The Shaban Family: The birth story of Rylee June~

Well here we are a week later with a new beautiful baby girl in tow!:) It is so hard to believe that a whole week has gone by! I am sure the sleepless nights (little stinker has her nights and days mixed up) is part of the reason it seems to have gone by so fast. It's almost like a haze looking back on the last week. So that is why I wanted to write this story sooner then later so I didn't forget anything or have the moment/memory get anymore "hazy" in my mind. So here it goes...

I will start back last Monday (July 25th) at my 39 week check up. Dr. Jenkins checked me and I was dilated to 3 and about 60% thinned out so she stripped my membranes to hopefully put me into labor on my own...if I didn't go naturally I was schedule to be induced August 1st (her due date). Typically my OB likes to wait until 41 weeks to induce anyone but I asked to be induced at 40 weeks and she gave me the OK. Honestly, I figured if that was the way it was going to end up (me having to be induced) I didn't want to wait until 41 weeks because we have Kris' family coming into town and Brady starts his swim lessons and having her at 40 weeks would give us a whole week before our company came to adjust to life as a family of 4:) Anyways...I hated the idea of having her birth date "picked out" already but I had to be induced with Brady so I already knew what to expect. However...going into labor naturally was just one of the prayers God answered for me:) Obviously every night I would pray for a healthy child and an uncomplicated delivery...but weeks before she came I would pray and pray to go into labor naturally. I just wanted to experience the labor/delivery process that way. But the main reason I wanted to go into labor naturally was because it would be easier for me with Brady. I was having a REALLY hard time with the feeling that I was going to be "taking" something from him...my time, my full undivided attention, sharing my love, etc...and at night I would just rock him to bed and just cry and pray. Pray that it would be an easy transition for him and that he would NEVER feel that we didn't love him as much or that he wasn't our #1. Anyways...I just knew if it came to the morning of the induction saying good bye to him was just going to be so hard, so if I went into labor naturally I wouldn't have much time to think about leaving him and having the whole dramatics of "leaving to have another child...which will forever change his world" type of dramatics! So needless to say when my water started to "leak" Thursday morning of July 28th...I was taken off guard and didn't have time to think about the dramatics!

I woke up feeling really good and full of energy that morning! I actually got a text from my friend Stevie asking if "I was going to have that babe?" and my response was "feeling pretty good and I don't think she is coming today." I work late on Thursdays (12:30-8pm) so I had the morning to hang out with Brady before I have to bring him to daycare. That morning we were playing down in our basement on the medicine ball. Brady loves to bounce on the ball and I was sitting on it and he was bouncing with me. Then we played a game of "chase" and then were playing on the bed where he loves to be thrown on the bed and then bounce on it while falling down again. Brady likes to play rough and maybe our little play session resulted in my water leaking...or maybe not. Anyways...it was about 9:45am and I was getting Brady dressed to bring him to daycare when I noticed a little leaking. Honestly, at first I just thought it was a little pee (hey...when you are 39+ weeks pregnant and having braxton hicks contractions sometimes that happens lol!) but then after I dropped Brady off at daycare a "more then a leak" happened when I was driving home and I thought "hmmm that can't be pee!"But I was still not really believing it because that happened with Brady and I had to go into the hospital to have them check the fluid and it wasn't amniotic fluid so they sent me home. So I thought this was probably the same situation...but I thought I would call to see what they wanted me to do anyways. And sure enough they wanted me to come in to have it checked out. So I called Kris (who was working at the moving company) and told him to come home because if it was my water we were obviously going to have to stay at the hospital. I also called work and told them I wasn't going to be able to make it in...which it was going to be my last day anyways. Oh...and let me back up....when I dropped Brady off at daycare I just gave him a kiss and said "Mommy loves you and see ya later" because at that point I didn't think that was the last time I was going to see him/kiss him as my only child. Which looking back, like I wrote earlier, made that part of the experience that much easier on me since I didn't really know what to expect.

We got to the hospital at 11:45am and I wasn't really having any contractions (painful ones at least) and they tested my fluid and it was in fact amniotic fluid so they brought me down to a labor room and said "Congratulations! You are having your baby girl today" and at that point it hit me! OMG!! Dr. Jenkins came in and checked me and I was dilated to almost 4 and she noticed that I still had a lot more water in my amniotic sac so she broke the rest of it. That was at 12:45pm and after she broke the rest of my sac my contractions started. I didn't really have a "labor/delivery plan" I just knew I wanted to try and do an all natural birth but wasn't opposed to getting drugs. However I didn't want to do an epidural this time if I needed drugs but wanted a spinal block...which wears off faster then the epidural. I got an epidural with Brady and I just hated how long it lasted after the birth, so I thought the spinal block seemed like a good option for me. Anyways...for about the first 2 hours it was just Kris and I in the room and then when I got to about 7cm I called my Mom and sister they came to the hospital. Things were going really well until I got to about 8-9 cm and then I was in SO much pain I couldn't take it and wanted to get the spinal (which they can do last minute like that, which is another reason why I chose that over the epidural). The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the spinal block and it DID NOT work! I thought I was going to die! My contractions were just so intense and to have the hope that I was going to have relief and then have it not happen was a kick in the stomach!:( Anyways...Dr. Jenkins checked me and said I could start pushing because the baby was down far enough...but if I wanted to get more drugs they could call the anesthesiologist back. At that point I was like "Get this baby out of me!!!" So I started pushing and pushed for 3 contractions and she was out!! And immediately after she came out the pain was gone and here I had this beautiful baby girl laying on my chest at 5:01pm! It was a beautiful...she is beautiful! And as soon as I heard her cry I had a sense of calm come over me. God answered another prayer of mine, in which I am just SO SO grateful. Having a baby is such a blessing, and having a healthy baby is even a greater blessing and I am just so thankful.

Since we didn't tell anyone what her name was going to be I finally got to say it! Rylee June!! We chose that name because we really liked the name Riley for a boy, but after we found out we were having a girl I still just loved the name and thought 'hey! Jamie is a boy/girl name so our little girl can have a boy/girl name to!' We spelled it Rylee because my middle name is Lee and so is my Dad's and her middle name June because that is my Mom's first name and my sister's middle name. So in a sense it is kind of my whole family rolled into her name and we loved it:) Rylee weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20.5 inches long:) She is our little peanut...compared to Brady who just seemed so much bigger when he was born!

And now here we are a week later and life is AMAZING! Brady has adjusted better then I would have thought. He LOVES to give his sister kisses and hasn't seemed to be to jealous and loves to help burp her and throw her diapers away. The other day I was sitting on the couch and had Rylee in one arm and Brady underneath my other arm and I just thought THANK YOU JESUS! This is what life is all about. LOVE....love for your family, love for your kids, love for your husband, love for your friends. I am just so FULL of LOVE and I couldn't be any happier!!