The Hall Family: Ryleigh's Arrival

It all began early in the morning on Thursday, Feb 16th. I woke up around 415 am to go to the bathroom. About fifteen minutes after I went back to bed, I felt what I thought was my water breaking. It was a small gush of water but it soaked through my shorts. I woke John and told him that I was pretty sure that my water just broke. He was half asleep and grumbled that I probably just peed my pants. Here is a little backstory. My dad had just shared my mom's experience having me with John. Apparently they went to the hospital three times because she thought her water broke, but it turned out that the first two times were false alarms and she had just peed herself. Their doctor told them that of she could soak through a pad then it would be the real deal and not just pee. My dad told John that when my mom's water actually did break, he made her soak through three pads before he would take her to the hospital. Ok, back to Thu morning...I told John that I was pretty positive that it wasn't pee because I had literally just gone to the bathroom and it wasn't the same sensation. He told me that I should put on a pad and see if it soaks through. He really didn't believe that my water broke since I wasn't having any contractions and since I wasn't dilated at all at my doc appt two days before and since it was still two weeks until my due date. I, on the other hand, was pretty convinced this was it. I got into the shower and started packing up the items that weren't already packed. I called St Jude and explained why happened and they told me to head in..
John was still in bed at this point and was pretty grumpy that I wanted to head into the hospital. He was convinced it was a false alarm and I started doubting whether or not I was actually in labor since I wasn't leaking anymore water and I wasn't having any contractions that I could feel. We arrived at St Jude at about 5:30 am and I was checked by our wonderful nurse Patty at about 6:30. She confirmed I was dilated to a 1, but the strip they use to test for amniotic fluid was testing negative. Nurse Patty was confused by this because she said he was positive she was looking at amniotic fluid, but instead of turning blue, the strip was turning orange which meant that it wasn't amniotic fluid. Since nurse Patty thought it looked like my water broke, she suggested that I walk for an hour to try to get more water to leak out so she could get a better test. She also repositioned he baby's head because she thought it may have been blocking more water from leaking out since it was so low-OUCH by the way! In the meantime, John is asking me where I'd like to go for breakfast on the way home! We walked for an hour or so and then I was checked again with the strip. Still orange. Since nurse Patty was sure my water had broke she wanted the on call doctor to check me out to see what she thought. I actually overheard the doc and nurse arguing about checking me. The doctor didn't want to come in and examine me since my strips weren't turning blue. When she did come in to check me out she exclaimed "oh my, this is definitely amniotic fluid. Patty, go get a different role of strips because this must be a bad batch." A few minutes later an orderly brought a new roll of strips an within seconds of the doc testing it, it turned bright blue. All that because of a bad batch of strips! Nurse Patty and I were smug because no one believed that I was actually in labor. So, once they confirmed my water did indeed break, I asked of that meant baby today. They said that I would be officially admitted but since this was my first and since I was in really early labor, she may not be born until the following day. Boy were they wrong!
Once it was confirmed that it was baby time, we made the calls to our fam. I didn't want to alert everyone if it was just a false alarm. The doc said she was going to leave me for a few hours so I could progress. I still wasn't feeling anything even though the monitor showed I was contracting. About two hours later, they came and checked me and told me that since my water broke, I could get my epidural at any time. I opted to get it then before the pain hit. The nurse told me not to worry about the pain bc everyone tells her that her iv hurts worse than the epi. She was totally right. The anesthesiologist came in and did his thing and it didn't hurt at all. It was a strange feeling of fluid filling up around my spine, but definitely not painful. After getting the epi, they administered some pitocin to speed things along. We settled in and watched some netflixed shows on my iPad. After a couple of hours or so, the doc checked me and I was three cm. They decided to give me some benadryl through my iv in hopes that it would relax me and let me sleep, allowing my body to progress faster. Within seconds of getting the Benadryl, I felt very drowsy. All the visitors left the room so I could sleep. I was on my left side and I was dozing off but could feel a sharp pain low in my abdomen every minute or so. I assumed this was a contraction but I was only feeling it on my right side. Just as it was getting too painful to ignore, the anesthesiologist popped his head in to check on me. I let him know what I was feeling and he turned me up and within seconds the pain disappeared and I was able to continue my nap. After an hour of napping I was checked and was at a 6! I went from barely three to six in an hour. I was flipped to my other side and told to rest for another hour or so. In the meantime, our friend Ryan and my BIL David stopped by. They visited for a little bit in the room with me and then John went out into the waiting room with them so I could sleep. About five minutes after John went into the waiting room, the nurse checked me again. I couldn't believe her when she said I was done, it was time to push! I went from three to ten in an hour and forty five minutes! They went and got John and a team got everything ready for her arrival. Since her head was so low, they didn't think I would have to push for long. I started pushing at 5:40 and at 5:58 Ryleigh Erin Hall was born! She weighed in at 6 lbs 8 oz and was 19.5" long. Pushing was the only part of the whole process that was hard for me. It was seriously the most athletic thing I have done! But, she was born in ten contractions which thy nurses all said was something to brag about because most people push for an hour or two. I really don't know how I would've done that. Ryleigh was handed to me for a second and John cut the cord. Then she was whisked away to be cleaned off and checked since she wasn't crying. All of a sudden, the nurse yells out "can I get some help over here!" and within seconds a team of people were surrounding her including the neonatoloist. I knew that couldn't be good but the doctor assured me that she just had some fluid in her lungs that they needed to clear out and that she was fine. They suctioned her little lungs for about five to ten minutes, and we watched as our little smurf changed from blue to pink. She started to cry and was deemed fit to stay with us instead of heading to the NICU, which was great. They gave her to me and told us visitors could come in if we wanted. I was in a haze for most of this time, and really don't remember much. I think I was still out of it from the benadryl and the pushing. I was completely starving since I hadn't eaten anything since the night before. I really regretted not stopping for breakfast on the way in to the hospital b/c I knew that if I was admitted I wouldn't be allowed to eat. But, it was 4:30 am and I didn't have food on my mind. Anyway, within an hour of her birth, John headed out to pick up food (and smoke a cigar w/ his pals), and the family got to meet Ryleigh. By 8pm I was cleaned up and getting settled in our post postpartum room. Our first night went great. We had to wake her up to feed her, and it has pretty much continued that way ever since. She is a really low key baby. We've only had one rough night and it was after I ate a really spicy meal, so I think that may have irritated her tummy. We came home on Sat morning and have been loving life with our little munchkin. And now for the photos...

Alerting the family that it's baby time!!