The Whole Story

So I thought that I would finally post the whole labor story.

WARNING: If you have a weak tummy or don't care about medical things you might not want to read this post.

My whole pregnancy I had been planning on having a natural birth using Hypnobabies. I had practiced a ton and felt really comfortable that I could do it. I was planning to labor at home for awhile so I could be comfortable as long as possible and then head to the hospital a few hours into my labor. Baby Ryan had other ideas. He decided that he wanted to be a breach baby my whole pregnancy. We tried EVERYTHING to get him to turn. We did acupuncture, chiropractic, and all the weird stuff you find online like laying upside down and different exercises to try. Early in my pregnancy I tore a ligament on my right side of my uterus and my chiropracter decided that probably my left side tried to make up for the right side because all my muscles stayed tight on my left side and wouldn't let the baby flip.

We were left with the decision to keep waiting and probably get a C-section since Ryan would keep getting larger, or try to turn him at 38 weeks and get induced if it worked and have a C-section that day if he didn't. We prayed a lot about it and at first thought we would just wait it out. The next morning we felt awful about that decision; it just didn't feel right. We prayed some more and decided to go ahead and try to get little Ryan to turn.

I had been going to the midwives, but had seen one of the doctor's with the practice a few times as well towards the end since Ryan was breach. I really liked Dr. Young though and he seemed like a great doctor. We scheduled the turning for 6:30am on Friday November 20th. Again, it felt really weird to schedule having a baby. I don't really beleive in inducing unless it becomes dangerous for mom or baby, but we were going in with faith that we were making the right choice.

Our alarm clock got accidentally set for pm instead of am so we didn't get to the American Fork hospital until 7am. By 7:15 they had me prepped and had given me drugs to relax my uterus to make it easier for the baby to turn. It hurt so bad, but Dr. Young was able to turn the baby. To us it seemed like it was easy for him, but he said it was REALLY hard and he didn't think that it would work once he had started. After the baby had turned they broke my water, started me on pitocin and called Roberta, the midwife on call that day (also my favorite midwife) to take over.

The first little bit wasn't too bad with no drugs. I went 10 hours with no drugs going from dialated to 0 cm to 3cm. By then I was so worn out that I was falling asleep in between contractions and going straight to REM sleep. The contractions were about 1 min to 2 min apart and were just getting closer but I wasn't dialating at all. I had been at 3 cm for a few hours. I decided that I better get an epidural because if I was in this much pain I didn't know how I would react when it got time for transition or pushing.

The epidural actually wasn't bad at all. The anesthesiologist was great and did his work in between contractions. The numbing shot was the only thing that hurt, and it was just like a bad bee sting and went away after 10 seconds. Immediately the contractions died down and I felt so great. The next 6 hours went by really fast and I got a little nap. Ryan was still doing great. I had read up on the pros and cons of epidurals and had decided I didn't want one before hand just because of some of the side effects that can happen to mom and baby. Luckily the side effects that I was scared of didn't happen to us.

About 15 hours in baby Ryan's heart rate started to drop as he made his way through the birth canal. This is pretty normal but they put me on oxygen to just help him to get more oxygen in between contractions. It helped, but when it came time to push his heart rate started to go all over the place. It would be at 190 and then jump down to 50. Roberta decided to call Dr. Young back in case I needed a C-section or help with vacuum or forceps. Dr. Young came in a told me all the pros and cons of using a vacuum but said in my case he'd reccommed it to get the baby out as fast as possible. I said ok give me three more tries and then we'll try the vacuum. I tried for three more contractions and he was getting closer but his heart rate was starting to really scare everyone. There were a ton of nurses in the room for when he came out to act fast. Dr. Young took over and used the vacuum. Once the vacuum loses suction 3 times then he can't use it anymore legally. Somewhere around this time I got so overheated that I threw up. Not so much fun when you are trying to get a baby out quickly. The vacuum lost suction twice and then he told one of the nurses to go and run and get the equipment for a C-section in case we needed it. At this point I got a surge of adrenaline and was determined not to have a C-section. In my head I was like "he's coming out on this one I just know it." With the help of the vacuum and a huge epistiotomy he came out on my last push just before haivng a C-section.

