Long & Overdue UPDATES!!

Holy Moly....the last update was April 2013...so much to catch up on!


July 2013
July was an exciting month for us. Tracy worked up to 36.5 weeks of her pregnancy, and July 5, 2013 was her last day of work before the baby was due (her Dr. wanted her to take off a week sooner, but Tracy wanted that holiday pay!).
We left for Yokosuka on July 7, 2013 and it hit us that we are leaving as a couple, and next time we come home, there will be 3 of us....CRAZY!
Jon & Tracy had an appointment on July 8 to meet one of the physicians and have an ultrasound to check on baby girl. The Nurse Midwife said everything looked great, and she estimated baby girl to be weighing in somewhere around 8 pounds....GREAT.... we only have 3.5 more weeks to go, at 0.5 pounds per week, we are looking at a 9-10 pound baby! We left, and scheduled our next appointment for 10 days later, and weekly after that!


To keep the boredom from creeping in, and to help baby girl think about coming out, we walked...ALOT! We would walk every morning (while it was cool) for about 2 hours, and then go out again at night as it cooled off.
Tracy was completing a class in her Masters program, so working on her final kept her a little busy.
Early Thursday morning, July 11, Tracy was very uncomfortable, and could not sleep (probably because her final was due the next day, and she was not finished yet). Tracy got up around 5am and decided to use the quiet of the morning to finish her final. The entire time, she sat on a birthing ball as her lower back was bothering her, but this was nothing new.


After finishing her final paper, Tracy jokingly said "Ok baby, I am done with school for the summer, you can come any day now". Tracy was pretty tired after working the last 5 hours on her paper, so she took a late morning nap. After she woke up, she and Jon took a walk around base, and hit up the commissary for a few groceries (and to cool off in the AC). That night, the two of us decided to go to a popular steak house in town called the Station. It was several old train cars turned into a steak house. Tracy was starving, and when her steak came, she saw what she thought was a rogue plop of potato, and took a big bite....OOOPS, it was horseradish!
After dinner we took a walk along the bay, and hit up the Starbucks for a cool treat before going back to our hotel for the night.


7/11/2013 11:55pm
Tracy woke up to go to the bathroom as usual....no big deal. Came back to bed, and rolled to her right side to get comfortable. Felt a pop in her back, and thought "thank goodness, my back kink finally went away"...WRONG!


7/12/2013 12:00am
Tracy up to go to the bathroom again, except this time, her water breaks as she stands up (although she thinks "did I just pee myself"...nope! Tracy wakes up Jon, who by the way, just went to bed at 11pm.


Jon calls the hospital to tell them what is going on, and the hospital tells us to come on over, and they will check to see if Tracy's water really did break.
Tracy, being the tough one, decides that she will walk to the hospital, as it is a 5 minute walk. That is until the first contraction hits, and Tracy just about hit the floor....on second thought, call a cab.


We get to the hospital around 1:00am, and the staff meets us at the nurses station. They take Tracy in to check her, and instead of just monitoring her, they admit her into room 1 of labor and delivery.
The Dr. comes in and checks her, and she is only at 2cm, and baby girls head is not engaged....it may be a long night. The contractions were pretty intense right from the start, and no position they put Tracy in would relieve the pain. The nurse and corpsman realized that baby girl had rotated herself into a position where the hardest part of her head, was against Tracy's tailbone....holy back labor.
At one point, the nurse gave Tracy 100mg of Fentanyl, and it did not touch her pain. Jon went out to talk to the Dr, and overheard them discussing Morphine, as they did not want to give an epidural too early (it can stall labor).


7/12/2013 4:00am
Time for an epidural (THANK YOU GOD)...too bad it only worked on the right side of Tracy's body, so she still had a lot of back pain on the left...but we will take it.


7/12/2013 6:00am
The Dr. comes in and checks Tracy and says "Ok, you are at 8, but again, her head is not engaged. I think you are going to spend most of today just getting her to drop"...GREAT!


7/12/2013 7:00am
In walks Dr. Sischy, who introduces himself, and the nurse Rebecca. They talk about how things have progressed, and him and haw over whether to check me, or just let me hang out. The Dr. decides what the heck, lets check her. Dr. Sischy says "Oh my, you are at 10, let's practice a couple pushes, and see if we can get the head to drop"!


2 pushes later, he tells the nurse to break down the bed, and for me to get ready, as we are going to have a baby soon. A few more pushes to go!


7/12/2013 7:49am
Emmalynn Joy is born! Tracy pushed less than 25 minutes, and delivered a healthy baby girl.
Emmalynn was born at 37.5 weeks weighing 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 21.5 inches long...so much for an 8 pound baby on Monday!