The day before Rylie was born, Craig and I had lunch with my Mom at the Hungry Horse. When my Mom called to invite me, she made the following comment: "This might be your last lunch before Rylie gets here!". She had some type of intuition of the following day.
Then, the night before Rylie was born both Craig and I could not sleep. I had woken up after about an hour of sleep to go to the bathroom (which I did very frequently), and Craig was sitting in his chair in the living room because he couldn't go back to sleep either. This is very weird for us, because we both really like our sleep. It was like somehow we knew that Rylie was on her way.
We decided to go ahead and turn on the TV to try and get us tired, and around 1:50 am I had my very first contraction. Of course, I thought perhaps it was just a false one, but we decided to write down the time anyways. About 35 minutes later I had another one, then 14 minutes later, then 14 minutes later again. We decided that once they got 5-7 minutes apart we would head to the hospital. After not very long, the contractions just went from 14 minutes to 6 all the sudden, so we freaked out, ran and got dressed and hopped in the car pretty quickly. We were headed out of town and realized we needed gas, and by the time we got there my contractions had spread back out to 14 minutes again. Because they were so abnormal, we were really hesitant to go to the hospital so we went back home to get Craig's tennis shoes (it was cold and he had just put on flip flops), and on the way home they shortened again, so we got back in the car and headed to the hospital.
When we got to the hospital, we were introduced to my nurse, Sarah (she was absolutely amazing). My contractions just continued to get worse and worse, and closer and closer together. I can't even describe what it feels like...horrible. They were about 2-3 minutes apart and it was about 7:45 am when I finally got my epidural (amazing invention!). After that, the whole process was a breeze. I could not feel the contractions at all, until the time came to push and then it was just a bit of pressure. My doctor came to check on me, and told me that I would probably give birth around noon or one, so when my nurse told me to start pushing at 10:45 am it was pretty surprising.
I pushed for a little less than 30 minutes and Rylie Ann was born at 11:12 am on October 8, 2008. I was so scared, because she didn't cry when she came out, and then when she was on the table, they called in specialists. Wow, that was a really scary moment. Turns out, she had some fluid in her lungs, so she couldn't cry like other babies do, and instead she'd just do this little grunting thing :(. They let me hold her for about a minute, and then they took her to the Newborn ICU, and I didn't see her again for 7 hours, which was only for about 10 minutes, and I couldn't hold her.
They kept telling me that she would be fine and that they'd bring her up to me at a certain time, and then they'd push the time back over and over again. I got so incredibly frustrated, because all I wanted was to hold and enjoy my baby. Then finally, we were told she was going to have to stay in the NICU for an entire week because she had to receive antibiotics to be on the safe side.
Craig and I would sleep for farely short intervals in my room for the first couple of days, and then we'd go downstairs to the NICU and sit with Rylie as much as we could. After I was discharged, we didn't want Rylie to be alone, so our parents (my mom, and Craig's Mom and Dad) would come and stay with her thorugh the night, and Craig and I would stay there all day. Rylie is so incredibly loved; What a beautiful blessing she is! Craig and I finally got to take Rylie home around 11:30pm on October 14, 2008. We didn't want her to stay any longer than she had to, so we took her right after her last dose of medicine.
She's been home ever since, and we have enjoyed every single moment of it! I love my Rylie so very much! Thank the Lord for her!
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