He ended up having the cord wrapped around his little neck twice which is why he was having such hard issues keeping his oxygen levels up. He wimpered a little when he came out and hearing that was so great since I was scared about things being wrong.

He was breathing, but was struggling breathing, so they showed me Ryan and then James and him went away to the nursery to get things checked out. My roommate from college, Heather, is certifying to be a doula and so she was there during the labor for training. She stayed with me until I was able to see Ryan and James again.

So in the nursery it took them an hour to get an IV into Ryan. He still has little bruises in his hands and feet from attempts. His fluids were really low and blood sugar because of the cord being around his neck. Finally they got an IV in his arm, which the next day they took out and put in his head because he kept moving his arm around and making it bleed. His oxygen and fluid levels and blood sugar came back up so they thought he could come to my room for me to finally hold him. By now it was about 3am and the nurse brought him in and since I hadn't pumped yet we tried to feed him a little formula through a syringe and tube. He seemed to like it, but then started choking so the nurses took him back to be re-evaluated. About an hour later the pediatrician came to our room to let us know that Ryan had started throwing up bile and had been admitted to the NICU to do some checks on his intestines to see if there was blockage. They did some x-rays and they couldn't find any blockage and he had started to have poopy diapers so they stopped being worried and the bile stopped. He ended up just being stressed out so his body reacted by throwing up bile. Now all we needed to do was to get him to breastfeed really well for a whole day and then we could take him home. I got released from the hospital at 9am on Monday morning and then we stayed on as boarders that night. It's a sweet deal for only 35 bucks we could stay in the room; we just couldn't get medication or help from nurses anymore. By Tuesday morning the pediatrician Dr. Wilcox said we could take Ryan home that afternoon. They started to wean him off his fluids and he kept his levels up by breastfeeding and we were so happy to bring him home.

All in all, even though things didn't work out the way we had planned, I am so happy to have Ryan here healthy and strong and considering everything that happened I am so grateful for the midwives, nurses, and doctors that knew what to do and that handled everything so well. I'm still going to try to have a natural birth for our next baby, but I'm still really happy and pleased at how everything worked out for little Ryan's birth as well.

Ryan James Meyer Enters The World

What a crazy experience for a first time father to go through. The birth was not that uncommon from other stories I've heard, but until now, they've all been stories. Reality is quite a bit more taxing.
But after 16 hours of labor, we've got a new baby boy, born 11:49 pm 11/20/09 weighing in at 6 lbs 7 oz and measuring 18.5 in long. He's seriously the cutest thing ever. Check it out for yourselves!

Here's one of the proud mother:

Trip to Alabama and Georgia

I've still got to catch everyone up on our trip to Alabama and Georgia. My Gran passed away in the middle of August so we got to go spend time with my family in Birmingham, Alabama and Waycross, Georgia. It's always sad to see someone pass away but it was good to know that she wasn't suffering anymore. She had cancer that turned into Leukemia and within a two weeks she was gone. It's good to know that we will see her again someday.

While we were in Alabama we got to hang out with family, eat at the Waffle House and go to the Birmingham Zoo. In south Georgia we got to go to the Okefenokee swamp and go on a boat ride and see Alligators close up. It was fun to get to see my family since I haven't been back in almost 2 years. I guess that is one good thing about funerals is that they bring families together to spend time with each other.

James holding a Lorakeet at the Zoo

Cute Red Panda that was eating

James and I at the Okefenokee Swamp

One of the Gators

5 Year Anniversary

So our 5 year anniversary was August 13th. These past 5 years have been the best of my life and I'm so happy to be married to such a great man.




We wanted to do something kinda big since we are about to have a kid and cut our salary in half. We spent the weekend in Salt Lake City and stayed at the Anniversary Inn that has themed rooms. We ate at the Melting Pot, which is my favorite restaurant, but it's way expensive, and went to the This is the Place Park and the Hogle Zoo. Here are some pics.

This is the Place Monument

James learning about woodworking

The Anniversary Inn Jungle Room. They give you free cheesecake and sparkling cider.

