Wednesday, October 8, 2014

The Story of Rylee

Well it has been almost a month since Rylee has joined our family, so I figured that it was time to share her birth story.

We really need to start on Monday September 8th at my doctors appointment. I was heading into this appointment trying not to get my hopes up but really hoping that Dr. Winn would say we can induce on Thursday which was when I would hit 39 weeks. I was so ready to not be pregnant any more. I couldn't sleep well, every night around 2 or 3am I would wake up wide awake and lay there for 2-3 hours. I had heart burn like crazy, my back hurt, my legs hurt, and so on. I could really go on about all that hurt but I wont. Needless to say I was done. I think Ethan was ready for me to be done too, he wont admit it but I'm sure he was tired of getting calls during the day with me crying about one dumb thing or another. Anyway, I go into my appointment and the nurse checks my blood pressure, then waits for a few minutes and checks it again. She then asks if I had a headache or if I was seeing spots in my vision, which I said no to both. My blood pressure was in the 140's/ high 80's. (I can't remember exactly what it was.) She leaves and Dr. Winn comes in and checks to see if I had dilated any more. Which I hadn't and was still at a 1.5, where I had been for the past 3 weeks. This just really dashed my hopes. After she was finished she informs me that my blood pressure was too high for her comfort and that she wanted me to go get some blood work done and then go to the Birth Center to be monitored. I guess she was worried about me having pre-ecalmpsia. After getting blood work done and being monitored for about an hour the nurse at the birth center tells me that Dr. Winn had called and the she was putting me on bed rest due to my BP. Another thing that I was not happy about. I left the hospital with instructions to lay on my left side or in a recliner with my feet up and that I was only to be up to eat and use the restroom and that I was to return to the hospital for my blood work and another non stress test on wednesday.

Thankfully I have loving family and friends who offered to bring us dinner so Ethan wouldn't have to worry about feeding us after working all day.

Jumping to Wednesday. As I went to the hospital I was really hoping that my blood pressure had come down and that I would be let off bed rest. I normally don't mind relaxing and not doing anything, but for some reason being told I couldn't do anything really made me hate laying around. I got my blood work done and was hooked back up to monitors for another hour. After the hour was up the nurse came in and states in a matter of factway, "You're going to be induced at midnight tonight." My heart skipped a beat as I thought "WHAT?!" It was what I was wanting but figured it wouldn't happen. I was in shock. She gave me the instructions I would need for the rest  of the day and sent me on my way. I ran down to where Ethan was working and told him that he wouldn't be at work the next day, we were both very excited and in a state of shock that we would become parents very shortly.

The rest of that day seemed to drag on. After taking Bow to my parents that night, we came home and got ready to go to bed, well more like take a nap. As we were getting ready to go to sleep, I began to become more and more nervous about what was about to happen. Thankfully I have a loving husband who holds the priesthood, and was willing to give me a blessing.

12AM- We get to the hospital and get all checked in. After they got us signed in Ethan wheeled me down to the Birth Center, cause apparently if you have a high BP they don't want you walking too much. I get changed into the beautiful gown that they offer you and get settled into the bed. The nurses came in to get me all hooked up and ready to start the induction. While one was asking me questions about my health history and pregnancy the other was getting my IV started. Do you know where the worst spot to get an IV is? If you don't know, its in your wrist. Which is exactly where mine had to be placed. It felt as though she was digging into my bone, and to top it off I felt as though I could no longer move my wrist. Anyway, after they finished that they gave me something to help get me to dilate, like I said before I was only at a 1.5. After which she came in to check on me every few hours to see how I was doing and if I was progressing. I tried to get some sleep, but since I had so much running through my mind I couldn't sleep. I even turned on a baseball game just so I had something to listen to as I tried to fall asleep, which means I was desperately trying to sleep.

Around 8 am Dr. Winn came in and broke my water. That was quite the experience. I will never again have to wonder if my water has broken, cause there is not mistaking it.

