Rylan's Birth

It was Friday, July 6th. I woke up about 7:30a, not feeling so great...more or less like I got hit by a bus. After my giant crybaby bawl-fest the night before, I figured it was nothing. At this point I was so sick and tired of being pregnant--It was 1000 degrees out {ok, it was 104--a record high for the day}, and everything hurt.

I opened my inbox to find the usual "did you have the baby yet" messages, to which I replied NO and if I get asked ONE MORE TIME I'm going to go CRAZY!

By 10am I had a few very weak "contractions", but they were hardly noticeable and were a good 30+ minutes apart. Which basically means nothing. Fast forward to noon and these puppies were coming on every 8 minutes, but not lasting very long and were still very much bearable--I could walk, talk and work through them, but sitting was becoming uncomfortable. The dog was driving me nuts again, following me everywhere around the house, and my sister had stopped by to ask if "today was the day". I told her NO, but these braxton hicks were not letting me get any work done.

By 2pm the pains were coming sooner, though I still refused to believe this might be it. It felt like gas cramps and went away when I went to the bathroom, which is not at all what I thought contractions might feel like. My pal Stef just happened to text me, and when I replied with questions like "does the hospital have a hairdryer?" she began to probe.

I told her about the timed contractions, about the stringy/bloody discharge again this morning {even though I had lost my plug 2 weeks prior}, and my gas cramps. It was Friday afternoon, and I debated calling the office to see if I could get checked before the weekend just in case. Stef laughed {she's had two kids already} and told me I better call them and tell them I'm coming in. To heck with work I thought, and closed my computer. I began to finish packing the hospital bag...just in case.

The last thing I wanted to do was go in and have them send me home! When I called and talked with the nurse she said to wait until they were 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute each for an hour. I thought cool, this really is it and prepared for a long night. I was about ready to put the call in to Ross when he walked in the door. I told him what was going on and explained that we still have plenty of time, so he should finish running his errands and go deposit his check at the bank.

By the time he got back I knew for a fact that today right now was the day since I was doubled over the kitchen counter in pain, with my Itzbeen in hand to time the contractions! Ross still needed a shower, and I told him he had 5 minutes to take one and get dressed before I got in the car and left by myself. It was 3:30 now, and the contractions jumped from being every 8 minutes for the past 3 hours, to being 3 minutes apart consistently and getting so much stronger. I wasn't sure I could live for another hour with the contractions coming that hard and fast, so I called the nurse and told her we're coming in and if they wanted to send me home I didn't care anymore--I'm coming!

We made it upstairs at the hospital a little after four, and the nurse took her sweet time checking us in and going over all the routine questionnaires & forms. I was sweaty and shaking all over at this point. Trying to be "helpful", Ross told me I shouldn't be disappointed if I was only at a 3 and get sent home. I thought there's NO WAY that's happening. Not on my watch. Once the nurse finally got me set up in bed to check my cervix, her eyes about bulged out of her head when she announced that I was already past 6cm dilated, and 100% effaced! Baby time!

When she told me this was my only chance for an epidural, I said YES PLEASE! It was then that Ross so kindly reminded me that I wanted to do this without drugs, but obviously that idea was out. In hindsight, I should have just went without it since I was moving so fast, but at that moment the pain seemed so intense that I couldn't imagine it getting worse {and low & behold it didn't}. So they set me up like an assembly line and administered the IV & epidural. After about 15 minutes they rolled me from side to side and I heard a *pop*...my water had broken on its own! The nurse was quite surprised I could feel that, and I told her I could still feel everything on my right side. She said that wasn't right so they tried rolling me again. It didn't take long for her to call in another anesthesiologist who fixed the epidural and gave me another shot of magic juice. Upon doing a quick check, I was already at an 8 {and still feeling everything on the right} so they started setting up to deliver. This was at 5:30. By ten to six the epidural finally kicked in on my right side and they had just removed the bottom of the bed to have me start pushing.

After 15 minutes of pushing, Rylan Marie was born at 6:07pm, at 7 lbs 11 oz & 20.5 inches long! Overall, my whole labor and delivery was a breeze! I can't believe I spent all that time reading and obsessing about what it might be like, when it wasn't bad or scary at all. Was I nervous, yes-but it all seemed so natural. Everything happened so quickly that we didn't really have time to think, and before we knew it they were cleaning her off in my arms!

38 weeks, 4 days

We're feeling very blessed to have such a happy, healthy baby girl!