James exploring the room

The Melting Pot

The Hogle Zoo. It was rainy and 50 degrees when we got there. So we bought matching hoodies

3D Ultrasound pics

So I've been really bad about posting. I have a lot of catchup work to do. A lot happened in August. James and I had our 5 year anniversary, we spent a week in Alabama/Georgia because my Gran passed away and I'm in the 3rd trimester finally. I'll make posts for the above items, but to celebrate being in the third stretch here are some 3D ultrasound pictures for you to look at.

Cute little face with his hand on his cheek. He looks very contemplative or bored.

Cute little mouth open. Looks like he's laughing , singing, or crying.

During the ultrasound there were times we thought he looked like James' baby pictures and times he looked like mine, it seemed that my genes won out though because most of the time we thought it looked like he favors my baby pictures. We'll have to wait and see when he comes out.

Escalante Trip for Pioneer Day

For the Pioneer Day holiday weekend we went to Escalante with our friends Mark and Talara and their three kids. Talara's family gets together in Escalante every year at her grandparent's house which was built in 1895 and is an old Pioneer home. It was really fun and James and Mark got to go on some hikes while all the women chatted and hung out. We got to see a parade and ate tons of yummy food and it was a great vacation.

James and Mark's hike through Spooky and Peekaboo slot canyons

Ancient Cave Art

Waiting on the parade (I was hot since I'm pregnant if you can't tell)

James, Madisson, Talara, and Jayna soaked after the firetruck in the parade soaked them

Dinosaur Tracks

The Results are in!

We had our ultrasound yesterday afternoon and it was an amazing experience. I had been feeling the baby for a little bit already, but it was really neat to actually see that it's a real living baby inside of me. It was really neat for James, because he only recently has been able to feel the baby and only some of the time. He was so excited and smiling the whole time. So the verdict that you've all been waiting for is we are having a very healthy baby BOY! I've included ultrasound pictures below so you can see.

Legs

Profile

It's a BOY!

Foot

Eric and Crystal's Wedding

James' little brother (by little I mean younger than James, but older than me) Eric got married last Saturday, June 20th. It was a really neat week and experience being a part of their wedding party. Crystal, Eric's wife is the only member of the LDS faith in her family so I got to be an escort (helper) with her through the temple for her endowment session and I got to help her get ready for the wedding on the wedding day in the temple. They were married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple in Utah and it was a good day for pictures. It poured later before the reception so we all got soaked.

On Friday before they got married we went to Crystal's house to set up tables for the reception. James couldn't find his wallet when it was time to go and we remembered seeing it at home so we didn't think anything of it and just figured it was at home. The next day we were frantic because his temple reccomend was in his wallet, and he couldn't get in to see his brother get married without it. We had to make a few phone calls so our Bishop could look up records and call the temple and vouch that James did have a current reccomend. We cleaned our house over the weekend and still couldn't find his wallet, but in checking our bank accounts nothing had been taken out so we knew the wallet probably hadn't been stolen. On Monday evening after work we felt like we should check Crystal's house again. In checking we found the wallet in the grass by a wall. It was semi-hidden, but we felt so blessed that it hadn't been stolen after being in the grass 4 days and during a wedding reception.

The wedding was wonderful and I have more pictures that I might post later. These are ones that a family friend took. We had a family luncheon at the pizza factory after the wedding and then the reception was that night. Like I said we got soaked so those of you who know my hair know what that means....lots of friziness for the reception yay! And after getting up at 6am to straighten my hair was a pain. But the reception went well too and the rain cleared up just as it was supposed to start, which was good since most of the reception was outside.

Here are a few pictures that a family friend took. When I get other pictures I will post them in another post.

The happy couple leaving

Dancing

Me looking like a ghost and James looking happy

Beautiful Roses

One of my co-workers, Sharon, grows beautiful roses in her garden. She has even won national awards for her roses. She brought me these two beautiful roses Monday morning to celebrate being pregnant.

Exciting News

James and I are super stoked because we are having a baby! I'm 15 weeks along right now and not sick anymore. Yay! We got to see the baby once at 8 weeks, and we've heard the heartbeat twice now. On July 16th we get to find out what the baby is. I'm really excited so we can REALLY start planning and setting up the baby room once we find out. I know I keep saying how excited we are, but after trying after over 3 years, we couldn't be happier. This Mother's day was amazing, because I wasn't sad like I usually am when all of the other mothers get celebrated. James got me the gliding rocker in the picture for Mother's Day this year. Last night we bought my first few maternity clothes items as my pants aren't fitting well anymore. We also have been getting tons of free stuff from everywhere. Who knew first-time mothers got so much free samples and stuff.