A few hours later I was only at around a 3 (I think), so they started me on pitocin. That lovely medicine to help get me to have contractions, and boy did I start having contractions. It wasn't too unbearable to begin with, then they slowly got more intense.

I can't give times for the rest of the day because it was to much of a blur.

Early afternoon contractions began to be very uncomfortable. To the point that I couldn't talk or walk while having one. I would just hold on to Ethan until one passed. When the nurse came in to check me I was at a 5 or 6. She informed me that if I wanted an epidural, now would be the time to get one. I had went in thinking that I wanted to try to give birth with out an epidural, not because I wanted to show how tough I was, but because I was scared to death to have a needle put into my spine. After Ethan reassured me that I would be ok, I decided to get one. Did you know that it is really hard to hold still during a contraction? Well it is, and that's what I had to do while the anesthesiologist worked on getting the epidural started. Which felt like it took forever.  Poor Ethan's hands must have been killing him because of how hard I was squeezing them. When he was finished (finally) I quickly began to feel my lower half go numb which is such a weird feeling. I also felt so helpless.

Shortly after having the epidural started we realized that my IV was no longer working. My arm had gotten so swollen that it had stopped working some how. So, about 4 people were in the room, not including Ethan and I , working on getting another IV started. I was really hoping that I would get it in the back of the hand or in the crook of my arm. In fact one nurse poked me in the crook of my arm to see if it would work. Unfortunately, the only place that would work was in the other wrist. Yay me.

Things seemed to be going well after that. Until they weren't. Because of my epidural, my BP came down to where it normally is. Which I would normally like. However, Rylee did not like that my BP was lower. Because of this her heart rate dropped which was a concern. It really bothered me when I could hear the monitor of her heart beat slow down. Thankfully I had a great group of nurses that were monitoring me very closely. The nurses began to flip me from one position to the next in hopes that Rylee would like one spot and her heart rate would go back up. Which it did. So for the next few hours, whenever her heart rate would drop the nurses would come in and flip me to another position. I have never been tossed around so much in my life.

Because Rylee's heart rate had dropped they had to back me off of and finally stop the pitocin which really slowed my progress down. After a while of being off of it they slowly started me back on it, while watching Rylee's heart.  I was finally at an 8 when Dr. Winn came in and the nurses adjusted me one more time in hopes that Rylee would tolerate it. She seemed to like the position I was in for the time being. Dr. Winn said "We'll see who wins, the baby or me." I'm not 100% sure what she meant there but I'm assuming that since they wouldn't let me eat anything since lunch, that meant she was close to taking Rylee C-section. I looked at Ethan and just said "I really hope the baby wins". I did not want to have a C-section.

After a couple more hours in this position, which was a sitting up kind of position cause Rylee liked that, my back began to kill me. But because I was hooked up to so many monitors and those stupid IVs in my wrists I couldn't press the call button. So I tried to wake up Ethan. I kept getting louder and louder trying not to yell, but he wouldn't wake up. Thankfully the nurse came in and I told her I was uncomfortable. So she decided to check me and see where I was at. Thankfully I was ready to start pushing.

By the time she got all set up it was about 11:15PM when I actually started pushing. The epidural must have been slowly wearing off because I began to feel contractions which I had thought were Rylee's feet in my ribs. After pushing for about 45 minutes Dr. Winn said that she was almost there and to just push really hard one more time. I closed my eyes and pushed as hard as I could and all of a sudden I could feel something moving on my stomach. I opened my eyes to see my beautiful baby girl. It is amazing how instantly my love for this little girl grew. I would do anything to protect her. I looked up at Ethan through my tears and could tell that he felt the exact same way I was feeling.


Rylee Johanna Hill was born at 12:06AM 9-12-14 weighing 7 lbs 9 oz and was 20 inches long. After a very long 24 hours Ethan and I were parents. Almost a month later and we are even more in love with our little girl. I love to watch Ethan hold her and take care of her. I am so grateful for him and for the support that he is to me.