Our Baby Story

As I'm sure you all know by now, we had the baby! It has been such an amazing experience. Having a baby has been better than I ever could have imagined. Little Ryan is so cute and seems to be getting cuter everyday. Tonight is our last night in the hospital and we head home tomorrow morning at 8am. Our hospital stay has been fantastic. The nurses here are so nice and the atmosphere is so relaxed. Also, they have free snacks 24/7! You can't go wrong with free snacks!

My post last Wednesday seems a little ironic now. Having the baby come so soon was a surprise to say the least. I went home from work on Wednesday evening and ate dinner with Zach. After dinner, Zach headed off to play golf with his brother and our sister-in-law. My plan was to watch a movie we rented from Red Box and just take it easy. I finished cleaning up from dinner and decided to take a nap before watching the movie. I was asleep for about an hour and a half when I felt a little wet (TMI? sorry about that.) I decided I probably needed to get to the bathroom but when I stood up, water came gushing out! It was unreal. I really could not believe what was happening. I knew right away, without a doubt, that my water broke. I called Zach on the golf course and told him, "My water just broke, this is not a joke, come home now!" (I will have to have Zach write his version of this story. Apparently, he was at the furthest hole from the parking lot and had to sprint across several greens to get home.) After realizing that the gushing was not going to stop, I made it to the bathroom and called my mom. Of course she was excited/freaking out, but I cut our conversation short and called the doctor and the hospital to let them know I was on my way. Then my sweet neighbor, Michelle, saved the day and came over and helped me get everything together to go to the hospital. Thanks Mimi!

As soon as Zach got home, we rushed out the door and headed to the hospital. It was very strange to realize that things were actually happening. I hadn't started contractions or anything, so I was able to just chat with Zach the whole time to keep my mind off of the situation. When we got to the hospital, the nurses took one look at me and admitted us right away. There was no question as to whether or not my water broke seeing as the whole back of me was soaked. I was really impressed at how calm and efficient everyone was. They got me a room and before I knew it I was in a hospital gown and getting hooked up to an IV. When they checked my water they realized that the baby had gone to the bathroom in utero (bad news!). It wasn't heavy so they were not too concerned, but the doctor wanted the baby monitored from the inside ASAP. Since this is a very painful procedure, they had the anesthesiologist come and give me an epidural right away. Getting that epidural put in was probably the most uncomfortable part of the whole thing!

With my epidural in place, they started me on Pitocin to get my contractions going. (When your water breaks, they want to deliver the baby within 24 hours to avoid infection and since my body wasn't laboring on it's own, inducing was the only alternative.) Not long after the Pitocin and epidural started flowing, my blood pressure dropped dramatically and the baby's heartbeat dropped from over 160 bpm to just 70 bpm. It was very scary. All the nurses rushed in and the anesthesiologist came back to lower the dosage of the epidural and give me medicine to make my blood pressure go up. They also stopped the flow of Pitocin because the baby was not reacting well to that either. The baby stabilized and my contractions stopped. They continued to play around with the Pitocin level and epidural for another 12 exhausting hours. At about 7:30am the next day things started to get really scary. Every time I would contract, the baby's heart rate would drop dramatically and then shoot up way high. It was a blessing that I was so tired from the night before because I don't think I really grasped what was going on. Without any hesitation, the doctor and nurses decided that I needed an emergency C-section right away.

In no time I was prepped and on the operating table. They had Zach wear this hilarious looking jumpsuit complete with a hat and mask. After a few minutes, they had the baby out and he was crying. I was really surprised at how fast it all happened. As they were getting the baby out, I heard the doctor say, "Here's the culprit, his umbilical cord is tied in an actual knot and it was around his neck." That crazy baby. I guess in all his moving around over the past nine months, he managed to get himself in quite the pickle. Once the baby was born, Zach went with him to get all washed up and cared for. I stayed in the operating room and they stitched me up. I was so exhausted, I think I fell asleep on the operating table.

After the operation was over, they took me to our room and Zach and the baby met me there. The baby passed all his tests with flying colors and is perfectly healthy in every way. What a blessing!

Like I said, we are so happy to have little Ryan safely here. The past few days in the hospital have been amazing and we are so excited to get him home tomorrow. My mom is here to help out and we are excited for her to spend the next couple weeks with us. Ryan loves his grandma!

Sorry this post has gone on for so long, but I just really wanted to get all this down before I forget. Expect more updates and pictures of Ryan in the future. We are basically obsessed with our little man and are ready to embrace our new dorky family blog status to the fullest. Enjoy!