Our little tadpole at 8 weeks

15 Weeks

Some sweet things that we've already gotten in the mail from family

Concerts

So James and I got to go to the Fleetwood Mac Concert Last Night which was amazing! I absolutely loved it! I have been to see Stevie Nicks by herself twice and I enjoyed her by herself a little more, but it was still an amazing show. I thought I would do little photo chronology of the concerts I have attended. James never attended concerts of famous people before I met him so I'll put on the list when he started attending them with me. Since some are from long ago before digital pictures and since I'm at work and don't have access to all my pictures, I will just post a random pic of the person in concert. James' favorite concert was definitely Smashing Pumpkins. I have loved all the concerts, but my favorite was probably Aerosmith because I went with two of my best girl friends in highschool (Autumn and Tiffany) and two of my best guy friends (Cullen and Curtis). We had grass passes so we danced the night away and Aerosmith even came out to a separate stage on the lawn near us and played for us on the lawn as well. I hadn't really realized how many concerts I had gone to until I compiled this list. I absolutely love concerts it's so fun to see good music live.

Summer of 1998: Stevie Nicks Enchanted Tour in Raleigh NC (Opening Act: Bozz Scaggs, went with my good friend Imani: we are both huge Stevie Nicks fans)


Summer of 2001: Stevie Nicks Trouble in Shangri-La Tour in Raleigh NC (Can't remember if there was an opening act, went with my friend Imani again)


October 2002: Aerosmith Girls of Summer Tour in Raleigh NC (Opening Acts: Mest and Kid Rock: definitely not my favorite bands)


James and I got married, so now he comes to the shows with me.

March 2006: Counting Crows in SLC UT (A picture I actually took)


Fall 2007: Smashing Pumpkins in Orem UT (Opening Act: The Bravery: Had really bad potty mouths, while Smashing Pumpkins were way clean)


March 2008: Collective Soul in SLC UT


Summer of 2008: Journey, Heart, Cheaptrick in SLC UT

Journey

Heart

Cheaptrick with their wicked crazy guitar

June 2009: Fleetwood Mac Unleashed Tour in SLC UT (More pictures I actually took, no opening acts either)

Memorial Day Weekend

I have tons of pics to post, but I'll put those at the end. For Memorial Day weekend James and I decided to go to the Grand Canyon since I had never been there. We left on Wednesday night and stayed in Kanab and then on Thursday morning drove to the Grand Canyon. It wasn't too hot and was pretty cloudy. It didn't make for good pictures, but it was nice that it wasn't too hot. Thursday night it rained and rained for like 10 hours straight. We didn't get wet in our tent but it was so loud it was hard to sleep. Friday we woke up and made some Heavenly Hash for breakfast. We then did an amazing hike down to "Dripping Springs". Getting back up was hard, but way worth it, it was so beautiful. We ate at a super nice restaurant in the Grand Canyon to reward ourselves for the hike. When we left the restaurant it was colder outside and the wind was picking up again. We got back to our campsite and it started raining again..... James turned to me and we decided that we had HAD it, so we smooshed our muddy tent and tarp into our trunk and slept in the car, which was much less noisy than the tent and slept while it rained another 10 hours straight. The next morning we left and decided we'd stay in Kanab for 2 nights instead of just 1. We found the LAST motel room in Kanab and played around Kanab. We went to this movie set museum that was free and played around there. The Sunday we got up and went to Bryce's National Park which was absolutely beautiful. We then drove back to Kanab again and stayed the night. Monday morning we got up early and went to drive through St. George and though Zion's National Park on the way home. James took over 300 pictures on our whole trip. We saw a bunch of deer and coyotees. We even saw some wild turkey's but they ran away before we could get their picture. Now after that long story enjoy some pictures.

Our Campsite. It was a nice campsite. Even though we shared it with over 300 other people they were spaced out enough that we weren't overcrowded.

The Grand Canyon behind us

Getting ready to go on our hike. Notice the clouds.

Bryce's Canyon behind us