Hip Hip HOORAYYYY!!!!!!

Hello everybody!!! I'm back! We had a baby boy on February 18th at 8:29 am. He weighed in at 8 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. After all the jostling and stuff trying to get the kid to come out - in the end all I had to do was go out with Chris and some of our friends to the travelling yuk yuk's show and laugh my ass off! Here is the story of Ryley's birth....

I went to the doctor on Friday and asked her about inducing me and she gave me all the risks of an induction if it wasn't needed and so the decision was made that we would wait out the arrival of the baby cause it wasn't worth the risks. She did an internal exam and found that my cervix was soft and more to the front than my last exam. On Friday night I started feeling some mild contractions but found they weren't going anywhere so chalked them up to strong braxton hicks. I went to bed around midnight thinking if it were really contractions then I better get some rest cause its going to be a long one. My labour with Dani from start to finish was 36 hours and with Zach it was 24 hours - so you can understand why I figured we were in for a long haul. On Saturday morning I woke up with nothing - no contractions, no cramping, nothing! I was a little disappointed but figured oh well might as well go down and take in some of what was going on for rendezvous around the city. So we took the kids down to see what was going on downtown and then up to the static air display at the airport. They were supposed to have some parachuters jump but the ceiling was too low and they weren't able to jump. When we were done there we went back to the duplex and Chris and I decided that we were going to go out to the Yuk Yuk's performance that night - as a last hoorah before the baby comes! On the way out the door I told my mom that nothing else seems to be working so I was going to go and laugh the baby out!

During the performance I was getting the same kind of contractions as the night before. I would be getting one and the guy would say something funny and then I would start laughing and it would hurt and then he would say something else in the same sentence and I thought for sure I was going to die because I was laughing so hard it hurt. We got home around midnight and I felt fine. So I went to bed cause the next day was the parade and we were going to take the kids down to watch it.

At 2:45 I woke up with some pretty full on contractions. So I got up and wandered around the house trying to make sure this was definately "it" before I woke Chris up. I tried timing them but I figured I was doing it wrong cause there was no way that they could be 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute each.... or could there? Anyway at 3:30 I finally woke Chris up and had him start timing them and sure enough they were 3 inutes apart and lasting 1 minute each. We decided to head to the hospital right away cause I wanted the epidural and who knows what will happen when its your third. So we both had a quick shower, woke my mom up and told her we were going to the hospital, kissed the other two and headed out. We got to the hospital at 4:00am.

On the elevator ride up to the maternity ward I said to Chris "all I have to do is get to 4 and then I can have an epidural" We both figured we would be there in labour for at least the next 18 hours. I even thought they may send me home cause I had just started having contractions only an hour before. So we got a room and they put me on a monitor and monitered me for the next half hour and then they checked me - I was at FIVE!!! FIVE CENTIMETERS DILATED!!!! I asked the nurse if she was shitting me! So they called my doctor to come in. At 5:30 the doctor got there and at 6:15 the epidural doctor got there. Thank god I got the epi cause by this time I had started haveing piggy back contractions. So I would get two or three in a row with no break in the middle and then I would get a break and then a really hard contraction and then another break and another set of piggy back ones. By 7:00 the epi was in place and the drugs were starting to take effect. By 7:20 my waters broke and they checked me I was at NINE!!! I have never gone through labour so fast in my life! Because I was the only one in labour that night the party was in my room! We hung out for the last hour bullshitting with the nurses and the doctor. I told them at around 8:25 that I could feel it in my butt. So the doctor asked how I wanted to deliver this baby - I didn't realize that she meant what position do I want to be in to deliver the baby - so in true Nicki-Jo smart ass fashion I told her I was going to sneeze three times and she would have to catch the baby. She just laughed. At 8:26 she said ok go ahead and push.

At 8:29 Ryley Nicholas was born - thats right folks THREE MINUTES to push out the little bundle of joy! Chris and I were eccstatic! All I had to do was laugh my ass off!

We got home last night and I can tell you it was so nice to sleep in my very own bed! Baby is a great sleeper and feeds like the littlest piggy (he even snorts) Dani and zach are just totally in love with him. Last night before we all went to bed I sat on the couch to nurse Ryley and Dani sat down beside me with her doll and we sat together breastfeeding our babies. She makes me laugh!

Anyway I am off to feed my munchkin, bye for now.

Stupid thing won't let me upload pictures - I will try again later.