Emberlynn's Story

Chapter 1: How 3 became 4

Jason and I had talked about having 2 kids. I was adamant that Eyan needed a sibling, and Jason thought 2 was a good number. However, after Eyan was born and never slept and basically owned us, the thought of 2 became less interesting. I continuously flip flopped between having just Eyan or adding another one to the brood…that was until my 3rd pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage. I guess all I needed was that awful loss to jump start my baby fever.

After many many months of still recovering from the miscarriage and learning that the HCG from that pregnancy just wasn’t leaving my system, it looked pretty bleak that we would be welcoming a baby anytime soon. I just gave up. I decided we were good with one and began to move on and plan our life around our little man.

Jason and I always go on a mini vacation for our anniversary. We decided to go gambling up in the mountains. We had a great time…such a great time that I actually may have drank so much that I thought I was winning on machines that I hadn’t even put money into. Our anniversary was wonderful and we ended up coming home with the best gift EVER!

On July 7th for no apparent reason I decided to take a pregnancy test. I was only a day or so late and I did have some spotting but I wasn’t feeling pregnant. To my surprise the test was positive. I followed that test with several more over the next few days, watching the line get darker and darker which is always a good sign that the hormones are increasing.

Then I had some spotting…and all the sudden my fears were back and the reality that I would probably lose another baby started to set in. Over the next few weeks I had several blood tests and ultrasounds. They were promising, my HCG levels were increasing well, my progesterone looked good, the baby was growing and FINALLY there was a heartbeat on the monitor that was normal! After 9 weeks of pregnancy, all was going well. I went to my 12 week check up and had yet another ultrasound and was elated to see baby actually look like baby! It was crazy because although I felt very pregnant, I sure looked fantastic! Seriously I was down to my lowest weight in 10 years!

Looking damn good!

Chapter 2: Pregnancy the 2nd (err 4th) time around

So after a very good 12 week appointment, Jason and I decided to publicly announce that our prayers had been answered and that we would be welcoming another little Funk sometime in March. Our due date was set for March 17th (St. Patty’s day!) but I knew I wanted another c-section regardless if I was approved for a VBAC or not…so realistically the baby would be born earlier than that. After that appointment I got my official “high-risk” classification and was also told there would be no chance at a VBAC (fine with me) due to my history. I was also informed that according to birth records from Eyan I had eclampsia not preclampsia due to a seizure I had in recovery. The next few weeks the nausea, exhaustion and moodiness slowed down and I was able to prepare for this little baby!

My sweet peanut!

I grew slowly and was able to keep the pregnancy secret from my students until close to 17 weeks! You could hardly tell I was pregnant and I was just waiting for a special kid to brave the world and ask me if I was pregnant…to which I would reply “are you calling me fat?” Unfortunately, a sweet kid outed me and I totally could not throw her under the bus like that. My students were elated but sad that I would be missing several weeks of school with them.

If I didn’t hold my shirt I just appeared to have a muffin top

Around 16 weeks I had another appointment and another ultrasound where
the doctor snuck a peek at the goods and gave me a pretty good guess at
the gender. She said it was a boy and although I was content with that,
I was not so sure she was right as I did not see what she saw on the
screen, so we kept it quiet until our anatomy scan. At 18 weeks I had an appointment with my perinatologist
(high-risk doc) and my anatomy scan. I was so nervous at this
appointment and watched the doctors every facial expression…I was
fully preparing myself for something to be wrong with this pregnancy
too. When everything checked out well, the doc did the gender check.
He asked what I thought the baby was and I of course said “boy” as I was
just told it was a few weeks earlier, and Jason went with girl. The doctor very confidentially wrote on the screen “IT’S A GIRL! I was surprised but elated!

How we announced the gender!

We finally decided that it was time to rearrange the house and started finishing our basement so we could move the office into the basement and the baby into the old office. Jason started the basement in mid-September and worked his butt of with several friends and family members to finish the basement. I had a goal to get the nursery started by the end of my winter vacation in January. My amazing hubby and friends and family made that a reality and I was working painting a nursery right before I went back to work! Again my sister helped and did the majority of the painting.

The nursery was inspired by two things; 1. The beautiful grey bedroom set that I fell in love with and 2. My late mother-in-laws LOVE for elephants. One wall in the nursery was already green and I had another gallon of that so I stuck with grey and green and just added purple. I did some projects inspired by Pinterest and really made her room even more perfect than I could even imagine!

Nursing Nook

So in love with this dresser

Oh the furniture!

The elephant family!

