldn't believe this was actually happening. It still seems surreal that we have a little beautiful baby girl with us! So, Deb and Paul helped me push for awhile and boy did the pushing hurt my head so bad! I had just gone to the doctor on Monday for a sinus infection, so my head was sooo full of pressure and holding my breath to push was pure miserary! Ha. I think if I wouldn't have been so stuffy and dealing with awful heartburn it would've been even faster, but then again I think the head pressure made me push harder and so I progressed quicker! I pushed under 40 minutes and the doctor came in and I think I pushed twice more and out Emma came! Paul was sure I'd cry, but I think I was in shock that I just had a baby and that something that large could come out. Yes, it's a miracle and Paul talks about how wild and amazing the human body is, I'm just as amazed, but still shocked. I think I was still feeling a bit numb. I often think about what the deliver would've been like had she come closer to her due date and am so thankful she came early at a healthy 8lbs and 2 oz! Whew! I was 2 weeks early and 8lbs and 4 oz - you're welcome mom. ;) Ha. Like mother, like daughter. My heartburn/reflux went away immediately just like everyone said it would. I kept downing ice chips in between pushing thinking that would make it go away and Deb finally said, I think it's making it worse. Well, anything down the throat was helping at that one second, but I finally stopped since those people tend to know their stuff. So, I definitely did not want my picture taken this day or any day around the end of the pregnancy... I wish I would've had a few taken after that moment of me holding her for the first time. I didn't take many pictures during this entire pregnancy, people always asked me why and my best response was since I felt pretty crummy the whole time - I never wanted a picture to show that, because I was pretty sure since I felt crummy I looked crummy as well. I know I didn't, but that was how I felt the whole 8 months. The first 5 weeks were the best! Ha!

So, after her delivery Paul and I got to have a "Golden Hour" where it is just us two and Emma. There were a few times where they came in to just clean up or do something, but we didn't really notice them. It felt completely natural to have her in my arms and I never thought I'd feel that way. I will admit I had anxiety about being a mother, mostly because I had never been one and wondered if I'd know what to do, how would I know what she needed, etc, etc... but all my worries went away that moment I held her. My favorite memory and moment was watching Paul and seeing him hold our daughter for the first time. This is a picture I took of him holding her and I'm so glad I captured this moment. 

After that we slowly started getting ready to move to the postpartum room. I was feeling so much better! I was so happy and relieved she came early and I was no longer pregnant. I still wish I could've been one of those people who loved being pregnant, but I unfortunately was not. She was definitely worth it all though and I know my pain during the pregnancy could've been much worse, so I was lucky. That night Paul mom's and my parents came to visit their newest granddaughter! We got a lot of grief for not having a name picked out yet! I don't know why, but picking out a name was the hardest thing of this whole pregnancy! Ha. I didn't like the stress of not having a name and having to finalized it before we were kicked out of the room, so next time I'd like to have it picked out. We had our top two names, then Friday morning I threw out the third one that got knocked out the month before, I just made the name picking worse by bringing it back into the mix. It was between Emma (first name from the get go, should've just stuck with it back in April!), Annie and Madison (Maddie). We started asking the hospital workers what their favorite name was and had a tally on our white board going! I'm not sure what the tally was for, but in the end we ended up naming her Emma after all. I think I always knew that was her name, but I just wanted to be sure after hearing some people say they changed their child's name later or ended up picking a different one once they were born. Our nights at the hospital were good ones. On Friday night she slept a long time and the nurse came in and asked if I fed her! I saw the clock and said, "No!!! I didn't think I was going to sleep that long!", I felt terrible, but she never woke up crying, so looking back I'm not too worried about going past an hour of when I was hoping to feed her. She's a great eater and has been from the get go. She definitely has her dad's appetite, I often think I'd be exhausted from eating as much as she does! Ha. Especially with it being just milk, ewww. ;) Her doctor, who checked on her was Dr. Jacks from the pediatrician's office and he was so nice. He said her color was great and she was a very healthy baby. Yay! Her primary pediatrician is Dr. Randy Leavitt, he was mine and my brother's doctor growing up and we really like him! It's so nice having someone you have a history with look after your baby! It was so nice getting to see him after all these years and I was incredibly impressed that he remembered I had one brother who went on to play college basketball and that one of had hearing aids/hearing loss. I told him that was me. What a good memory! It must be fun getting to see all his old patients children now, he said it was pretty neat. When we go see him and he checks her he always says "she's perfect". :) I'm sure all doctors say it, but I always think it is sweet of him to say. I'm such a sucker I know! So back to our postpartum stay at the hospital... on Friday we had a great day! Emma was perfect and Paul slept better this night. I am fortunate enough to be able to take out my hearing aids when I go to sleep and I can still hear her "I'm hungry/feed me" cry! I know Paul lays awake hearing her every sound/movement, poor guy. I've noticed I've been hearing different sounds when I'm trying to go back to sleep at night, things I've never heard before, so I will put a hearing aid in, my glasses on and look over at her and seeing her sleeping peacefully and then take them off/out and go back to sleep or I will roll over and ask Paul if she is making noises. So, that Friday both our parents came back to visit Emma, our good family friend, Sarah Hamrock got to meet her, Paul's sister Mary and Jason came by and my brother, Tyler and Meg came too! Tyler and Meg brought the kids since we had windows and were on the bottom floor. My dad checked it out the night before to see if the kids would be able to see in and he could. So, Tyler, Meg, Mckaley and Mikey all walked up to the window and knocked! We raised the blinds and showed them Emma! My brother came in first, then Paul went outside to be with the kids, so Meg could come inside too. It was fun to see Tyler and Meg with their first niece/nephew! Meg's brother doesn't have children, so this is the first cousin for Mckaley and Mike! It was so fun to see the excitement on Mckaley and Mikey's face even from inside! Children that were not your own weren't allowed to come into the hospital during this time of the year, so we made the most of those windows and am glad we got that room, so they could come see her! We had a nice little evening with the three of us watching the UofA football game against Oregon that went horribly wrong! ;) I have a bunch of other photos on my phone from the kids through the window to just sitting in bed and snapping pictures of Emma sleeping. I didn't get any of the grandparents with Emma, so need them to send me some photos when they get a chance now that the holidays are over! :) Here are a few for now! 

 Uncle Tyler

Aunt Meg

The sweet postpartum nurse, Angelica made this cute little hat for Emma. 

We finally got to go home Saturday late morning! It was so nice to bring her home! Paul's brother Peter came over and then Allison, Craig and their daughter Ellie, Emma's bff came by a few hours after we got home! It was nice to have visitors and people wanting to meet our little girl! Ellie did not like when her mommy and daddy were holding Emma, but it was fun to see them together! 

 Finally going home! 

Meeting the Peters family and the two newest bffs meeting for the first time! 

So, that's it for the labor/delivery & hospital story! Stay tuned for more Emma and Brennan family photos/stories and adventures!