I am finally getting around to blogging Rylie's birth story. I figure if I get it blogged before she is six months old, then I'm not doing too bad. She turns six months today. Haha LIFE GOT CRAZY. I know, excuses excuses. I'm doing it now. So I'd say I'm winning. Alexa:1 Life:0
*Keep in mind that this is how I journal, so there may be descriptions and pictures that are too "in detail" for you. This was one of the best days of my life, so I don't want to leave any details out so I can remember it forever. So if that's not your thing...maybe skip past this post. ;) also, due to lots of details and pictures it might be lengthy. Grab a diet coke, and hold on. Here we go.
The night before.
The night before having Rylie (Wednesday evening) I remember feeling so many emotions. I was scared to give birth because I had no idea what to expect. I was sad to no longer be pregnant and feel those kicks and jabs that are so incredible. I was sad to no longer be just Josh and Alexa. (I know, it sounds weird. I was really excited to have a baby..but it was going to change everything! For the better. Me & Josh just had so much fun together. Don't worry- now we have MORE fun with Ry around. But that's how I was feeling.) I was feeling excited. Excited to finally SEE what my baby girl would look like, and HOLD my baby girl and KISS my baby girl. See? So. Many. Emotions. Obviously I couldn't sleep, and Josh gave me a wonderful blessing that night that all would go well and I'd be able to get good rest so that I'd be able to do everything I needed to the following day. Boy did I marry up. Josh was amazing through EVERYTHING.
Last bump picture the night before!
Driving to the hospital on Thursday January 22nd was so exciting! We were driving to go have our baby!! It was bright and early, as we had a 7:40am check in. It was actually a really nice day for a Wisconsin January. It was 45 degrees as we were driving. Josh drove, I was in the passenger seat, and my mama was in the back seat. I think there were a lot of nerves in that car that morning...but we all played it off well. :) side-note: During my pregnancy, we found this song "Having My Baby" by Paul Anka and Odia Coates. It's an oldie, and it's hilarious. If you haven't heard it before, pause reading this post, go listen to it, and come back. That way you can get an understanding of what the car ride to the hospital was like. :) We would listen to that song and laugh and sing it and it was our little "pregnancy theme song" for months and months. Anyway- on the way to the hospital I decided to play it one last time while being pregnant. I was telling my mom about it and was like, "it's this hilarious oldie song. The first time Josh and I heard it we couldn't believe it was actually a real song. But now it's kinda become our song this pregnancy." I turned it on and....my mom knows every word to the song. Haha it was so great! So there we were driving to the hospital, with the three of us belting our song. It was perfect. And definitely helped my nerves.
Meriter Hospital. Room 473
We checked into the hospital a little late. Anyone who knows me knows I'm late for everything. So it was only fitting. #oops #7:45
I didn't have to go to triage since I was being induced. So that was nice. They immediately took me into the room where we would be welcoming our baby girl. It was really nice and felt cozy. I changed into the glamorous gown and climbed into the bed.
Moments later Dr. Stoffel, my OB came in to check me. I was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced. (Not surprised, because that's what I was at my appointment that Monday.) Since I was so effaced I didn't have to go through a "full induction". Normally, when women are induced it's because no progress is happening. I was clearly having progress being 3cm and almost all the way effaced. Inducing me was basically just to kick my contractions into high gear. After she checked me my first nurse (Jackie) started my IV to start pumping fluids in me. I'll admit, this was the only time through my whole pregnancy of getting jabbed with needles, and through all of the giving birth process where I thought I might pass out. Haha Josh left to go walk around (good timing) and my mom sat next to me while Jackie was on the other side doing my IV. I was doing fine, and then all of the sudden I was HOT. Like all over. Sweating and all. I told the nurse, "I'm feeling really hot all of the sudden" and she quickly looked at me and said, "ok that's a sign you might pass out..take some deep breaths". LUCKILY like 5 seconds after that she was done and I started to feel better. The IV hurt afterwards! She did it in my hand, and it was burning where it was inserted into my hand. I remember thinking...maybe my contractions won't hurt because I'll be so focused on how bad this IV hurts! (Oh poor little naive me) At 9am she started me on Pitocin on like a level 5. I was having regular contractions, but nothing too painful. Josh and I would walk the halls to kill time. Everything seemed so surreal.
