Riley's Birth Story

So it's been quite a while since I was on this blog and have updated.  Most of you know why, but I'm over that noise.  I want to document the things going on in my life and the life of my new 10 week old baby and if anyone has issues with that, I don't care.  I want to be able to read back through this log I have created for myself and for my daughter to document things in her life.  Today will be her birth story. 

I found out I was pregnant two days before Christmas.  I was in shock.  Holding that secret was almost too much to bear from our family and friends.  We host Christmas Eve dinner at our house for both of our families.  We told close family that we were expecting shortly after the New Year once we found out that everything was going as planned.  We made our "official" announcement once we knew that we would be adding a baby girl to our family. 

My pregnancy was quite uneventful and I may go back and document my "bump pics" at some point and time.  The one thing I do regret is not taking the time to document my pregnancy as closely as I would have liked to.  My due date was listed at August 27th.  By the beginning of August I was beginning to carry very low and felt like "she" could fall out at any moment.  The beginning of August was hard, passing the 8 year anniversary of my dad's death. 

Sunday, August 12th, I began to feel very uneasy. like something was about to happen.  I told my SIL and my husband I was sure that the baby was coming that day.  I was wrong.  I continued to work the following Monday with little to no change.

Tuesday, August 14th, I awoke shortly after Hubs left for work at 5:30 a.m.  I had a contraction that sat me straight up in bed.  I thought to myself that it felt different than the braxton hicks that I had been having prior and that maybe I needed to pay close attention to my body.  20 minutes later another contraction did the same.  I decided that I was done sleeping for the day and got up to take a shower.  The contractions kept coming about 20 minutes apart and even a hot shower wasn't helping to slow them at this point.  I knew that something was happening and I was pretty sure that it wasn't false labor.  I texted Hubs and asked him to please give me a call and relayed to him what I was feeling.  I wasn't sure that this was "the real thing" yet so told him to stay at work until things progressed alittle further.  Figuring that this was our first, and first babies can take time to work themselves down, I knew that we weren't in a hurry to get to the hospital.

I signed into work for 8:00 that morning and let my colleagues know that I was pretty sure that I was in labor but was going to stick around as long as possible.  By then the contractions were picking up a bit and I was a bit uncomfortable but nothing I couldn't handle with some deep breaths and walking.  After talking to Hubs a few more times, I gave in and called my MIL to come over to sit with me just in case I would need someone else here.  She arrived around 9:30 and helped me work through some more contractions.  I called my best friend and talked to her for a bit, comparing birth stories and how things started.  She thought I was in false labor since I could hold a phone conversation with her.  As the contractions got closer, I felt more and more uncomfortable.

I know now why women in labor moan and rock their hips during birth.  This was all I could do in the throws of a contraction.  As we approached noon, the time Hubs was due home for lunch, the contractions were steadily increasing to 5 to 7 minutes apart.  I knew we would be heading for the hospital soon.  Once Hubs arrived home and we worked through a few more contractions and he took what would be the last pictures of me pregnant, we packed up the car with my hospital bag and took off for the hospital. 

On the way down to the hospital, we decided to debate baby names.  The name that we had both fallen in love with, Carlyn, just didn't seem to flow anymore.  We brought up a few more names we had on the list and decided that once we met our precious little girl, we would decide the right name for her.  The ride to the hospital was pretty uneventful, I had to work through some more contractions but nothing that scared Hubs. 

Once we arrived at the hospital, Hubs dropped me off at the emergency room and took off for the parking garage to park the car.  He would meet me in the emergency room.  I waddled my way through security and explained to the nice security guard that I was in labor and needed to get to the L & D floor.  The put me into a wheelchair and wheeled me to the admissions desk.  I then had to listen to two snotty young interns argue with the L & D floor about how I was going to get up there.  The ER was too busy to spare anyone to push me up to the elevator and the L & D floor was too busy to have anyone come and get me.  I listen to this for 20 minutes, until Hubs finally showed up in the ER.  Then Hubs had to push me through the ER to this bank of elevators while listening to snotty intern #1 describe that he was not a trained medical professional and if I decided to have the baby while he was pushing me that he could be held liable. The placed us in front of some random elevators and wished us luck.

