Ryan's Arrival Story

Well here it goes...."the story". For those of you who don't care there are a few pics at the bottom so feel free to skip to there, but since this is our family journal I have to include the story. 

As I mentioned in my post about Easter I had been having contractions about 10-20 mins apart day & night for going on 4 days & was really getting sick of things. By Mon. I seemed to be having not as many contractions so I figured that was it & we would be waiting another week or 2. I ran errands, & did our usual routine that day. About 3pm I had this really weird sensation & we weren't quite sure, (because even though this was my 3rd kid, I'd still never felt my water break) so I called  Klint & let him know. I told him I had my last hair client before having baby coming @ 4pm & since my contractions weren't changing I was going to go ahead & do her color & we'd decide what to do when Klint got home unless something changed. Well, I did my color, & Klint came home & I was still the same, so I figured it was nothing. Klint's brother Kam & his family stopped by to drop some stuff they borrowed off. When I told Sarah, (who had been trying to convince me to go to the hospital since Sun) she said we had to go to be safe & they offered to take the kids. That was enough to make Klint feel like we needed to go & I decided if it would make everyone feel better I would go, but I was sure they would send me home the way they had been doing every few days for a month when the Dr would send me in for possible pre-eclampsia.

When we got to the hospital they immediately hooked me up to the monitors. I was hardly having any contractions, but my blood pressure (which had been a problem off & on for a month) was 149/100 which was crazy high. Then the nurse checked me & said she didn't think my water broke, but I was dilated to 5cm almost 6cm. At that point I was so happy that the past 4 miserable days I'd had were actually making progress (I had been @ 2cm at my last 3 appointments) I didn't even care that they were going to send me home again. The nurse started inputting things in the computer & then she stopped, turned the monitor so we could see a bunch of red boxes & said "well, my computer is telling me to admit you". We laughed & she left to call the Dr. While she was gone we watched as, per usual for my many hospital visits for my blood pressure, we watched it come down to the "OK" level. At that point I was 110% sure they would be sending me home. A few minutes later the nurse came back & shocked us all by saying the Dr wanted me to stay & have the baby. I literally couldn't believe it. I actually said "Are you serious?" To which she just laughed & started my IV.

At that point we realized I had been so sure they would send me home that I hadn't sent my kids to Kam & Sarah's with anything so Klint took off to get them a few things & grab our camera, etc. While he was gone my Dr's on-call cover, Dr. Newman came in. She said Dr. Brass had told her she thought if they broke my water I'd have the baby in no time but thet'd give me a little pitocin to keep my contractions regular. After talking it over I said I'd prefer to break my water first & see what happened & she was great with that, but said she wanted to wait for Klint to get back first just in case things happened fast. I laughed remembering that when the induced me with Jameson they broke my water at 6pm & he was born at 4:20am. Klint was only about 15 mins away so they started the fluids I had to have before my epidural & once he got there they broke my water. It was about 9pm & we text/emailed our families to let them know what was going on. Almost immediately after they broke my water the hard contractions started & were coming right on top of each other. After a few mins I was ready for my epidural. They had drawn labs & they were a little worried about "the amount of blood I had" so they wanted to wait for my platelet count before getting the epidural. I sat on the edge of the bed, which made my contractions MUCH more bearable, & we waited. The lab said it would be 5 mins & it turned out to be almost an hour & a half. I was surprise how well I did while waiting, but I was VERY happy to finally get it. Then we settled in for what we assumed would be a long time. At this point it was 11pm & we figured we were in for a long night. Dr. Newman came in to check on things & I needed some more drugs to completely kill the pain at this point so while they got me that Dr. Newman recognized Klint's name & realized he sends her patients all the time. They settled in talking shop while I got more meds & finally was completely feeling good. They kept coming in & checking on my contractions to see if they could start the pitocin, but my contractions were coming way too hard & fast for them to be able to start it.

About 12:30am the nurse came in again to see about starting the pitocin & she said she still couldn't, but while she was there she might as well check to see if there was progress. I was starting to get really nauseous & started throwing up as she checked me and announced that I was complete. Once again I was totally shocked & was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that they hadn't sent me home. I was so numb I started to worry about how I was going to function enough to do this, but the nurse reassured me I could & had me do a few pushes. After 3 pushes she told me to stop & she went to get Dr. Newman. As she got gowned up she laughed when I kept saying "I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe you're not sending me home." Then she told me to push. She stopped me & asked "if all my kids were toe heads cause he had tons of blonde hair". We were so surprised cause both of our older boys were born with tons of black hair. Then it was time to push again. With a total of 3 pushes for the Dr there he was. I couldn't believe it. He was there. Laying right on me & Klint was getting to cut the cord for the first time. I had done it. All of the challenges we'd been through, all the ups & downs, & all the changing of doctors I knew I had been right. I had done a VBAC & it was a great experience. I now knew what all those people I had thought were crazy when they said labor & delivery were a great experience were talking about & they were right. As they cleaned him up on the other side of the room I watched & they shouted out stats. Born at 1:05am, 6lbs 3oz, 18 3/4 inches long, & apgar of 8 for color (which was pinking up). He was a little peanut, but he was perfectly healthy & screaming which is always a great sound. The Dr checked the computer one more time before leaving where she found my labs had finally come back & they all showed I was "starting to get really sick from the pre-eclampsia, but that was all ok now, cause we'd already taken care of the cause." Then they wrapped him up, gave him back to me. It was over, it was successful, peaceful, calm & our family had grown by one very important piece. 

Since it was 1 in the morning we text the family a picture & pulled out our laptop because we knew for my parents it was about 10am so we called them on Skype. We got my Mom who was in their apartment waiting for news while my dad was working in the mission office a few floors down. After showing her little Ryan & talking for a minute she said she was going to run downstairs to where my dad was & call us back. A minute later the call came through & we just held Ryan up to the camera so he could get a good look. He couldn't believe it. I guess my mom had forgotten to mention why she had run down to call us with him. He said he had thought, "who's baby is that". It was hard for all involved that we were on opposite sides of the world for this momentous occasion, but I was grateful for the circumstances that made it possible not only for us to call them, but that they were the first one's we got to talk to about it all. Made us especially grateful for Skype. Below are the first few pictures right from when little Ryan was born.

I look horrible between the whole swelling from pre-eclampsia & the whole labor & delivery thing, but I refuse to not take pics cause I look perfect so here's me holding my little bundle for the first time after he was cleaned up. 

Here's Daddy with his little boy for the first time after getting cleaned up.