SHE'S HERE! Our Birth Story

SHE'S FINALLY HERE!!!

Our little darling made her debut!

Little Miss Rowan

June 18, 2013

5:11pm

8 pounds, 20 inches

Virginia

We couldn't be more thrilled to have her with us at last! She is such a miracle; a true dream come true.

& already such a daddy's girl!

Here's how our girl came into the world:

Remember that story I told you about how I thought I'd peed my pants on the walk on June 17th?

Well, at about 3 am on June 18th I awoke from my sleep with realllllyyyy bad abdominal cramps. I tried to fall back asleep but I couldn't! In the course of an hour these cramps started coming in intervals.. there was no doubt in my mind: these were contractions.

Not wanting to wake Rob until absolutely necessary, I paced through our apartment until about 6 am, keeping time in between the contractions. They were irregular, but already mostly 5-7 minutes apart. I kept a log on my phone and sent it to my BF Ashley, an RN. Luckily, she was up and working... and she told me to get to the hospital!

When Rob woke up and saw me pacing in pain he knew it was time. I called the birthing center and told them my situation and the nurse told me to come in and get checked out. In no hurry, because I all the sudden had cold feet, I took my time getting my things together and showering while Rob frantically got his things together in excitement.  

By the time we left the apartment at about 7:45 am the contractions were already 3-4 minutes apart and getting progressively more intense. I got all checked in and hooked up to a contraction monitor. Of course, my once frequent contractions slowed down to like, 12 minutes apart and the nurse said I was only one centimeter dilated. She said OB doctor on-call wanted me to get up and walk around and see if we could see some progress before she made her rounds in about 2 hours.

The 2 hours came and went and we walked through the halls of the birthing center- we were the only ones there! The OB on-call came in at about 11:30 am to check me out- still only one centimeter. She said to give it two more hours and if nothing progresses she'll send us home. Before she left, she asked if I had experienced any "leaking fluid" and I said 

"I don't think so, but last night I felt a little something. It was only a little so I'm sure it was nothing"

duuuhhh. SO dumb. She had the nurse run a test to see if it was some of my water and what do you know IT WAS!

All of the sudden we went from possibly going home to the doctor saying:

"Okay we're going to need to induce labor to get things moving; lie back, we're going to break the rest of your water"

WHAT. 

I was not prepared for this. We were not prepared for this. Rob held my hand and all of the sudden there were four nurses in our birthing suite hooking me up to all sorts of things. The doc broke my water, and, let me tell you, that was an experience. Suddenly, I was dilated to 3.5 centimeters. They started pitocin through my IV and the contractions came back slowly but surely.

The nurse, seeing the look of pure shock on our faces, smiled and said

"you get to meet your baby today"

...

At about 2:30 pm, after about 12 hours of labor, I finally caved and pleaded asked for an epidural.

I was only 4 centimeters dilated but in so much pain from that pitocin!

I was so out of it I wasn't even scared of that enormous needle going in my spine. Rob and our nurse held my hands and by 3 pm the anesthesiologist got me all set up - pain FREE! It was amazing. I was even able to doze off a bit - but not for long.

My own OB doctor took over my case and said that the baby was not coming down as much as she'd like, the contractions were still not as close together as they wanted them to be, and that Ro's heart rate had started to decline. She said they would keep and eye on it for the next hour or so. We were obviously concerned but hoped for the best. 

She came back in after about an hour and said she was really uncomfortable with her low heart rate. She tried to get her to move but even that didn't really help much. That, paired with the fact she wasn't dropping, our doctor said she wanted to go ahead and do a cesarean. She reassured us that, although relatively urgent, this was not an emergency and they wouldn't be rushing through the procedure. She said she was assembling a very experienced surgical team and they were going to take really good care of us.

We were both so scared. I started to cry. I didn't want anything to happen to our sweet baby! & this was not going to be a routine c-section. I know Rob was trying to stay strong for me, but when I saw him come back from the hallway to call our families, I saw that he had been crying too! We said a prayer and got ready to meet our little girl.

ready to go!

Within the hour, we were all ready to go into the OR. They wheeled me back first and put the spinal meds through my epi. Completely numb. The team was so nice and made me feel really comfortable. They let Rob into the room with me and he held my hand.

After a little while, the anesthesiologist by my head said 

"You're going to feel a lot of pressure on your chest, like someone is standing on you"

from the other side of the curtain, I heard my doctor say 

"She's about to be born... She's opening her eyes!" 

I didn't really feel the pressure he was talking about, but all the sudden they lifted her up from other side of the curtain and we heard her very first cries... which sparked our first proud-parent tears!

Rob watched as they got her all cleaned up. I couldn't see anything; I just laid there wondering if that really just happened. I couldn't believe it. The nurse walked over and placed her swaddled in Rob's arms. 

It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Rob was just beaming, of course.

I can't remember who put her on my chest.. I think it was Rob... by that time I was a little out of it.

I remember saying 

"Oh my God! Hi, baby! She's so cute."

doesn't she look happy to meet me?

Not really what I planned on saying.. but I was so exhausted and on such a baby high I was sort of speechless. One of the team members offered to take our family picture, and I'm so glad he did!

our first family photo! just a few tears of joy...

I got to hold her for a few minutes and then they gave her back to Rob. A nurse led him back to our birthing suite where they were going to clean her up a bit more get weight, height, etc. I stayed in the OR while they finished up the procedure (I actually fell asleep!) Then I was off to recovery! I stayed there for about an hour , where they pushed on my belly every 15 minutes (ouch!). 

When I finally got back to the birthing suite, Rob & Rowan were waiting for me! Rob was holding her like he'd been doing it his whole life. It was so sweet. I have to admit, I was a little jealous of their bonding time while I was dealing with all the surgery stuff :/ But SO grateful for a happy healthy girl and successful surgery!

 

My nurse quickly put Ro on my chest just under my gown and I finally got my bonding time with my little girl.

pretty fresh after 14 hours of labor, eh? ;)

Later that night, Rob's mom, dad, and brother came in and got to meet her on her birth day! 

We were so grateful to have had them there to celebrate with us.
& share in the new-baby cuteness!

 

Since then, I've been recovering well and we've been adjusting to life with a newborn. 

We are SO in love with our little girl.

Thank you to everyone who kept us in your thoughts & prayers. We so appreciate you lifting us up in hopes of a happy, healthy, family :) & most importantly...

Thank You, God!

xox,

    Riley & Rob (& Rowan)