Introducing....

Riley Archer Williams

On Sunday night I started having contractions that were pretty strong, but they faded by midnight so I went to bed.  At 2 am another strong contraction woke me up so I got up, used the restroom, drank some water... just in case I was dehydrated and went back to bed.  Five minutes after I laid back down another one came.  This continued until 3 am and then I gave up, I decided to get out of bed and start timing them.  As I sat in the back room watching TV I realized not only were they 5 minutes or less apart, but they were really starting to hurt.  I woke up Skyler, took a shower, ate breakfast, woke up the kids and then realized Skyler had taken his pain medication from his recent tooth extraction and had fallen back asleep.  It was now 4:30 so I woke him up again and he had no recollection that I had told him I was in labor.  Finally at 6:15 am we left for the hospital.  It was kind of a dejavou experience because the contractions were really strong, and very close together.  I was so scared my water was going to break because we had a 25 minute drive ahead of us.  So, when we got to the hospital and they checked me I was really surprised when the said I was only dialated to a 5.  In a way it was a relief because with Teagan I had done the same thing and showed up at a 10. 

I had not intended on getting an epidural but I kept getting the feeling I needed to go ahead and do it and THANK GOODNESS I followed those promptings because I don't think I could have handled what happened next without it.  Although, I was quickly reminded why I HATE getting them.  The anesthesiologist hit nerves on each side of my back and now, 4 days later I am still in pain from it. 

Okay so the delivery...  when I was at an 8 the baby was still high so the nurse gave me some Pitocin to get him down.  When I hit a 10 they called in my doctor and he looked a little worried.  I started to push and he proceeded to tell me to push harder and keep pushing as long as I could.  After doing this two or three times he started to sound worried.  He called in more nurses and the anesthesiologist... in other words... he was thinking emergency C-section.  As I continued to push he told me what was wrong and urged me to push as hard as I could as the nurses turned me and he turned the baby.  Riley was posterior and suffered from shoulder displasia.  After nearly folding me in 2 we got him out and he was handed off to the nurses right away.  They began counting the minutes and got to 3 before I finally heard him cry.  They cleaned him, laid him on my chest for about 10 seconds then whisked him away to the NICU.  He had to have x-rays to look for any fractures and then they wanted to monitor him because he did not breathe right away. 

At the time I was calm, and comforted.  I knew everything would be okay.  Everyone asks me, "did you freak out" or was I scared... Yes, I was scared but that is the great thing about having the holy ghost with you.  I knew he was fine, even as they counted the minutes. 

He was born March 28, 2001 @ 10:42am weighing 9 lbs 9 oz and 19 inches long

Around 2pm I started to get major baby blues because I had not been able to hold my baby.  He was finally brought to me at 3:45pm.

Due to his short stay in the NICU I have had to alter my plans on how I am going to feed him.  He had the bottle and fell in love with it.  I tried for 24 hours to get him to nurse without success and the pediatrician strongly recommended I get a pump and for the time being supplement with formula.  His blood sugar was dropping and there was nothing more we could do.  So as much as I would have liked to continue being a nursing mother, I am now bottle feeding mom.  It doesn't matter though, he is the best baby.  This child would sleep through the night if I'd let him, but he needs to eat regularly so we do get up once a night.  He only cries when he needs something and he loves to cuddle.  What more could we ask for?

I am recovering very slowly.  This delivery was the worst I have experienced so far.  It has taken a major toll on my body, but I have relief in sight.

We love our Riley and we are so excited to have him in our family!