Labor and Delivery

Warning: Don't read this post if you don't want to know the details of Rylee's delivery.

That being said, I feel very blessed to have been able to carry Rylee with little to no complications and to have had a relatively normal delivery. About 3 weeks prior to Rylee's due date (4/11/11), we decided that we were going to induce her a few days early. We made this decision because she was projected to be a big baby and I did not want a greater chance of having to have an emergency c-section. Also, our doctor was going to be out of town and I did not want to have the doctor that would be on call that weekend. That being said, we did have to spend more time preparing for labor than I thought we would have. We checked into Mansfield Methodist on Wednesday at 6pm. I was given a cytotec pill to "ripen my cervix" at 7pm. At 11pm I was still dilated to 1cm so they gave me another. The pill seemed to be softening and thinning my cervix but not dilating it. At 4am they wanted to give me a 3rd pill, however my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and they needed to slow down my contractions to give me the pill. So they started an IV drip to slow contractions. They gave me the 3rd pill at 7am and things started to slowly progress. By 11 am, I was feeling pretty heavy contractions and was in some pain. My doctor came at 11:30 and broke my water. The anesthesiologist came at 12 to give me the epidural. At 12:30 they started the pitocin to induce my labor. At around 4pm, I started to feel some isolated pain on my lower left abdomen that would just not go away. The anesthesiologist gave me a small dose of pain medicine but it didn't really help. At about 7pm I was only dilated to 7cm. We started to worry that I wouldn't make enough substantial progress to deliver and would maybe need to consider a c-section. Little did I know that the pitocin was just waiting to kick in. From 10pm-11pm I went from 7 to 9 1/2 cm. By 11pm I was having quite a bit of back labor. I told the nurse that she better get ready because I was going to push Rylee out. She said I needed to wait 30 min for the last 1/2 cm of cervix to dilate. By that time I was folded over on my side crying and she said "You better get your game face on because this is what labor is like". Needless to say she was kindof a rough nurse. I told her she better check me again because I just made it dilate. She checked and sure enough, Rylee was on her way out! She called my doctor (who had left because I was taking so long) and my doctor basically was running in as Rylee was going to come out. I had to push around 7 or 8 times and there she was! My dr had to preform an episiotomy and give me 3 stitches. One of the most painful parts was when she was trying to get my placenta out. It had torn into 3 pieces and she had to basically dig her hand around my uterus to get it out. (sorry for the graphic) That part seemed like it took forever! Meanwhile Evan was helping clean off Rylee and get her ready to meet the world. Rylee Erin Russell was born at 11:37pm on 4/7/11. She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. She was born with a full head of dark brown hair and the chubbiest cheeks! We are in love.

Getting ready to get into bed for the next 30 hours.

Amanda came to visit me

This picture was taken around 10:30pm, about an hour before she was born. Evan is holding my hand and helping me through the contractions while my mom feeds me ice chips.

Rylee is finally here!

Look at my chubby cheeks!