The day he came...

I have put off actually writing anything and just posting pictures for long enough. I thought I'd document the day baby Riley came for all of you.

I'll start with the night before. We didn't finish our house cleaning, but Chris said no more. He told me he would come home and make sure it was ready while I was at the hospital. He is the best husband for me. Going through childbirth for the second time has brought us even closer and I am thankful that God brought us together at such a young age. He is such an amazing husband.

We took Mckenzee and Macy to my parents. This would be the first night we have ever been child AND dog free since Mckenzee was born. This was her first night away from both of us at the same time. I have to say, it was nice. We came home and hung out a little. We made sure everything was ready to go to the hospital. We went to bed late, which is very typical of us. We always wish by the time we are in bed that we had come to bed much sooner. I had a meltdown then. I was just so scared to go through with everything in the morning. My experience with Mckenzee was not a good one and I just didn't know how this one would be either. Chris prayed for me and hugged me and that calmed me down some.

The alarm went off at 4:00am. Chris woke me up and I got in the shower. I will say it is much easier to get ready when you are not tending to a two year old. Of course, if I took to showering at 4 am every morning I wouldn't be tending to a two year old anyway. We left about 5:15. It was dark outside and I looked at the moon and stars and tried to imprint them in my brain to remember to tell Riley about how they looked the day he was born.


When we arrived at the hopital we went to Labor and Delivery. I told them my name and that I was there to check in for a c-section. It was very quiet and I felt like I was the only one there. There were so many nurses taking care of me and they were all so nice. We went straight to our room and she tried to start my IV and get blood to fill the viles for whatever they needed and Riley's cord blood collection. The first IV didn't take, but hurt like hell. The second one hurt worse, but they got it in. She tried to get the blood from there and I took it as long as I could and had to tell her to stop because she was losing me. Finally, a wonderful nurse named Alyssa came in and drew blood from my arm.....what a novel idea. I barely felt it and she got all that she needed. The dang IV still hurt hours later. I met the anesthesiologist, Keith, and I liked him very much. He was what I figured was a young, thirty something, black man wearing green scrubs and a Pittsburgh Steelers "doo rag" if you will, I am not sure about that lingo. He was sarcastic and funny and very much what I needed to calm my nerves. I later learned, after hearing him talk, that he was probably older than my parents. I'm telling you, I wouldn't have put him over 35 and I would've bet money on it.

My sweet nurse walked me to the OR. I asked if Chris could come and she said not until I was prepped. I hated that. He didn't get to be with me before either, but that time was a little more hurried and he had to get his scrubs on while they took me back. I was terrified of the spinal. The nurse held my face and counted for me to breathe. Her hands were soft and cold like my mom's when I am sick so I pretended she was my mom. Finally, that was done and they laid me back. Let me just say after having two c-sections the spinal is FAR better than the epidural for c-sections. I felt pain and pressure like I was getting my insides punched out with Mckenzee and this time I felt very little pressure at all, BUT I had numbness up into my face and it felt like someone was sitting on my chest and I couldn't breathe well, but Keith said I was breathing fine and that was all in my head. He put the cold rag on my neck and asked if I could feel that it was cold and I said no. I'll post a picture of me soon and you can see how my facial muscles are sagging. I look like a chipmunk....weird.

I asked then if I could have my husband back and they let him in. I told them that I did not want ANY medicine that would make me sleepy. They gave me something with Mckenzee because I was feeling so much and I was very sleepy when she came and I hated that.

Chris sat by my head and talked to me and held my hand. It helped to see his face and hear his voice.

I know this is not very entertaining.....and that's all I have in me right now...to be continued.......