It's a BOY!

Yes...you read that right! On July 21 (the day Ryan was supposed to be flying out) at 9:45 am we delivered a healthy baby BOY! Nolen Ryan McAdams (no, it's not after the baseball player, Nolen is a name we like and Ryan is my husband's name. His family has a tradition of using the father's first name as a middle name. Just a happy coincidence!) weighed 6 lbs 10.5 ozs and was 19.5 inches long. He is perfectly healthy although super skinny and long. He has the biggest little hands with crazy long fingers and arms! Sweet little monkey toes and a head full of hair!

His first real cry...he was slow to open his eyes and start crying.

THE BIRTH STORY

(for those who are interested, and those who aren't can just stop reading...although it's all very pg)

Labor started early on the 20th but I wasn't entirely convinced I was going to have a baby, so I walked and walked and walked and around 3pm I was pretty sure it "could be it". We packed a few things and then went out to dinner as planned. During dinner my contractions were about every minute and half and I was starting to get uncomfortable so we went back to Ryan's Dad's house and hung out for awhile. I tried the pool, thinking it would relax me, but this time around the water just annoyed me. So I got out and walked some more. We went to the hospital around 9 pm thinking they would just send me home or stop my contractions since I was still early, but while I was there I progressed from a 3-4 in less than an hour. They decided to admit me and I immediately asked if I could get up and walk around. The nurse (who I loved by the way), gently told me that it wouldn't be possible since my contractions were so frequent and intense. I wasn't happy about htis, but I went with the punches and decided to labor in bed as directed. I informed the nurse that unless they break my waters this was going to be a LONG night. She laughed me off and said that although they (the nurses) couldn't break my waters they were certain I would go quickly.

Fast forward two hours with no cervical change and waning contractions (still frequent but not really going anywhere) and baby's heart rate acting up she suggested I go ahead and take the epideral so that they could start pitocin. Part of me thinks they went with pitocin because they knew Ryan was suppose to leave, and after the nurses left me alone Ryan and I talked it over and he told me in the end it was my decision as long as what I decided didn't endanger myself or the baby. I told him that I'd take the drugs and pitocin because as much as I wanted to go natural, I really wanted him to be there more. So, around 11 pm I got my epideral and the nurses once again expected things to move quickly (the delivery items and baby crib were ready and waiting five minutes after I arrived, that's how CERTAIN they were that things would go quickly despite my repeated reminders that until they break my waters...nothing about my labors happens quickly).  Shortly after my epideral (which didn't bother me at all because I had had it with my previous two children), I got a cath (which bothered the HECK out of me because I had never had it before...something about urine in a bag just gives me the heebie geebies) and then the pitocin started.

I can attest to what you hear about the dreaded Pitocin...it definitely makes contractions more intense....and for me that meant I felt EVERY one of my contractions DESPITE the epideral. I wasn't in pain, but there was near constant pressure which lead to a very long sleepless night! At 545 am, my water broke...the first time...confused? Yeah, so was I. Apparently my placenta pulled away from my uterus leading to a high leak in my fluids. This high leak just made me progress a small amount more. My doctor came in at 745/8  proclaiming that he had expected me to deliver already. I told him like I had told the others, unless you break my waters...this baby isn't going anywhere, BUT once you do...I'll be ready in an hour or two to deliver. He laughed (once again thinking I didn't know what I was talking about) and proceeded to break my waters. Once my waters broke, they ended up placing an internal monitor on the baby and on my uterus to make sure my contractions weren't too strong and ended up turning off the pitocin (and I suspect my epideral too because shortly after this all sorts of pain started). While the nurse was watching the new monitors, the baby started to really have some issues which resulted in me being put on oxygen, instructed on how to breathe and flipped around until his heartrate returned and stabalized. About thirty minutes after that scare I noticed something was really off and told Ryan to get the camera ready and call his family into the room (they had all been fast asleep the ENTIRE time I labored). Shortly after the phone calls were made and his family came into the room, I told him to get the nurse. Before the nurse even got in the room...this happened

This is me breathing through the urge to push...for about twenty more minutes.

The nurse walks in, checks me and I'm fully dialated but I have a cervical lip holding the baby in....and due to his iffy heartrate she decides to MANUALLY push my cervix over his head....did I mention that by this point I'm fairly certain I felt everything from the infamous burning sensation of his head to well the other less glorious bits of delivery.

The doctor walks in as my body is literally making Nolen crown on it's own without any help from me (despite the strong urge to push).

After he's born and we realize it's a boy the doctor then has some issues with my bleeding (they thought I was hemoraging but I suspect it was due to the placenta pulling away earlier on in labor) and then my placenta was "stuck" and I once again had to have someone MANUALLY deliver it for me by pulling it out with their hands (so if you see me looking not so happy in various pictures it's because it could have been during one of the various procedures where they realized my epideral was gone and had to give me local anesthesia). It was definitely not the easiest labor...but Nolen made it in time to meet his family!

That's Aunt Christine and Ryan's arm :)

Then our camera battery died and I'll have to upload more pictures later. But for now, I'm going to go nap!