Ryan's Birth Story 10.29.2014

I really want to write out Ryan's birth story while it is fresh on my mind. I always think that I will never forget anything but it was so nice to go back and read Charlotte's because I forgot so much of hers. This is a long post, you have been warned. :)

Anyway, back to Ryan. If you follow me on Instagram you know how ready I was to have this baby. The anticipation of not know if we were having a boy or girl was so exciting but I was also so ready to not be pregnant anymore. For months people thought I was full term and I got so many comments daily. Now I know how Dan feels because he gets height comments daily. I was in a lot of pain because my stomach was so big and sleeping was difficult. Being pregnant is amazing and I am so grateful for the experience because it is all truly a miracle, but when I hit 37 week I was done and waiting anxiously to go into labor. At 34 weeks we had a sonogram and it showed that the baby was measuring at 39 weeks. It was 7 lbs 15 oz already and when according to my Baby Center app it should be around 4.5 lbs. Needless to say, I was freaking out. The sonographer said that these sonograms are always off, and my doctor said the same thing.  I had Charlotte at 37 weeks and my doctor said that I should go into labor around the same time as I did with her. 37 weeks came and went and we were on pins and needles waiting. My brother was in town for two weeks and no baby, my mom came into town, no baby. Everyone went home and I went into freak out mode of what to do if I do go into labor and no one else was here. We had plenty of friends willing to help but there is something about having your mom there to ease your mind.

This shows how big I was at the end! Taken a couple of days before Ryan's birth day.

When 38 weeks hit we tried everything to naturally induce labor. Long walks, spicy food, massage, acupuncture, pedicures, pineapple, every old wives tale out there and nothing.  I had a ton of false alarms but nothing that would continue on. On Tuesday I was scheduled for the final growth sonogram to determine the size of the baby. They took all the measurements and said that the baby would be around 8 lbs 15 oz.  I did not want a c section but we had decided that if they thought the baby was under 9.5 pounds we would choose to try to deliver naturally. When it came time to talk to my doctor we decided that she would agree to induce me the next day due to very high fluid levels. We were so thrilled.  We called my mom and told her to get back down to Austin because we were finally having a baby!

We had to snap this before heading to the hospital

Wednesday morning came and we went to the hospital to get induced. I was almost 6 cm at the time! I had pretty strong contractions for a long time the night before but wanted to get some sleep before the next morning. We got checked in and at 9:30 they broke my water that was quickly followed with an epidural. I love epidurals. I got it early enough that I didn't really feel any strong contractions before they started. I almost felt like I was cheating labor. At 11:30 they started pitocin and then had to stop an hour later because my contractions were too close together. Around 2:00 I was at 10 cm but they wanted to wait a little longer to let the baby drop some more so I wouldn't have to push long. At 3:00 they brought the delivery team of what seemed like 35 people to watch me push and deliver our baby. Everyone is always so encouraging. Saying, "you can do this!" "you've got this!" "push a little harder!" Our one request was that Dan say "It's a boy/girl!" first before anyone said anything. That was the only part of any sort of birth plan we had. That is how I imagined it would go. The baby would come out, Dan would tell me what it was and they would lay the baby on my chest. To me that is one of the most magical experiences in life.  My vote was boy and Dan's was girl almost this entire pregnancy. We should have made a bet...

I pushed for about 10 minutes and when Ryan's head was coming out everyone was so excited and yelling for me to keep pushing and then things turned. What I remember is my doctor screaming to pull the emergency cord in the room to get NICU in there and a nurse jumping on top of me and pushing as hard as she could on my stomach and my pelvis. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. My doctor kept yelling "EMERGENCY!!" as the nurses in the room were screaming for me to push as hard as I could while the ninja nurse on top of me was pushing down on my pelvis. At this moment I thought that 1) our baby was dying and 2) that the nurse was breaking my pelvis but I wanted them to do anything to get the baby out. Then baby came out everyone yelled "It's a boy!!" and the NICU team rushed him away and Dan came to my side and prayed for our baby. We had no idea what had just happened. We didn't hear Ryan cry, we didn't get to see him, and didn't know if he was ok.

Finally, Ryan let out a scream and we knew he was ok. What had happened was his shoulder got stuck on my pelvis and the nurse jumped on top of me to literally try to break his shoulders to get him out. It was later explained to me that if he had taken his first breath during this time he could have suffocated and I could have started hemorrhaging. By the grace of God, he entered the world without broken shoulders and hopefully no long term damage. Right now Ryan's right arm won't move and the doctors think it is just nerve damage that will repair with time. It is called shoulder dystocia.  He can move his fingers but not his arm. It doesn't seem like he is in pain and we do believe it will just take time to get feeling back.  We could have a long road of physical therapy with the possibility of surgery later on but right now we are taking it one step at a time and trying not to worry too much.

As the nurses were standing over him doing their thing with newborns they asked what we expected his weight to be and I said 9 pounds. They all said that there is no way this baby was 9 pounds. They weighed him and he was 11 pounds 13 ounces. I think Dan and I were in shock. I still can't get over the fact that I pushed out a baby the size of a two month old.  Every person we see asks if I had a c-section. Um no...I probably should have because I never would have tried to deliver naturally knowing how big he was. I think sometimes it's good to be naive in these situations. And I was worried about him being 10 pounds. Now that seems like nothing. When Dan was born he was 11 pound 14 ounces but 2 weeks late. Ryan was 11 pounds 13 ounces a week and a half early. Thank goodness my doctor agreed to induce early. Ryan easily could have been almost 13 pounds.

Due to his size he had low blood sugar for the first 24 hours so he had to eat every three hours until it came up but now he is doing great and eating 3-4 ounces every feeding.

Our family is complete with Ryan now. Charlotte is smitten with him and doesn't seem too phased that we have Ryan in our house now. We quickly adjusted to life with a newborn again and have agreed that it's much easier the second time around!

Welcome to the family, Ryan!!