As the elevator doors opened and Hubs pushed me inside, I was in the midst of contractions that felt like they were coming on top of each other.  As we looked at the elevator floors listed, we noticed that the floor we needed was not available from this elevator.  I was livid.  They complained in front of me, made me feel like I had done something wrong and then put me in the wrong elevator.  So Hubs and I rode the elevator to the next floor that we could and asked for help.  The nice people on the 9th floor were able to get us down to the L & D floor after realizing that I was actively in labor. 

Once we arrived on the proper floor, I was taken to a triage room to be checked out.  I dutifully put on my gown and peed in the cup as instructed.  That is when I started to get sick.  The pain of the contractions coupled with the undying heartburn I was experiencing was too much for me to handle.  I am a full blown wuss, I'll be the first to admit it.  I was in so much pain with each contraction that I kept getting sick.  I felt so bad for Hubs as he had no idea what to do for me.  All I wanted at that point was the epidural.  After having the doctor that was on call come and check to verify that I was indeed in labor, it was off to a room for us.  They wheeled us down the hall to a L & D room and it was then that I realized "OH SHIT, the baby is coming"! 

Once in our room, we met our nurse, who was no nonsense and honest and just what I needed.  She helped me get through some contractions, got the anesthesiologist to put me on the schedule and made sure that I had everything that I needed.  Around 3:00 p.m. I received my epidural and some meds to help with the heartburn.  The epidural was not as bad as I had expected.  Hubs was made to leave the room while this happened.  The worst part was being hunched over while having contractions and not being able to move to get comfortable.  The doctor also hit a nerve in my back which made my leg jump involuntarily which he then yelled at me about.  As the epidural took effect, I noticed that I felt it more on one side of my body than the other and had to roll over to get the medicine to travel to the other side of my body.  We waited until after 5:00 p.m. that day to break my water to see if the epidural would take effect more completely or if it was going to need to be redone. 

By 5:00 p.m. I was feeling pretty good.  I wasn't feeling most of the contractions and when the doctor came in to break my water, I really didn't feel anything.  I was 3 cm dilated at that point and was told it would be a few more hours.  We relaxed, chatted and family came in and out of the birthing suite to keep me company.  Around 6:00 I finally convinced Hubs to take a break and go and find something to eat.  He was anxious and I knew he hadn't eaten yet so I wanted him to maintain his energy.  During this time I was getting Pitosin to keep the contractions moving and the baby's heart rate would dip with each contraction.  This wasn't worrying anyone at this point as they would rebound but it was something we were keeping an eye on.  I had also started to shiver uncontrollably.  I was told this was in reaction to the epidural.

While he was off in search of some edible food at the hospital, my in-laws came in to keep me company.  After a bit the nurse came in to drain my bladder and check me.  After draining my bladder, she looked at me and asked if I felt any pressure.  I told her I wasn't sure but felt alittle different.  The shaking was me going through transition and I was ready to go!  The nurse told me that the baby was right there and that I needed to get my support team into the room.  I texted Hubs and Littlest Sister to have them come back to the room as soon as they could and updated the in-laws on the baby status.  Once Hubs and Littlest Sister arrived, it was time to start to push!

I started pushing at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 14th.  With each push, my  heartburn got unbearable.  I was doing anything I could to stop the acid from projectiling out of my mouth.  It was terrible.  I kept begging for something to help with the heartburn, anything to get me relief.  They wouldn't give me anything as they knew once the baby was out, it would be over.  After about 20 minutes of pushing, the baby's head was visible.  I couldn't stand it anymore and ended up getting sick.  That is when the baby's head kept showing itself!  Only a few more pushes after that and my beautiful peanut of a daughter was born.  Riley Jean made her debut to the world at 7:53 p.m. on 8/14/2012.  She was 5 lbs, 11 oz and 18 inches long.  She was born with the cord wrapped around her neck twice.  She was such a tiny tiny peanut.  But perfect.

She has blue eyes and we think either strawberry blonde or red hair.  She's mostly bald right now.  She is perfect in every way.  I couldn't believe that after years of waiting, that it had finally come true.  I had my perfect baby in my arms.