Saturday, August 08, 2009

Baby's Here!

Wow, it's been quite a whirlwind in the last 19 hours!

Yesterday, I went to my doctor's appointment shortly before 1pm and after my examine, she asked if I had my stuff for the hospital in the car. Whoa! Talk about a surprise. I was already dilated 5cm - ah, that's half way there. So, needless to say, Chris and I went home to top off the suitcase, spend some childless time with the pups, and get some odds and ends in the house in order.

The doctor checked in around 4:30pm to see if we were ready to go. I had been having some consistent back pain about every 7 minutes, so she thought it would be beneficial to head to the hospital and I definitely wouldn't make it until Monday without having our little guy! So, we took our last childless picture and headed out to the hospital. Oh look, even the dogs are looking at the camera. Boy, are they in for a surprise when we get home tomorrow!Everything seemed so anti-climactic on our drive to the hospital. There was no rush in the middle of the night or water breaking in a gush in the house, just getting in the car and taking our time during the 10 minute drive to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, they were ready for us and I changed into the ever-beautiful hospital gown and got a quick check over. There were moms-to-be in obvious pain walking the halls. I felt like I should've had my running shoes on as we began our walk around the hospital floor as my pain from contractions was nothing but a 1 on and scale of 1 to 10. After one lap, the nurse suggested we head back into the room and the resident on call was going to break my water to hopefully get things moving along. Well, that was something else, no need to expand on the details here. Ask me and I'll tell you about it. From there, the contractions did start to increase in frequency and strength. We were looking at about a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. The exercise ball was my new friend. After that, things started to progress on the pain scale with the addition of pitocin to my hospital cocktail. Things got a little tougher to stick out. By 10:30ish, I was looking for that epidural. My dilation hadn't really changed much, but the contractions were rough. I did the best I could but when the nurse said it would only get worse, more drugs sounded like the best option in the comfort department. Life WAS much more bearable once that hit my system.

Between 11pm and 12:30am, things moved quickly from 6cm to 10cm. This little guy was ready to make his appearance in the world! After about 35 minutes of pushing, we met Ryder Thomas. A healthy little boy weighing in at 7lbs 9oz and measuring 20.5inches. I was lucky this little guy was riding low for the tail end of my pregnancy, evidently, that made the time I had to push much, much less than a normal first-time mom with an epidural. When I think back to hearing the nurse say the average is between 1 and 3 hours, I couldn't even imagine. I guess I was pretty lucky.

Chris was a great support during the whole process and when things quieted down about 4am, we couldn't believe everything that happened and we ended up with this cute little boy that's ours! Amazing. I'm so excited to see our little guy grow and change in the days, months, and years ahead!!

8 comments:

Stefanie said...

Congrats again Dria and Chris! He's a lucky lil man to have you both as parents!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Dria. He is adorable.

alice said...

AWWW! Congrats I can't wait to meet him.
AND, what a perfect name for your little guy! I love it!!!

Amanda said...

I love that his name has a cycling reference built in!!! Dria & Chris ~ a huge congrats!! I am so excited for you guys. Can't wait to meet him!

YAY! I'm beaming for/with/about you...

Becky said...

Congratulations! Everyone looks happy and healthy!

Ellen said...

Congrats! What a cute little guy. He definitely has mom's nose. Can't wait to meet him!

So happy and excited for you!

Gina said...

Congratulations! He's a cutie. Can't wait to meet him in person.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! What a beautiful baby boy! Enjoy every minute with him... they go by fast.