Loving Life with the Holcombs

Well it's been about a year since my last post. This blog never really fell out of my mind, but definitely out of my priority list. I wish I was able to keep it going better. All the funny things Reese (and now Ryder!) says and does day in and day out deserve a place to be remembered (since I am not a journal-er by any means!). We'll see if I can be any better about this with two kiddos, doubtful, but its worth a shot. If anything I thought I better revive the blog to at least share Mr. Ryder's birth story. I am so glad I did this with Reese. As I went back and read hers, there are so many things I had already forgotten so I am glad the story has been recorded and preserved. This is what I want for Ryder too, so I thought I better get around to it before I forgot all the details! So here we go...

Last bare belly shot taken about a week before Ryder's birth

Background:
In order to fully depict the craziness surrounding Ryder's birth I need to back up a few days. It all started on May 1, Chris' 30th birthday. I had a great last date night prepared in celebration of Chris' birthday. However, a nasty cold he picked up had other plans. Chris felt miserable that day and we decided to post-pone the date for the following week (or so we thought). I felt a little bummed out that we couldn't go, but knew it was important that Chris get better quick. I felt a little nervous about getting the cold myself. I am normally extremely healthy and have a great immune system, however this pregnancy has taken a toll on this and allowed me multiple colds which are especially hard to deal with when you can't take anything! Well of course Thursday rolled around

At the zoo a few hours before my water broke

and I started to feel sick! I had a doctors appointment that morning and just felt pretty crappy and was running a low grade fever. The baby was also pretty lazy that day, just really not moving a whole lot so I decide to mention this to my doctor during our appointment. Upon checking me out she confirmed that I hadn't progressed from the following week in terms of dilation (I was happy about this because I felt like I needed at least another week to get stuff done and get over this cold!). She checked the little man's heart-rate and was a bit concerned. It was pretty high, in the 170s-low 80s when it should be 130s-150s at this point in pregnancy. So it was then that I had my first non stress test ever. For those that haven't had one, you have to sit in a chair and be monitored for contractions, baby movement and baby's hear-rate. They want to make sure baby is "happy" inside still. The chair was extremely uncomfortable on my aching body that I could tell was getting more and more feverish. The little man wasn't moving around much at all and still had a skyrocketed hear-rate. They gave me some apple juice to perk him up which thankfully did the trick. He resumed his movement and over the course of an hour and a half his hear-rate returned to normal. I was released with instructions to take it easy and take Tylenol and keep the fever down. That night my fever just increased and I felt miserable. The tylenol kept it to an acceptable level, but I felt awful. Thankfully Chris took pity on me and took Friday off so he could help me out with Reese. I literally could not get out of bed most the day. Something about being 9 months pregnant with a cold and fever just wouldn't allow me to do much at all. That night as I settled down for some tv before bed, I got a call from my sister Leila. She explained that she was pretty sure her water broke! I couldn't believe it! She was still 17 days from her due date and I just didn't think this would be the weekend for anything to happen! I was bummed too because I knew being sick would prevent me from heading down to the hospital. At 11:30pm we received a message confirming that her water had in fact broken and she would be receiving her repeat c-section as soon as possible. I was so excited for her, but again annoyed that I couldn't rush down to the hospital to be apart of it! My nephew Drew Subhi Bellah arrived just after 2:00am weighing a wopping 8lbs 9 oz and was 20 inches. Pretty good size for a baby 16 days early, which

more at the zoo

is ironically exactly how early Reese was! The next morning I still felt sick, but no longer had a fever and felt much better than I had the previous few days. I made sure it was ok for me to head down to the hospital to meet my nephew. I donned a mask and didn't hold him, but it was so much fun seeing this little butterball. He looked nothing like my other nephew and actually more like Reese than anything. I was very happy I got to see him and went home to rest for the remainder of the day. Sunday rolled around and I was finally feeling much better. I still had the cold, but I was functioning. We decided to take Reese and Luke to the zoo and enjoy the beautiful day. We walked around for two hours and enjoyed all the animals. I mentioned to Chris a few times that I thought baby might have been moving down a bit, but was still pretty sure he was going to make me hold out to meet him longer than his impatient sister did! After the zoo, I got to head down to the hospital for another Drew visit and then back to my parents for our regular Sunday dinner. This is when things got interesting!

