Welcome Rylee Ann

Well in the million years since I last updated, we have had another sweet baby girl!! She is now almost a month old and I realized I still haven't wrote down her birth story, so for all who are interested-- here it is!

I found out I was pregnant April 17, 2012 while visiting my family in Virginia. I didn't think I would get pregnant so soon because I had a chemical pregnancy the month before (miscarriage). I tend to know really fast when I'm pregnant because I quickly develop the sense of smell of a dog and get extremely tired. Anyways, I started feeling super tired and smells would bother me, so I ran to Target and bought a test and took it the next morning to see a double pink lines-- I took two just to make sure, and they were both VERY positive, which was comforting because the month before when the test came back positive, it was a faint line. I felt really good until about 6 weeks when I started bleeding, so I became very scared I was miscarrying again, so I went to the doctor who checked my HCG levels, which were normal for where I was at, but he didn't want to do an ultrasound to check for a heartbeat because it was still too early to see a heartbeat. He scheduled an ultrasound for the next week-- and from there it was just a waiting game. I stopped bleeding the night of the doctors appointment, and we went into the ultrasound the next week to see a healthy baby with a strong heartbeat! Phew! She just wanted to give me little scare.

I was sick with this pregnancy, but not as bad as I was with Alexis. I took nausea medicine to keep from throwing up all the time, which made my life a whole lot easier. I also ended up falling on my butt when I was 21 weeks pregnant, which gave me a lot of pain problems for the rest of the pregnancy. I did something to my tailbone, and my right side was up further than my left, so on top of sciatic nerve pain and the tailbone issues, as she got bigger the pain was sometimes so excruciating I couldn't walk. So needless to say I was ready for her to come!!

I was really nervous for her birth and as much as I wanted her to come, just because of everything that happened with Alexis, I was terrified. I didn't want a repeat of being told my baby might not make it. I tested positive for group B strep, which I'm pretty sure is what caused all the problems with Alexis, so I was super nervous, but I was glad it was caught this time so they knew to treat me.

I started having contractions Friday Dec 8 and they got up to 8 minutes apart, then would stop. It kept happening for over a week almost consistently 10 minutes apart. At my 39 weeks appointment on Monday Dec 17 I went in at 1pm. That morning at around 11 the contractions started to get really painful, so I thought for sure something was happening. I got to my appointment and the doctor checked me. I was dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced-- the EXACT same as the week before. I started bawling because I was SO tired and done with being pregnant. I ended up leaving with an induction scheduled for the 20th. I really didn't want to be induced, but I was so desperate at that point. After I left the doctors, we went to Alexis' doctors appointment for her cough that she had for over 2 weeks, and it was there I noticed I would have to stop during contractions and they were consistently 5 minutes apart. I watched them until 6pm and they were still 4-5 minutes apart, so I called L&D where they said to take a bath and see if that would stop them, so I took a warm bath and they moved to 3-4 minutes apart, so we went in. I went in  at about 7:30 and they checked me. Of course I was still a 2.. I was so frustrated with my body and was thinking if I was in that much pain and my contractions were consistent, I would end up having a baby on the side of the road because I wouldn't know if I was in labor or not! I walked around the hospital for an hour and climbed 10 flights of stairs and was still only a 2, so they gave me ambien to sleep and sent me home at about 11pm. As we were leaving the hospital I was hurting so bad I couldn't sit down to wait while Adam got the car. I should have just said, lets go back in to L&D, but they had kept telling me I wasn't in labor, so I didn't know what to do. I was having a pushing sensation, but we went home anyway. The ambien was kicking in and it made me super loopy and out of it, but the pain was still so bad I couldn't sleep.

At about 1:30am Adam said, I think we should go back in and I agreed. As we were driving back up to the hospital, there was 4 inches of snow on the freeway and it was still snowing hard. We got there a little after 2am, they checked me and I was dilated to a 6. about 15 minutes later they checked me again and I was a 7. I asked for an epidural, and they gave it to me, which helped the abdominal pain, but I could still feel the pain and pressure. At about 4:30 they checked me because I was feeling like a needed to push and I was completely dilated, however because they needed to finish all the antibiotics (4 hours) they said I needed to wait as long as I could. That was SO hard! I wanted to push, but had to resist the urge. My doctor showed up before I started pushing just to make sure he could get there since it was snowing. He walked in and said, "I told them to keep you here, but they didn't listen, because they said they were too busy." He wasn't very happy about them not keeping me, especially with the snow. I heard later he had an argument with the nurse on the phone about keeping me and her saying they didn't have enough nurses. I guess they made enough when I came in dilated to a 6 only a few hours after being a 2! I started pushing not long after 6 and she came at 6:37am weighing in at 6lbs 8oz and 18 1/4 inches. Despite being sent home originally, Adam and I were amazed at how smoothly and fast the birth went and how laid back everything was. It was very relaxed with only me, Adam, my Aunt part of the time, and the nurse and doctor. When we had Alexis, there were over 20 people in the room, so having it be that calm, was way different for us. I also pushed for over 2 hours with Alexis, so 20 minutes was fast!

We decided to name her Rylee Ann. We had been going between Rylee and Reagan and were leaning towards Reagan because our niece is named Rylee, although I have always wanted to name one of my daughters Rylee and in the end we knew that was her name. She is as sweet as ever! She doesn't like to sleep anywhere but my arms, which has made for some long nights, but I love her so much and am grateful she was sent to us.

My friend Laurel took some sweet newborn pictures, as well as a few with Alexis and a family photo. Here they are!