Due on Christmas, Em was born on December 7th, 2002, following a happy and eventful pregnancy. When I was five months pregnant, we purchased our first home. Em was very eager to see the new home and kept trying to make her grand entrance. We managed to convince her that it was more interesting where she was by keeping all activity level to a minimum. This worked perfectly. She was so incredibly active in there, constantly kicking and punching. As I watched my body morph into an alien for the second time, I talked constantly about names. Knowing that we were having a girl, I wanted a name that sounded strong, yet feminine. Tony didn't like any of the names I came up with, so the whole name thing seemed to take an eternity. Tony finally said, "how about Emily?" and at this point, I just wanted a name. So, Emily it is.
From the Latin Aemilia, a derivative of Aemilius, an old Roman family name believed to be derived from aemulus (trying to equal or excel, emulating, rival).
Another explanation concerning the meaning of the name could point in the direction of Amalia and its Greek origin of aimulos (friendly, tender).
Emily has been the number one name for girls in the US for the last ten years, and has also ranked high in the UK, landing in the 4th spot in 2007. It is also popular in Australia and New Zealand.
Notable Emilys include poet Emily Dickinson, author Emily Brontë, and actresses Emily Watson and Emily Blunt. Emily Davison was a British women's suffrage supporter, who threw herself in front of the King's horse at the 1913 Derby.
On December 6th, I woke up at 3am with strong contractions. Labor had started. I felt restless and didn't want anybody near me. This is how I felt in labor with Christopher, so I knew it was time. Later that morning, when Tony woke up, I told him I might be in labor. He said he would call work at stay home that day, but I told him not to. I didn't explain that I want to be left alone when in labor (then he wouldn't go to work!). So, off to work he went. I continued to labor throughout the day (my labor with Christopher was 48 hours, so I expected this one to last a while as well). Labor was unusually hard this time around, and I felt like she might not be in the right position. With every contraction, I felt her legs pushing outward, and it felt like she kept wriggling around to get it right. At some point, it felt like I needed to crawl around to get her off of my back, so that is exactly what I did. Tony arrived home a bit early, and I waited until around 8pm to call my OB.
We called Joe Gray and Pablo to come to the hospital (somebody needed to be with Christopher) and headed down there. Once at the hospital, I was checked and hadn't progressed much at all. After laboring for 18 hours, I was only at a 4. I told my OB that it felt like she was in the wrong spot, and upon feeling around, she verified that Em was sunny side up. The pain was becoming more and more intense, and I was not dilating very fast at all. To make it worse, every two minutes, somebody called Tony's cell phone to see if I had the baby yet. NOTE: Do not EVER do this to a laboring woman! Somebody will call you when she has the baby. I was hitting that irritable stage and the cell phone was really bothering me. I asked that the lights be dimmed because the light was bothering me as well. At some point, a nurse had me straddle a birthing ball and rock from side to side. I did it for a while, and all of a sudden felt Em turn around. The feeling was so overwhelming I think I may have went unconcious for a moment. It took my breath away. Once she turned, labor picked up and I dilated very quickly. The cell phone rang one last time - as I heard it ring, I said something about the f-ing cell phone and Tony dropped it accidently, causing it to fall apart. Ahhh, freedom from the ringing phone at last!
My OB brought over a huge mirror, and I watched Emily make her grand entrance into the world, exactly 24 hours after labor started. The first thing I noticed was a head full of hair. She was beautiful. She was incredible. She was so alert. We stared into each other's eyes and I knew she was going to be an amazing child, full of wonder, active, funny, and just perfect. She kept looking toward the window where the light was coming. She was not a very sleepy baby, nor was she discontent. She started nursing right away, and quickly became a champion nurser. I never let her out of our sight at the hospital. Only hours after her birth, I was able to get up and walk down the hall to get myself a glass of ice water.