Ryder's Birth Story:


Walking the hospital in early labor

It was about 6:00pm and was in the middle of making a marinade for a salmon when I just started to feel a little crampy. I went to use the bathroom and as I did heard a pop followed by a gush of liquid. I kept thinking, ok I'm am pretty sure I am not peeing, but when you're on the pot anyway, its a little hard to distinguish! I couldn't believe what was happening, this is exactly what my sister described happening to her a few days earlier! My water didn't ever break with Reese so this was a whole new experience. I called my sister and she confirmed that she was also pretty sure my water broke, however I wasn't fully convinced yet, how could this guy be coming earlier then his sister (a full 18 days!). I called the on call doctor who told me she was pretty sure it was my water, but they would have to confirm. She said to get my things in order and get to the hospital within the next hour and a half. I couldn't believe it, I still needed a week to get stuff done! The house was a mess, and we still had a list of things we

Laboring on the ball

wanted to do! We left Reese with my parents who were in about as much shock as we were, and headed home. We raced about the house trying to get it picked up. I still wasn't having any contractions that I noticed at this point. I was frustrated that my body hadn't kicked it into high gear yet and was determined to get things going on my own so I could avoid being induced. I thought that I might take a walk around the neighborhood ( I actually told Chris I was going to run, but he convinced me that might not be good for the baby without the water to cushion, probably smart!). However, as we got going in the house I figured all the quick running around of housework would probably be the same as a walk. We finished packing our bags, picked up as much as we could and around the house, and finally decided to head down to the hospital around 8:00pm. We arrived around 8:30pm to a very dead triage. They hooked me up to the monitors and said they would check me to see if I was in fact leaking fluid. The nurse said that if she could confirm by sight that I was leaking, then they wouldn't have to perform the test to confirm. I was still not really contracting much. A few here or there, but nothing much stronger than Braxton hicks. The baby was a little lazy again on the monitor, but his heart-rate looked good. This time they gave me cranberry juice which perked his movement back up. The nurse finally checked me and said I was about 2-3cm and 70% effaced. She also confirmed my water did break, which I figured but was definitely relieved that I wasn't just peeing myself! :) At this point they had a little dilemma. My water had broken so I was definitely not leaving the hospital without a baby, but active labor hadn't started either. I told her I wanted to avoid pitocin at all costs so she said she would give me a few hours to walk around and stir some things up. She also told us we better eat now if we want to. Chris had Jimmy Johns ordered to the emergency entrance which was the only thing opened in the hospital at this point. He set off to pick it up and I set off to get contractions going. I took loop after loop around the 5th floor. I did walking lunges, I did squats, I walked up and down a few steps I found. I told Chris I wish I had my running shoes and I would just jog, I was dead serious and that point too! I just had this fear that I would end up getting hooked up to pitocin which is the last thing I wanted. My body labored so well on its own with Reese, and I really didn't want the artificial stuff if I didn't need it. I just knew my body could do it better on its own. After a couple hours contractions were picking up a little bit. They were still fairly irregular, but coming! We went back to triage and they got us set with a room and a nurse. This was around 11:30pm. Once in our room contractions were coming about 7-10 min apart and were picking up strength. I was once again having pretty good back labor, so was pretty confident baby was sunny side up. I tried to stay in positions that would coax him to turn. I bounced on the ball, I walked lots, and finally I opted for the bath. Once in the bath, contractions seemed to slow down again. I got out pretty quick, got dressed and went walking again. This time, they really started to pick up. I couldn't walk through them anymore and they were pretty regular. I went back to the room, met the doctor that would be delivering me. She was great, and said she wouldn't even bring up Pitocin until 6am. I felt glad that I had a while to make sure things