Ryan's Birth Story

Ryan Joseph was born at 3am on Thursday 10/15, he was 7lbs 7oz and 21" long.

My contractions started on Monday (10/12) in the evening and continued on Tues 10/13 but they were all over and far apart. Then tues evening they picked up, I still went to work wed 10/14 and they slowed down but then picked up in the afternoon. I left work early around 2pm and headed home. Lora (our nanny) was home with Megan and she stayed while I tried to lay down and rest between contractions.

Russ got home from work later than normal since he was trying to get things ready for the sub since it looked like I was going to be having the baby soon! When he got home he scrambled around to pack his hospital bag while I tried to manage contractions and Megan who knew something was going on and all of a sudden really needy (holding a toddler during contractions is not exactly easy...). Russ's parents arrived around dinner time and helped with Megan while I hung out in the shower for awhile since it helped with the contractions.

It wasn't until 11:30 that we called the on call Dr and headed into the hospital, contractions were a solid 5 minutes apart by this point and I was in a lot of pain!

We had a Doula assisting me/us with Ryan's birth. Her name is Ame and she's a friend of a friend who was working on her Doula certification and needed to attend a few more births. So we ended up with a Doula free of charge, and she was absolutely awesome!

On the drive to North Austin Medical Center (NAMC), I threw up all over myself, the car and my cell, Russ handed me a bag but it was too late. So I walked into NAMC in my PJs and covered in puke :-) Our doula, Ame, met us there and she helped me through the contractions. She was great! During contractions she held my hips, did some squeezing / massaging that helped and Russ held my hands. She had the most calming and soothing demeanor. I can't tell you how much more helpful Russ was this time with Ame there. Just having a little direction and ideas from someone else got him so much more involved in helping me through contractions! I mostly labored standing up and squatting next to the bed but this seemed to be a problem for monitoring the baby and at one point the nurse made me lay in bed because she was thought the activity didn't look good in the monitor. Laying in bed made the contractions so much worse, they felt longer and much more painful that way. I remember thinking if I'm going to be stuck laying in bed I want the epidural! So I had them start the IV fluids for the epidural because it was just too painful laying in bed through the contractions. I did get to stand again before I was ready for the epidural and it felt much better, but at that point I had already given into the idea of the epidural and there was no going back!

The anesthesiologist was great - last time I had a not so good epi experience, but this time was great! When they checked me after the epidural I was 9cm and almost ready to push. I wasn't surprised since I had been feeling some pressure to push... (and had refused a cervix check before the epi because I was nervous they would say I was too far along to get it!) Still I was happy I had the epidural I got like 10 min of rest and then everyone was in the room and 3 pushes later Ryan was born!

Megan came to visit us on Thursday morning, she was a little timid at first walking into the room but came right up to my bed and sat on my lap for most of the time she was there. She wasn't all that interested in Ryan, mostly in seeing Russ and I. The night Ryan was born was the first night I'd ever been away from Megan and it was very hard to see her only once a day while I was in the hospital. I missed her very very much! While we were in the hospital Russ's parents stayed at our house with Megan. Lora came by during the day to give them a break and let them get back home. Russ came home around dinnertime and to put Megan to bed each night and then he came back and stayed with Ryan and I. We were in the hospital 3 nights (including the night we got there while I was in labor) and left Saturday morning around 9. We tried to leave Friday but the pediatrician heard a heart murmur that was louder than the day before (which can be a bad sign), she wanted us to stay another night to monitor it. Thankfully Sat morning it was very slight and hasn't been heard since.