Ruby's Birth Story

On July 30th, I woke up at midnight having contractions and with in a few hours was having a contraction every four minutes.  Guy and I loaded up the kids, dropped them off at Kim's house, and made the drive down to Loma Linda.  Unfortunately we made the drive for nothing, because I was only dilated to two centimeters and was sent home after contractions stopped.

The next night, July 31st, I woke up to use the restroom just after midnight and my water broke.  This time Grandma came over and stayed with the kids and again, Guy and I headed down to Loma Linda.  We arrived about 3:30am, and were admitted right away.  At 4:30 the nurse offered me an epidural, however my contractions were still not regular so I refused.  I knew that the epidural had stalled my labor previously and I didn't want that to happen again.  Pitocin was started and what felt like immediately I was having contractions every 3 minutes.  After a couple hours I was checked and had progressed to 5 centimeters.  YAY!  At that point I said bring on the epidural.  The epidural worked fabulously...for a few hours.  Then slowly I started feeling the contractions and eventually I could feel my right side, leg, and all of the contractions.  The nurse called the anesthesiologist, but of course they were busy.  I waited and waited, while the contractions became more intense.  The nurse eventually turned town the pitocin and offered to give me some pain medication through my IV.  When that didn't help she checked me and realized that the baby was down and I was ready to push!  I couldn't believe it!! Of course that is when the real water works started because of the fear of pushing with out an epidural.  The doctor came in, and twenty minutes of pushing later she was here...Ruby Lynn Thomas.

Guy and my Mom were both in the room.  When the doctor said it was a girl we were all so excited and the tears were flowing.  They put her directly on me for skin to skin contact.  I felt like she was having some trouble breathing and needed to be looked at so the nurses took her to check her out and Guy went along.  Everything was great, she just had a little trouble with the transition.  Overall, she was perfect. 

We are so excited to finally have her here!  I am excited to see the relationships grow between the kids and looking forward to seeing what our new routine and family dynamic will be.  With every baby my heart grows and right now I feel the love overflowing.  I am so lucky!