The Best Day Ever

The last picture taken of my baby belly before Ryder was born....

It's been forever since I've blogged, but that's because life has been busy! Let me back up...

On November 30, I went in to the doctor for one of my normal checkups. Ryder was due on December 11, so at this point, I was going every week to the doctor. I went in after work that day to the doctor. Everything had been going perfectly fine up until that day...until the doctor listened to his heartbeat that day and heard an irregular beat. The doctor ordered for an ultrasound to be done so we could see what was going on, and to see if they could tell anything else. The ultrasound also showed the irregular (extra) heartbeat....as well as low fluid levels. After talking to the doctor about the ultrasound results, he said that I needed to go to the hospital, and have the baby that night!!! I flipped out!

I went in the hospital, they monitored me and Ryder for 2 or 3 hours, and then gave us the option of going ahead and inducing that night or waiting and going to Atlanta to a specialist. We felt like everything had been going fine up until then, and we trusted things would be fine. We didn't want to induce at this point unless the doctors were saying we had to. With the option to wait a few more days, we felt like it wasn't an absolute necessity to have him then.

We went to Atlanta, and they basically said the same thing....they were more concerned with the fluid levels though, and said more than likely the heart issue would resolve itself after he was born. They told me to drink a ton of water over the weekend, and to go back to my doctor on Monday. So, I did. And nothing changed with my fluid levels. On Monday at that appointment, the doctor told me they would induce the next morning---they didn't want the fluid levels dropping because that's when it would be dangerous. My levels were at a 7, and anything 5 or below was too dangerous.

We were at the hospital at 6am on Tuesday, December 7...and had started the pitocin by 6:45.....after about 3 hours of contractions, I opted for the epidural! About an hour into the epidural, we were listening to the monitors, and noticed his heartbeat was getting slower and slower. My nurse came in, moved some things around...nothing changed. Another nurse came in....and another....and another---this time, the C-section nurse. I was scared to death. They had given me oxygen, and nothing was changing. They turned me to one side....nothing...then, they turned me on my right side, and his heartbeat went back up. Other than that one scare, the whole process went smoothly and quickly.. Things progressed quickly and my nurse and all of us were shocked when they said I was ready to push. After pushing less than 10 minutes, he was here!

Daniel and I were blessed with the most amazing gift ever on December 7, 2010. Ryder was born, and our lives have been forever changed for the better. He is the best baby ever. Not that it isn't difficult at times, but he is so good that he's made it so much easier than we thought it would be. We just thought he'd cry all the time, but he doesn't....he's quite content unless he's hungry or sleepy. Although, the first night we brought him home, he cried pretty much non-stop for about 5 hours....his tummy was rumbling and you could just tell he was in pain. We thought it would be like that every night, and we didn't know what we had gotten ourselves into.

He's already getting so big. It's hard to believe he's already 2.5 months old!