This is Riley Rose’s birth story.  It is probably TMI for people not interested in hearing about a labor & delivery.

On Tuesday, January 31st, I had an appointment with my midwife.  I hadn’t been feeling any contractions or any signs of labor whatsoever.  I was feeling pretty down about the prospect of having to wait until the 8th to be induced.  They took my blood pressure and it was initially a little high.  This was the first time my blood pressure was ever up so they took it a few more times and it seemed to improve.  She checked my cervix and said, “You’re having a baby today.”  And I swear I heard, “You’re not having a baby today.”  I paused for a long moment and asked, “Wait, you said I AM having a baby today?”  ”Yes.”  I was so excited, I started getting teary eyed.  She told me to go straight to the hospital to be admitted.

However, I’m a stubborn one so I decided to drive home and finish packing my bags so my dad wouldn’t have to do it for me.  I called Chris and he started the drive down.  My dad took me to the hospital, where we met my mom.  My sister started to drive there, as well.  We checked in and they took me to a labor room right away and I was about to die with anticipation.  We sat there about five minutes and then the hospital employee who checked me in came back and informed me that she thought I was someone else and that I wasn’t scheduled to deliver as no one from my office had called…. great…. I was instantly bummed.  They moved me to triage where there was a one hour wait… there was more confusion about whether I was admitted or was just there to be evaluated.  In triage, I kept having constant contractions— strong ones, too.

The nurse was being a little snippity and I could tell that my dreams of giving birth right away were not going to materialize.  They observed me for three or four hours.  The nurse called the delivering doctor from my practice and, classically the lazy doctor, he decided he wanted to send me home and then make me come back in seven hours to be induced.  (Interesting side note: He wasn’t the doctor on duty the next day so he pretty much handed me off to someone else.)  I was so sad!

Chris arrived.  We went and gorged on pizza with my sister and went home.  Then I had the worst night of sleep ever.  Actually, it probably would have been worse if I were in the hospital, waiting until 7am.  Chris and I kept waking up and chatting in bed.  I ate a pb&j, looked up famous people’s birthdays on Riley’s birthday-to-be, and generally distracted myself.

At 5am, I woke up.  I got ready.  We picked up bagels and drove to the hospital.  We arrived at 7:30 and I was in a labor room by 7:45am.  They broke my water induced me by 8:03 and the fun began.  The doctor who broke the water neglected to mention what he was doing so suddenly I felt a mad rush of fluid and said, “Did my water break?!”  From there, the contractions came— at first they weren’t too bad.  Actually, I didn’t feel them much at all for a bit.  But, by 11am, everything changed.

I was in such excruciating pain.  My whole body was shaking with sobs and I couldn’t stop crying when the contractions hit.  They were extremely intense from the pitocin.  I could not talk.  I could not function.  It was the most incredibly awful feeling I’ve ever felt.  Suddenly, my plan for no epidural was out the window and I was begging for it.  The nurse was amazing and got the anesthesiologist there within 15 minutes.  I think he had a hard time administering it because it took a long time and it felt like he poked me more times than we had discussed.

I had one more significant, horrible contraction before the epidural kicked in.  Then, suddenly, everything felt great.  It was the most unbelievable, indescribable difference.  I went from being in the worst pain in my life to feeling like I stubbed my toes with more pain than this.  There was no pain.  I did get really bad tremors and was shaking.  But shaking didn’t hurt.  It was worth it.  The nurse said I did really well and went a long while without it and experienced active labor because I was 7cm.

Around noon Chris and I were about to watch a show together on his laptop.  My mom and sister had gone to the cafeteria for a bit since we expected the labor to take a while longer.  I noticed some blood and stool on the bed under me— I could feel pressure.  I asked Chris to leave the room and I called the nurse to come in.  She was cleaning and explained that the pressure was from the baby moving down. She called the doctor right away to have him check my cervix.  He took one look and said, “The baby is right here.  You will have the baby soon— I think just a few pushes.”  I had the nurses get Chris and, by the time he got in the room, they had prepped me, I had my legs up and they already had me do some practice pushes.

He frantically called my mom and sister who ran through the hallways and arrived just in time.  Within fifteen minutes, at 1:12pm, Riley came into the world.  She took a second to cry and they wrapped her up and put her right in my arms.  She was beautiful.  I was crying— I think we all were.  It was such an amazing moment.  She was 7lbs. and 15oz., 19.5in long and perfectly healthy.

My sister cut the cord.  The doctor pulled the cord and pressed on my belly to get the placenta out.  He stitched up my tear.  They cleaned Riley up quickly.  Then we were able to hold her and love on her for an hour.  They put her right to my breast and she nursed a bit.  It was such a blur and the hour passed too fast.  Then they took her to the nursery for two and half hours while they transferred me to the recovery room.

The room was really small and the hospital requires two days stay.  I got feeling back in my legs but was really sore and groggy.  Riley was returned to us and we got lots of help learning how to breast feed.  Our hospital stay was a bit too long— we were ready to go home.  Chris & I barely got any sleep but it was worth it.  Chris’ dad and brother visited on Thursday and his mom and sister visited on Friday.  The nurses were shocked that this was my first baby and said we were doing exceptionally well.  She breastfed like a champ and every time the nurses came in, she was eating.  She is extremely alert and active— the lactation consultant commented that she almost felt bad for us and that we were lucky we were young.

We came home yesterday and settled in nicely.  She only woke up once to eat and was back in bed within and hour and a half.  This morning she was so alert and playful.  Her neck is already strong and she has the tightest grip.  Her skin is clearing up.  We had a hard night breastfeeding and I got a little discouraged to the point of tears.  I have a lot of adjusting to do.  I’m so thankful for this beautiful, healthy baby girl.  She is already the greatest joy of my life.  I know I will always remember our first moments together and all these memories of her first days in the world.