My last post on Tues. the 7th turns out to have been while in labor! We ended up going to the hospital around 1 am because my "cramps" had gotten really bad, and remained about 3 minutes apart the whole night. I called my doctor and he said they were contractions, even though I didn't know because they were so low and not in my abdomen (I had called a Mercy nurse 2 different times and neither nurse thought they were contractions!), and he said to go to the hospital. So I woke Jesse up and told him we needed to go to the hospital. By the time we got checked into our room and I told the nurse what I'd been experiencing she said, "yep, those are contractions." She checked me and I was 7 centimeteres dilated! Remember, just the afternoon before, around 4 pm I was not dilated at all yet!
I said I wanted an epidural; by this time I was almost crying through the contractions, and was squeezing Jesse's hand very hard. =] 2 hours later I was able to get the epidural. By 4:55 am I was 10 centimeters and started pushing, breaking my water with the first push. There was a little meconium in the water so the nurse had to call the NICU to have a nurse available to clean Rya out before she took her first breath. That made Jesse and I a little nervous but the nurse assured us it was ok. I continued to push for a total of 3 hours, and was feeling pretty good. =] In between pushes I was texting and emailing people, as was Jesse, and the nurse had to tell us to take a break to push. She said, "a few years ago we didn't have to take breaks from texting to push!" :) After the 3 hours of pushing the doctor finally said Rya was still too high to help pull her out, but too low that if she got stuck any lower we'd have an emergency, so we needed to do a c-section to deliver Rya. Again, that made us a little nervous but the doctor was very nice and reassured us it'll be ok, he'll stay on duty and do the surgery, and we weren't in any hurry. This was around 9 am and by 9:29 Rya was born, on her due date! The doctor said only 4% of babies are born on their due date!
Jesse watched the whole surgery; he said the worse part was the laser used to make the first cut. I could feel tugging and pushing, but it wasn't painful after the increase in my epidural. Rya had the cord around her neck, although it wasn't tight the doctor said and said it's pretty common to see that. She was also a little crooked apparently, and that's why she wouldn't come down any lower with pushing.
As soon as Rya made her first cry, I cried. Jesse was with her while they cleaned her up, and he was also very emotional. I was surprised by the emotion that came over me; I just didn't know how I'd react. Jesse brought her over to me and then he went with Rya and the nurses to the nursery while I went to recovery. By this time, I had been shaking so long that I was pretty sore; my neck really hurt. I was in recovery for a couple hours and then taken to my post-partum room. Jesse and I were reunited with our sweet baby girl then. I got to see lots of video and pictures of Rya in the nursery (my parents were both there also- my dad came to the hospital around 2 am and my mom drove back from vacationing in Okoboji and got to the hospital aroudn 6).
We stayed in the hospital 3 days. I recovered well from the c-section, with Jesse's help. We did send Rya to the nursery at night and she was brought in to feed around every 3 hours. All was well in the hospital, but the first night home was rough! She cried a lot, and would not go to sleep until after 1 am! We've had good days/nights and bad days/nights since. We're still trying to get consistent, and it's really hard! Some days she'll sleep and eat all day, some days she won't go to sleep. She seems to be eating well- at her first check up after 2 weeks she weighed 8lbs 1oz. She weighed 7lbs 14oz when she was born, and was 7lbs 9oz when we left the hospital. She'll sleep pretty well overnight, once we can get her to sleep. I told Jesse this morning that if we could just get her to sleep sooner, I think she may sleep through the night, because she'll eat at 10:30 (for example) and not wake up to eat again until 3 or 4, depending on when we can actually get her to sleep. Sadly, usually she will fight us/sleep until midnight or 1am. I get sleep then overnight as she'll sleep a good 3-4 hours at a time. During the day I struggle to nap, on the days Rya will nap, because I have things I want to get done, and my mind is racing. I'm not used to sleeping during the day. It's especially hard when it's nice and sunny outside!
Rya really didn't like her first 2 baths and cried through them, but she has been very content during the last few. I wish it made her go to sleep better, but it doesn't! Jesse and I give her baths together. Jesse is a huge help because he gets home around 5:30 and then spends time with Rya to give me a little break. He is really good at getting her to sleep at night so he takes her and lets me shower and rest/sleep until she wakes up again. Hopefully Jesse is getting enough sleep after going to bed around midnight/one am and then sleeping the rest of the night until getting up around 8. [We had Rya in a bassinet for the first week & a half, and then put her in her crib. I guess that's one good thing we have going for us- she'll sleep in her own room in her crib already.]
So that's where we are today. Trying to get more consistent, and get to sleep. I am pumping once/day to work on my supply of breastmilk for when I go back to work. At this point I just can't fathom how to get Rya on more of a schedule for when I do go back to work, but I guess we'll deal with that later after she is a bit older. She is, afterall, only 3 weeks old tomorrow.
We made a trip to the farm (to Olin) this past weekend and she slept the whole way, so she did well in the car. She didn't do too bad in the new environment either, but I think I paid for it yesterday, because she was fussy ALL day, crying all the time and not sleeping/napping until 7:15 pm! Yesterday was my first day by myself too. Jesse's mom stayed with us 2-3 days each the first 2 weeks, and my mom came up some days as well. It was such a relief having someone here, so I was a bit nervous on Sunday night to be on my own yesterday. We made it though, although it was very hard! Today so far has been better, but she still fought her nap so bad I had to let her cry a little, then soothe her, put her back down, let her cry again a little, then soothe her again until she finally stayed asleep. Jesse and I have been contemplating when we want to try the "let cry" "philosophy". We've felt she has been too young to just let her cry, but as she is getting older, and still difficult, we've decided to try it a little when there really seems nothing else to do. I have so many books that I've reviewed and tried to match to our situation, but it just overwhelms me. Rya is not a textbook baby, that's for sure, so I'm trying to just go with it rather than worry about if I'm doing something the books say. I know it'll get easier, but that's still weeks away!
So until then, I'll try to keep updates coming as often as possible. Here are some pictures to enjoy-