We finally settled on a name! Emberlynn Rose. I had loved that name and had actually tried to give it to a friend because I truly thought I would have another boy. My mom had been reading the local obituaries and one of the siblings of a man that had passed was named Ember. I knew I wanted another E name that was unique, but common, however, it needed a “Y” because of a promise I made to my late mother-in-law. My mother-in-law was named Cheryl Lynn Ann so we went ahead and took part of her name and paired it with Ember. The middle name is my sisters middle name and Jason’s grandma’s name. It was pure perfection and after months of trying to convince Jason that was her name, he finally conceded and our baby girl was ready to come into the world!

Chapter 3: Preparing for a princess

The last few weeks of my pregnancy were pretty flawless. I remember praying before I got pregnant with Emberlynn that if God could please just let me have a normal easy pregnancy, I would be forever grateful. I kept waiting from something to go wrong…no way could I just have 1 normal pregnancy.

We picked her birthday and the little miss would be born at 39 weeks and 1 day on March 11th sometime after 9:30. My dad had wanted her to be born on his birthday which is March 13th, but I really wanted her to have her own day…and it had to be an odd number either the 9th or the 11th was my preferred choice. Everyone except my sister has an odd numbered birthday in my immediate family and although they are in different months they are fairly consecutive. Mom is the 7th, Dad the 13th, I’m the 15th, Eyan’s the 17th and Jason is the 19th. Ember fell in between grandma and grandpa!

I worked my butt off preparing for my long term sub and preparing my students for the transition. My last week of work was our state testing and really easy as far as teaching goes. My blood pressure on the other hand decided to elevate itself and contractions decided to attack me that week and at one point I actually was worried that I was going into labor. I really wanted to make it through the week and was far from ready to welcome this baby. I still had so many loose ends to tie up at work and so much “spring” cleaning that I absolutely wanted to get completed before she got here. The doctors monitored me a bit more, did a couple NST’s and blood pressure checks and let me wait until my chosen date to welcome my precious girl. Which was great because I was able to do everything on my list and really prepare for her.

Chapter 4: The most perfect delivery

Monday March 11th came quickly. We woke up, showered and drove to the hospital. After checking in they took us up to labor and delivery and placed us in triage. I was prepped for surgery and although I was super nervous, I was also more than ready to have this baby. We were able to joke and laugh and enjoy this birth experience, rather than worry and freak out that things were not going well. The nurses were awesome and I truly felt comfortable. Around 9:15 they came to get me from triage and walked me back to the operating room. At that point the reality of what was going to happen really sat in. I was about to have major surgery. I was about to hear and see this little girl (and confirm that she was in fact a she)!

Last belly pic taking right before we left for the hospital

Triage!

They sat me on the OR table, the anesthesiologist placed the spinal, my butt got really hot then they laid me back and finished prepping me for the actual surgery. I asked if they would test me before they started cutting and the anesthesiologist peeked over the curtain and asked if I felt “that,” I responded with a “no” and he said “well they just stabbed you”. Cool…game on! The whole time the nurses, doctor and anesthesiologist were lighthearted and wonderful. They brought Jason in and within a few minutes before they even pulled Emberlynn all the way out, she was crying the most beautiful healthy, screeching cry I have ever heard!

Emberlynn screaming and letting me know she was just fine

Still crying

I kept asking Jason if she looked like Eyan, he wouldn’t look because he wanted me to be the first to see her. They brought her to me and it was like seeing Eyan again. She was beautiful and perfect and I was instantly in love. As they closed me up, they took Emberlynn and Jason next door to the recovery room and then my lovely friend Blood Pressure decided to drop. I got super nauseous then the anesthesiologist took care of that and eventually I was done and rolled into recovery. The only annoyance of the entire experience was that I had to be flat until my BP was normal and trying to nurse an infant right after laying flat (actually kinda inclined upsidedown) was super frustrating. However, within an hour I was sitting up, nursing and just in LOVE with my new human!

Meeting my babygirl

Once all was well I was taken to my room and Eyan was brought in to meet his sister. That moment was perfection. He told us she was “beautiful” and held her and kissed me. In an instant my baby faced little boy became a big brother and my family was complete. Emberlynn was here and healthy and Eyan was too! We spent 4 days in the hospital as I was not fully ready to go home and just needed a bit more time recovering from surgery. We had a minor moment where Emberlynn choked and had to get her stomach suctioned but all was fine.

Checking out baby sister

First family photo

My beautiful babies

This experience was completely different from Eyan’s birth experience and although I would not change the way Eyan came into the world, I can truly say I enjoyed Emberlynn’s pregnancy and birth much more!