At 11:10 Dr. Stoffel broke my water. WEIRDEST FEELING. Didnt hurt at all..but I didn't really expect that huge...gush (for lack of a better word). Almost immediately after she broke my water my contractions started being more painful. I decided I wanted to walk the halls again. Mistake. Luckily Josh went with me, and each time I would start to have a contraction I would immediately stop and grab onto the side rail and onto Josh and want to die. And I hated that I was in the open hallway where people would walk by (mostly other mamas also trying to make progress) while I was having the most painful pain I've ever felt. Super embarrassing. Haha I told Josh I wanted to turn around and go lay back down. He talked me into walking the hallway one more time. It was a U shape and I felt like that was asking me to climb Mt. Everest. Part of me wanted to punch him. Part of me knew he was right. Walking would help and between contractions it actually felt really good to be walking around. Well, my contractions were two min apart...so I was basically gripping onto the side rail trying to breathe through contractions that last pass through the U of the hallway. When we finally made it back into the room my contractions were super intense. I have never felt a pain like that before, and can't really describe it.
Dr. Stoffel came in to check on me once again and she could see I was in a lot of pain. She asked if I wanted her to check my progress and I said yes. She said I was a four...allllmost a 5. FOUR. That's all I heard. I couldn't believe that after the contractions I was having and the pain that was felt that I had only progressed 1 almost 2cm. Earlier the anesthesiologist had come in and introduced herself and walked me through the process of an epidural. She told me, when you are to the point where you don't think you can hold still through 3 contractions..call me in to do it. It will take me about the length of 3 contractions to do the epidural...and I WILL NOT do it if you can't hold still. At this point I didn't know how much longer I could "hold still", and basically how I got through my contractions at this point was holding onto Josh and rocking back and forth.. so I asked my nurse to call down for my epidural. It took probably 15 min for her to get to my room and have everything set up and ready to go. I WAS TERRIFIED FOR MY EPIDURAL. Seriously for 9 months I freaked out about it! I hate needles. I got used to them in my arms from the blood draws and shots during pregnancy..but I think I had heard one to many horror stories about the epidural needle, that I was terrified. I loved my anesthesiologist! She knew I was scared and she was so calm and walked me through everything. I was also nervous about Josh, because he also hates needles. So beforehand I told him he could step into the hallway if he needed to while I got my epidural. But he stayed in there and sat in front of me and held me and was so great and supportive! We were both champs during it! ;) at 12:46pm I got my epidural. It was not bad at all! All I felt was the sting of the numbing needle. And let me tell you...about 20 min later... I WAS IN HEAVEN. haha This is me after my epidural was fully working. Epidurals are amazing.
They kept rotating me on my left and right side (like a rotisserie chicken) to keep the numbness balanced. By 3 o'clock the epidural was working great on both sides! They kept doing this ice pack test where they would touch my legs all the way up to my tummy with an ice pack and ask me if I could feel it. Just after 3pm my second nurse came on, Katie. She is my favorite...and luckily she was the nurse during the delivery as well. But we will come back to her. At 3:50 they checked me again and I was dilated to a 6. Progress! However, we noticed that my contractions started slowing down...which was weird because they had been so regular. So at 4:10pm they inserted a vaginal contraction monitor, and after that decided that my contractions hadn't slowed down, but that the tummy monitor just wasn't working. (PHEW!) At 5:23pm they cranked my pitocin up to 18! (I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly..it maxes out at 20.) Dr. Stoffel came in again to check on me and baby and she kept saying, "her heart rate is stellar!" Haha it kept making us laugh that she kept referring to baby's heart rate as "stellar". I loved Dr. Stoffel throughout my entire pregnancy. She was a very sweet lady, and I really appreciated how often she kept coming in to check on me during the labor process (because I know that some people don't see their Drs until it's time to catch the baby!) At 5:45pm I was dilated to an 8. Since everything was going according to schedule they cranked my pitocin up to 20! (HIGHEST LEVEL--did I mention how amazing an epidural is?) Sometime around all of this my dad made it into Madison! It was so great having him there. My favorite part was that each time someone would come in to check on me (when I finally started pushing) they'd say, "who's the guy out there burning a track on the floor in the hallway?" My dad. :) He's a pacer. Haha
At 6:30pm Dr. Stoffel came in with another doctor, Dr. Sample, and told me that at 7:30pm she would be off her shift and that Dr. Sample would be taking over. I was so sad. I knew I wouldn't be having this baby in an hour. I really really really wanted MY Dr, the one who had been dealing with me my entire pregnancy, to deliver my baby. But I knew from the beginning that it could be any of the 6 Drs at their office that could deliver me...it would just depend on who was on call. So I agreed and tried to not let it get me down. Little did I know that I would LOVE Dr. Sample! ((more than my original Dr! Oops!))
