We woke up bright and early Tuesday morning to go and get induced at the hospital! We had to call at 7 am to make sure they had room for me and then we showed up at 7:30 to let all the fun begin! I was so fortunate to have my mom, my aunt susan, jeff and his sister julie with me through the whole process. When she checked me before getting my water broken and starting me on the pitocin i was at 2cm dilated! My doctor came in around 8:45 and popped my water and started the pitocin! By the time i reached a 3 we decided to go ahead and start my epidural. My contractions were getting pretty painful and 2 minutes apart and they kept reminding me that it was a constant epidural, i would have it until i delivered him! So i decided to go ahead and get it that way i knew i could hold still through the contractions while i was getting it. He came in right away to get me started and we ended up having to do it twice. The first cathider he put up my back ended up going in between some fat and blood vessels so if he would have left it then all the medicine would have gone through my blood stream. So we re-did it and it was like magic!! I cant EVER imagine going through labor without one!! The pain of an epidural was NOTHING compared to contractions... haha and i was so stressed out about the epidural...at least now i know for next time!! After i was feeling good i was slowly progressing. The strength of my contractions werent strong enough with my pitocin turned all the way up, so they had to insert a tube into me to measure the strength of my contractions more accuratly. They monitored the babys heart beat very closely as they gradually bumped up my pitocin in to the 20's. They ended up putting me up to a 28 to really get the show on the road. As soon as i hit 6 cm within an hour or so i was ready to start pushing. At this point it was 8:30 pm and they were a little concerned about whether the baby was facing down, side-ways, or up. They had me start pushing for about and hour and a half before they called my dr down. When she got there they confirmed that while he was coming down he turned himself and was now "sunny side up" or facing up towards the ceiling, which was making it extremely hard for me to push him out and it was getting painful. She had me push a few times and then decided that they could try for a few more sets of pushes with the vacuum and try to force him out, or i could try pushing for one more hour on my own, or i would have to go in for a c-section. I decided to have her try to help me with the vacuum, i was so exhausted, there was so much pressure down there and i hadnt eaten in almost 24 hours ( i wasnt allowed to eat past midnight the night before my induction) that i just wanted him out. Of coarse while the dr was getting everything ready i was having a breakdown and hyperventilating because i was so scared of a c-section and i still had to keep pushing with every contraction. We started the vacuum and within 3 sets of pushes he came right out and we fell in love! He was born at 11:09pm on April 17, 2012, weighing 8 pounds and 1 ounce, and 20.5 inches long. It was the most amazing experience ever and i cant wait to do it all over again!!!
Unfortunatly with having such a rough labor our little Ryker broke his right chollar bone. I was devistated to know that he was hurt but he doesnt seem to be in too much pain. The dr said it should heal within a few weeks. And then he also has jaundis...so he has to sleep in his bassinet as much as possible (preferrably 18 hours a day) with the blue lights. We have been going to the dr every day to get his bilirubin tested...hopefully tomorrow the results will be good and we can stop his treatments!! Other than that we love our Ryker more than words can express!!