He's Here! He's Here! He's Here!

Sorry it's taken so long for me to get this out but man has it been one non-stop week. I'm going to try and do my best with this post but please keep in mind that I am very much lacking sleep because this "little" guy has his days and nights reversed so it may not be the best post.

The big news is that Ryan made his grand entrance into the world on Saturday, October 17th at 4:15am, after a mere 68 hours of labor! He came in weighing 8lbs 12oz (not far off from our last ultrasound measurements a week prior that showed him being 8.8!) and measuring 22 INCHES long. We are still trying to visualize where he was, but are now more understanding as to why I was heading towards the bathroom every 5 minutes . . . I had a MOOSE on my bladder!

The "short" version . . .

Steve, Breanna and I got to the hospital Thursday morning and of course started out downhill. They could not find my veins to start the IV. GRRR 6 pokes later, and finally done by anesthesia, they were able to get the needle in and ready to go. My contractions were already 2-5 minutes apart, I was feeling them but was not in pain. They came in to check me and I was still only at about 1cm and my cervix was not very effaced at all. They inserted a magic pill that was suppose to help soften my cervix. I knew then it was going to be a long day, little did I realize just how long. We watched a lot of tv, walked the halls, tried to rest. I asked my nurse what the typical time frame was for people that were forcing induction, I should have known better when her response was "Are you sure you really want to know?" She told me 2-3 days typically but she thought I would have him by Friday morning. With this news, we decided that Steve would leave and go to Breanna's last volleyball game which we thought we would miss. This would also give me some much needed quiet time to try and get some rest while I could. Around 8pm they finally came in and started me on Pitocin, which also meant no more food for me. Steve and Breanna (who ended up winning their last game yippee! just wish I got to see it) got back to the hospital around 8:45 and we settled in for a long night. Around 11pm or so my mom and Steve's mom decided that they were going to leave for the night and headed back to Sandy's house with Breanna. Since she only lived about 15 minutes from the hospital this made much more sense than driving the 45 minutes back to our house. It was a very long night with many interruptions. Around 4am Steve ended up leaving and going into work because he needed to get payroll done for his guys and the wireless on my laptop was not working. Around this time they gave me some Ambian to help me sleep, too bad it didn't work. After Steve finished doing what he needed to, he ended up taking a little catnap in the car before coming back in. Yep, I said in the car. He said he probably got about 2 hours there. Kinda sad that in order to get sleep you have to turn to your car.

Friday ended up being another very very long day. The moms and Breanna got back to the hospital around 10am and waited out in the waiting room for some 'good news'. . . and waited and waited and waited. Around 1:45pm the nurse came in and gave me a shot of morphine in hopes that I would sleep. I got about 2 hours of interrupted sleep then Steve and I started walking the halls again. Finally at 6:30pm they came in and broke my water. Woohoo there was finally an end in sight. The BAM instant pain from the regular contractions I was still having. Because of this I got my epidural fairly quickly, unfortunately it did not take very well. It did take the edge off, for a while, but the pain was back worse than before so they brought him back in and turned up the dose.

Around 2am they came in to check me and I was about 9 and was feeling the urge to push so we started trying. Two hours later I was D-O-N-E and BEGGING for a c-section to just have it over, I mean it had only been 68 hours since this whole fun started I thought I was entitled. I was VERY lucky because at Kaiser, midwives typically deliver you when. Well it just so happened that Dr G was on-call when we delivered. YAHOO!!! She has been with us through our journey over the last 3+ years so it was a very nice surprise to have her there. She did not let me give in and do the section, in fact after she got to my room I pushed maybe 3 times and Ryan was here. It took a whole 15 minutes from the time she got into my room until Ryan was born. Steve said you could see the relief on my face at the sight of her coming in. She even got Steve to see Ryan crowning, coming out AND cut his cord, all things he was determined he was not going to do.

They cleaned me up and Steve went out and brought the big sister in to finally meet her baby brother. Breanna was actually afraid to hold him (at first) and just wanted to look at him. I'm pretty sure this also had to do with the fact that he did not yet have his bath and was just wiped off. After Breanna's visit he went out and brought both moms, who never left the waiting room after getting there Friday morning, in. Around 6am we were transferred to our room where we stayed until Sunday before getting discharged.

Of course the discharge couldn't go easy either, I mean it wouldn't make sense for something to come easy for us would it? They would not let us leave until Ryan pooped! He had pooped once right after he was born and then had not since. So we sat and sat and sat. Came to the realization that I was probably going to stay another night and that Steve was probably going to have to take Breanna home and stay with her to get her off to school Monday. Luckily just as they took a walk to Subway to grab some sandwiches, Ryan pooped! YIPPEE WE WERE GOING HOME!!!!

The rest of the week was pretty much a blur. We had to go back to the dr on Tuesday to make sure that Ryan was gaining weight vs losing and he was. He went from 8.12 at birth to 8.9 when we left the hospital and on Tuesday he was 8.10. The dr also thought he looked a tad jaundice so we were sent to the lab for bloodwork. Sure enough his level had risen since being born but thankfully it was not high enough to need any medical attention, just some sunlight and getting him to poop more.

All in all we are adjusting well. Ryan has his nights and days mixed up so hopefully that gets turned around soon. Breanna has taken to him better than we could have ever imagined. We always knew she loved kids and babies especially but we were a tad afraid of how she would react to Ryan after being the ONLY one for 13 years. Thankfully it has worked out in our favor, at least for now.

I can not believe he is already a week old! His belly button cord stump already fell off which Breanna and Steve are thrilled about since "it was so gross". Breanna is in love with her baby brother and is still referring to him as Pokey. In fact as soon as she walks in the door from school she yells "It's Pokey time!" I am very thankful for this because it could have easily gone in the opposite direction. I am very lucky to have two fantastic kids.

Ryan goes back to the dr this Friday and I'm anxious to see how much more he has grown.