At 7:10 Dr. Stoffel came in to check me (one last time) and I had done it. I WAS A 10! 10cm dilated. It. Was. Time. Dr. Stoffel then gave me the option to wait and let it continue to ripen at a 10 for a bit, or to start pushing. I was SO ready to meet my baby. Why wait any longer when I had made it to the goal line? Plus-part of me thought that if I started pushing that maybe I would have her by 7:30pm before Dr. Stoffel's shift ended. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Again, poor naive me.) So I said, "I want to start pushing, let's do this!" Well they had to set some things up before I started pushing..so I didn't even start pushing until 7:29pm- so at this point it was clear Dr. Sample would be delivering my baby. I didn't care- I was so excited it was time! I started pushing with my nurse Katie leading me. Josh was up at my head holding my neck and helping count while I would push. Katie was next to him holding my left leg, and my mom was on my right holding my right leg. You guys, it was seriously the dream team. I couldn't have asked for a better support system! The whole pushing process was weird. I didn't really know if I was doing it right and kept asking the nurse if I was. She would smile and say, "you are doing great!" Dr. Sample came in to see how pushing was going. (She was amazing and would come in and check on me so much! Even towards the end, she probably stayed in the room for the last hour and a half! I loved her!) They wanted me to push 3 times for 10 seconds each. After the third set of 10, I'd always do one more! Haha I was feeling good, and just wanted to work extra hard to get that little girl out of there!! They would smile at me and the resident (I feel bad, I can't remember her name) even said..."I knew when I saw her she'd be a good pusher!" Hahaha Josh was getting so excited too..and so he would cheer me on and tell me to "keep pushing harder!" And the nurse Katie (playfully) hit Josh! Haha Afterwards she said, "oops, I probably shouldn't hit the dad-to-be!" I loved the laughter and emotion that was going on in the delivery room. Between contractions and pushing I would lay back and just smile. I was so happy in this moment and wanting to take it all in. Katie said to me, "I have never had a patient who smiles through her contractions! I'm going to remember you!!" I don't know if it was just me, but I feel like they kept saying, "we can see her! She's so close!"...for like 3 hours. I wanted to just say...THEN GRAB HER! But I didn't. Haha I pushed for 3 1/2 hours. Towards the end I was starting to really feel it. I just kept saying, "there's just so much pressure". Haha my mom joked that they probably have never heard that one! ;) Katie said to me while we were waiting for the next contraction.."so...I get off in 15 min and I reallllly want to meet your baby!" Towards the end baby's hear rate started to dip...so Dr. Sample threatened to cut me if I didn't get her out in the next contraction. I did NOT want to be cut...so after two more pushes she was here!!
11:03pm
I can't even really describe the moment of 11:03. It was such an emotional, spiritual, out of body experience. Sometimes I close my eyes and try to relive that moment. I never want to forget it and how I felt. The moment she was out everyone in the room cheered. It was so sweet. She only gave one little cry (my dad said he could hear it in the hallway) and then she was perfectly content.
In the picture above you can see my favorite nurse Katie, Dr. Sample, and a really terrible picture of me. But this was seriously seconds after they placed her on my chest. I was surprised by how warm she was. I felt so complete. And bawled my eyes out. I couldn't believe how much I loved her!!! But can we also pause for a second and talk about Josh's reaction? This I didn't see coming. He might kill me for blogging it, but it is seriously my favorite memory with him..and only made me fall more in love with him. He was very emotional. I think it was a combo of seeing his baby girl for the first time, and also a huge part that she was here safe and that I was okay and doing good. He was pretty stressed, but didn't show it the whole day. He was such a great support to me through the whole thing. I'm the luckiest.
Josh cut the cord (the picture of him doing that shows a little more of me than I'd like to share, so I won't be posting that one. ;) ) Initially he was unsure if he wanted to do it...but in the moment he didn't give it a second thought. We were both glad that he did. It was a special moment. They let me hold her on my chest for some "skin on skin" time for about an hour. I seriously felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Apparently I tore inside in 3 places and was getting stitched up...but I didn't even pay attention to what was going on. I couldn't stop staring at my perfect baby. Don't mind my mascara running all over my face. (Note to self...WATERPROOF MASCARA. Haha)
After about an hour they took baby to do all her measurements and her little footprints. Josh got to help with the footprints and it was so cute!
She weighed 7lbs 8 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Perfection. Also, she hated being naked. Haha
Josh wiping off her little feet after they did the footprints. Then my dad got to come in the room and meet "little girl". She still wasn't named at this point. We wanted to see her and get to know her a little before we named her.
I just sat in my bed and cried watching everyone meeting my baby girl. It was such a special moment and I was so grateful my parents could both be there.
The DREAM TEAM. Seriously couldn't have done it without them.
We were officially a family of three. :)
The outpouring of love we received after announcing our baby girl was here was amazing. This was our best day yet.
xoxo,
The Stewarts (party of THREE!)