stayed moving along. The doctor checked me and at this point I was about 4cm and 75% effaced. This was around 1:45am. I felt happy for the progress, but at 4cm felt like it was going to be so much longer! After the doctor checked me, things kicked into high gear. Contractions were MUCH stronger and coming about 2-3 min apart. I walked for a bit, but after a few loops wanted to hit the tub again. The back labor was pretty intense, more so than the pain I experienced with Reese. I got in the tub for a bit and it definitely did not slow things down this time. I couldn't get comfortable in any position and contractions were piggy backing at this point. I hadn't been checked in a little bit, but I knew the way my body was responding that I was getting close to the 6-7cm mark that I wanted to be before I got my epidural. It was around 2:30am and I was exhausted since I hadn't slept well in several days. I declared it was epidural time and looked forward to a nap! I was hoping for the perfect epidural like I had with Reese, strong enough to be comfortable, but still move around and feel my legs. It started out good, but we quickly realized it was only effective on one side of my body. With each contraction I was thankful that I was numb on one side, but the other side was getting pounded. The back labor, mixed with strong contractions in the front were pretty consuming. They confirmed I was 6-7 cm like I thought and called the anesthesiologist back in to fix my epidural. He tried a couple things, but it wasn't working. He eventually just pulled out the whole thing and started over. I handled the contractions well, but was looking forward to a working epidural! Thankfully this one worked, but it was VERY strong. I could not move my legs well at all, but he assured me that after about an hour I should be at the level I wanted. Chris and I settled in for a little nap. It was about 4am at this point. I didn't think I would fall asleep but the lack of sleep over the past few days, and the long day I had just gone through had caught up to me and I soon started to fall in and out of blissful sleep! Not soon after I fell asleep I started to barely feel contractions again. They were not painful, but I could tell how strong they were. They were radiating through my back, lower stomach and legs. Once again I was so happy to be fairly numb and not going through this drug free. These contractions were right on top of each other with barely a minute in between. All the sudden the nurse came over and said she wanted to check me. She thought I might be ready to go based on the baby's activity pattern. Sure enough I was fully dilated and she said baby was pretty low. She had me do a quick practice push, and had me quickly stop. She said this guy would be out in no time and called the doctor in. I was so much more numb in my legs and lower half than I was with Reese. With Reese I was pain free, but could still feel what I was doing. Not the case with this epidural. I couldn't feel my legs well, but actually could slightly feel contractions. I was a little worried I might not be able to push effectively. I couldn't feel my lower half, but I could feel my stomach so when I pushed I used as much force from my abdominals as I could, which apparently paid off because it only took about 10-15 minutes for the little man to emerge! At 5:15 am I saw his head come out and the doctor told me to carefully reach down. It was the coolest moment as I got to deliver the rest of him and pull him up to my chest! I was pretty choked up in that moment as my new born son lay there on my chest! Such an awesome experience! He cried well and everyone commented on his good size for how early he was, a full 18 days! Chris and I looked at each other and confirmed he would be Ryder, the name we had been leaning towards since we discovered he would be a boy! His middle name is Marwan which is after my dad. I couldn't believe how easy the pushing phase was and had 1 stitch which the doctor said was hardly even worth it! We got to stay skin on skin for an hour and he fed well right off the bat (such a boy!). After our skin to skin time, the family that was there to greet him came in and watched him get weighed at measured. He came in at 7lbs 0.5oz and 18 inches long. Quite a bit bigger than his sister, and two days earlier! I am loving every minute with this little man and Reese is obsessed with her brother and wants to hold him all the time and bring me diapers whether I need them or not! I look forward to watching my two little ones grow up, they are our biggest blessing and I already cannot imagine being anything but a family of 4!