Hesselblogger: Welcome Ryan!

I wanted to get down some of the details of Ryan's birth while the memories are still clear in my head - although how can you forget the day that changes your life forever?!

The official due date that we were given by our midwife was March 4th, but she warned us not to latch on to that date since "most first time moms go late." Still, we couldn't help but be excited and wait impatiently for our little guy to arrive. The week of his due date came, and there were no signs that labor was going to start any time soon. We went into the doctor's office for a well-check ultrasound and fetal non-stress test and everything seemed to look fine, which meant we didn't have to take any medical action at that point. However, they warned us that if he got too close to 40 weeks, we would need to schedule an induction since post-term babies can have just as many issues as pre-term ones. We didn't think that would be a problem, and figured he would be there any day, but apparently he was pretty content in his little belly home, because the next week rolled around and still no sign of labor. We went ahead and let the midwife schedule an induction for March 15th, but I started to panic about all that induction entails. I didn't want Pitocin that would make my contractions too strong, I didn't want to be hooked up to monitors from the very start of labor, I didn't want any of those things. So we went home and tried every old wive's tale to start labor - eating tons of pineapple, walking around the neighborhood, doing squats, etc.

When I woke up at 5:30 in the morning on Wednesday, March 13th, I felt some cramping in my belly. Throughout the pregnancy, I had been worried that I wouldn't know the difference between Braxton-Hicks contractions (which I had been having for months) and the "Real Deal" contractions. Boy, was I worried for nothing! They were completely different, and I started to quietly get excited that things were starting up. I laid in bed and started to time the contractions - only 7 minutes apart, then 5, then 5, then 6. By 6:30 in the morning, I felt confident enough that I was in true labor to wake Matt up. We got up, ate some breakfast, and emailed our work to let them know we wouldn't be in that day. Then the fun hours laboring at home started. Matt lit some candles and turned on the TV in our room and we sat on the floor, sat in the recliner, leaned on the bed, and just moved around with the contractions while we watched TV and tried to relax. They really were not too terrible to start, and I was able to breath through each contraction calmly.

Things started to pick up as the day went on, and I decided to get in the bath to relax better. That was nice for a while, but then I needed to get up and lay down in the bed. Matt suggested we do some lunch since we didn't want to go to the hospital starving, so he made us some smoothies. For whatever reason, halfway through lunch, labor kicked in to high gear and I was having trouble focusing or breathing through the contractions as easily. Matt got out the timer and the contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart and lasted over a minute each. So he quickly packed up the rest of our hospital gear into the car and off we went to the Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. The car ride was not bearable, but waiting to check in to the hospital was a true challenge for me with the hard plastic chairs and the constant questions :) Once we made it up to triage, they hooked me up to the monitors to get a look at how we were progressing. Contractions were strong and regular, but when the nurse checked me, she declared that I was only dilated to a 3. She asked how we felt about walking around the labor floor for about an hour to move things along, but it was really more of an instruction than a question. So that's what we did. Walked around slowly, stopping every 10 feet or so to lean against the railing through a contraction. It was a miserable hour and I felt my enthusiasm and patience wearing thin.

After an hour, I was so glad to go back to triage to hear how far we had progressed. The nurse checked me. Still at a 3. I could have cried I was so disappointed. The nurse called our midwife, who directed her to just admit us since I was 9 days past due and my water had already broken. She suggested that I try a shower and then re-evaluate my need for pain medication. Into the shower we went, but the showers at that hospital were terrible! All it did was make me cold and ruin my hair :) Since I have had bad reactions to narcotics in the past, we decided to just go straight for the epidural. Once the anesthesiologist got to my room (what seemed like hours later), I was dying for some relief. The epidural was fast and the pain slowly started to melt away. They checked me again and found out that I had gone from a 3 to a 7 in no time - oh the power of relaxation! Once I could finally relax, we called and texted our families to let them know that it was baby day. Kim stopped by to bring Matt dinner and coffee and to hang out with us. She also curled my hair and did my makeup so I could look presentable in the photos that everyone would be taking - hooray!

Our midwife continued to check in on us, and around 8:30 said that she would come back at 10:00 (when she guessed I would be fully dilated and effaced) and we could start working on getting that baby out. Sure enough, when 10:00 rolled around and she came in, it was action time. They turned down my epidural so I could feel what I was doing and push more effectively. And the midwife and our sweet nurse coached us for the next hour and a half as we worked that baby out of there. As we got closer and closer to the birth, the midwife instructed Matt to either scrub his hands or put on some gloves if he wanted to catch the baby. Matt quickly threw on some gloves and made it over just in time to help deliver his son. It was unreal. Matt put him up on my chest so I could get a good look at him and he was simply perfect. He was warm and pink and squirmy and crying, just like a newborn should be. Matt got to cut the cord, and then since there were no medical concerns, the nurse gave us a warm blanket to cover us up and just let us bond as a new family for a few hours. We held Ryan and talked to him and kissed him and I was able to start nursing him right away.

Once things settled down a bit, the neonatal nurse came in to give Ryan a bath and take stats on him. The official measure:

Born at 11:35 PM on 3/13/13 (cool birthday, right?!)
Weighed 8lbs, 10oz (big baby)
21.5 inches long (tall baby)
A score of 8 on his first Apgar, 9 on his second (healthy!)
Beautiful blue eyes and a good amount of dark brown hair

After that, they tried to move us into the post-partum room to get some rest and recover. But my iron levels had dropped too much, so I fainted on the way to my wheelchair and had to lay back down for a few hours - yikes! Once we finally made it to the recovery room, Matt tried to get some sleep on the uncomfortable pull-out couch while I tried to nap through the dozens of people rotating through the room to take stats on me, stats on Ryan, etc. We had to wake the baby up every 2 hours or so to eat since newborns are super sleepy and often won't get up on their own. And Ryan was stubborn about it too - we had to dab him with a cold washcloth, tap him on the cheek, tickle his feet, and try every other trick to wake him. Wish we had that same "problem" later on at home when he was waking up every 30 minutes crying :) By the next morning when visitors started arriving, we were all 3 pretty wiped out. But it was so nice to see all of our friends and family and introduce them to our new little love. Friday morning, we packed up shop and headed to our house to start our adventure of raising our child. So far, it has been incredible. I feel so blessed and so fortunate to have this healthy, beautiful baby in our lives. And a wonderful birth story with a very happy ending (Ryan) to fondly remember for our whole lives.