Seven Weeks Earlier …

Say hello to Ryan, who is 13 pounds and about 23 inches long these days. He is a good little brother who loves to eat, sleep and be held by just about anyone. He does enjoy his alone time, just not for too long. Fortunately for me, he has transitioned to sleeping in his bassinette fairly well. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been for more than 3 or 4 hours at time, and pretty much only at night. But I will take what I can get, just don’t expect much coherence from me most days.

Seven weeks ago …

I went in for a regular doctor’s appointment on May 22 and my doctor asked me if I was ready to have a baby. At 39 weeks and 2 days, the answer was yes. I’d had some contractions the day before, but they didn’t stick around. After that false alarm, I decided to take up my doctor on his offer to induce me. So when he asked this time, I was ready to say yes. What I wasn’t quite ready for was his, “Do you want to have him today?” Ummm … OK. He called the hospital to make sure it was OK. I called my mom, and Jared went briefly back to work to prepare for baby day.

It was about 4 o’clock by the time we made it to the hospital. After getting all registered and admitted, it was about 5 p.m. The original plan was for my doctor to come break my water and then we were pretty sure my body would take care of the rest. My doctor was delayed by some patients at the office, and wasn’t able to come when he wanted to, so the nurses started me on pitocin until he was able to come by at 6:15 to break my water.

Because Sarah’s delivery came so quickly, and I wasn’t able to have a epidural as planned, this time around I chose not to have one. I really liked being able to feel my legs and walk around post delivery, and I felt like I recovered better without the epidural. Plus, armed with the knowledge that my labor was likely to be quite short, I decided to go unmedicated with Ryan as well.

I guess I wasn’t as clear to the nurses as I should have been, because they were surprised that I was ready to deliver less than an hour later after my water was broken. Maybe that attributed to them being a little more scatterbrained, because they only called my doctor’s cell phone and didn’t try any other numbers. He was sitting by his home phone waiting for the call and the nurses didn’t try any other number. (They kept telling me how unusual it was for him not to call back right away. I didn’t think to mention to them that maybe they should call a different contact number since he didn’t respond to earlier messages. My doctor, to this day, is still annoyed and irritated by this.)

At any rate, through no fault of his own, my doctor missed Ryan’s delivery. (Ironic, since he also missed Sarah’s. That time was because of traffic. I was scheduled to be induced with her as well, specifically to prevent him from missing the delivery, only to go into labor on my own.) He was very apologetic to me and very annoyed with the nurses. (He also works as the on-call doctor at this hospital, so the labor and delivery nurses know him pretty well, and should have known to call his home phone when he didn’t answer his cell. He was still grumpy about it at my post-partum checkup 4 weeks later.)

Back to the delivery room, with Ryan, who was determined to give me heartburn (something I had quite a bit during pregnancy) for one last time during delivery (what a punk). The nurses called in a resident to help with the delivery, and Ryan was born at 6:56 p.m., weighing in at 9 pounds 2 ounces and 20 inches long (although I think he may have been a bit longer – he fought with the nurses quite a bit when they were straightening out his legs. He was 22 inches at his 2 week appointment.)

The doctor and nurses commented that I made my delivery seem so easy because I went so fast and only had to push a few times before my baby was born. To that I say, thank you Mom, for giving me the genes to have babies quickly. (Of five kids, my mom was only able to have one epidural because we always came so fast.)

Ryan, although quite vocal about expressing his displeasure with all things outside of the womb, was still struggling to breathe a bit. He was placed on a CPAP machine for about an hour. The nurses explained that if they put a newborn on the oxygen, it helps them transition better to breathing and have fewer problems later, which was true for Ryan. He was able to be in my room whenever I wanted and was the star of the nursery with his full head of hair.

He’s been a champion eater (my first baby to not have any formula to date – yay!) and we are happy he is part of our family. He was able to come home with us two days later and has been our happy (and grumpy) little punk ever since. Welcome, Ryan!

A post script for family and friends: We are planning on blessing Ryan this Sunday, July 15. If you would like to come and need directions and the time, email us and we will get you the info.