Happy Birthday Taylor Ryan Smith!!!

Mr. Taylor Ryan Smith made his grand appearance on December 15, 2010

6 lbs. 10 oz.

20 1/2 inches

With every birth, there is a story, and this one is no different.  Taylor took us by surprise to say the least, but we couldn’t be more excited.  So, here it goes…

And apologies that it is so long.

On Wednesday morning, I woke up as usual to the sound of the alarm at 7 am with Casey to have our usual breakfast.  I suddenly had the biggest urge to pee, and as soon as I stood up, whoosh!  Nothing else could describe that feeling.  I was slightly confused, but I made it to the bathroom for another gush of water.  I thought, “Well, I guess I really had to pee.”  I had heard of stories of women loosing control of their bladder, and thought that maybe that is just what happened. So, I continued the morning as usual.  I went to let the dogs out, but as I was doing so, I was still leaking and went to the bathroom 5 more times in a matter of 15 minutes.  Casey came down stairs, and I told him I thought something weird happened.  I told him about the series of events, and Casey’s immediate reaction was, “You should call the doctor.”  Well, I didn’t want to be one of those women who go to the hospital and they tell you, “You just peed yourself, go home.”  So I depended on what else? GOOGLE! I Googled “How do you know your water broke” and every sign pointed to that.  I came out of the computer room, and told Casey that I should call the doctor. (Casey of course rolled his eyes and gave me the “I told you so look.”)  As soon as I explained the situation, I was told to go directly to the hospital and they would let them know I was on my way.  Well, the nursery isn’t done, the hospital bag wasn’t packed, and the house was a mess, but Taylor was on his way, and there was nothing I could do about it.

When we arrived at the hospital, my pants were drenched again, and they were about to do the litmus paper test to see if indeed my water broke, but the nurse took one look at me and said, “We don’t need to check you, let’s get you into a room.”  We checked into our beautiful suite, flat screen plasma and all and prepared to have a baby!!  So many different emotions were running through my mind, excitement, trepidation, curiosity were just to name a few. I was still up in the air regarding an epidural, I asked many questions and decided to go ahead and do without for the time being, but let the nurse know that I didn’t want to get to far where I no longer had the option.  They checked me and determined that I was at 0-1, but my cervix was already paper thin, so they started me on a Pitocin drip to get things rolling.  I was just relaxing, watching TV, and completely comfortable.  I thought, wow, this isn’t so bad, a little uncomfortable, but not unbearable.  I even asked, “What do contractions feel like?”  Well, let me tell you what they felt like to me: a knife stabbing me in the stomach, and then followed by someone coming over and hitting me with a baseball bat repeatedly so I couldn’t breathe.  I was getting through them, then they started getting much closer together, as in I could barely catch my breathe until the next one was beginning. I began to throw up as well because of the pain and that’s when I yelled to Casey, “Get me whatever they have!”  They placed the epidural when I was dilated to 4-5 (which I was more afraid of than labor) and it was pure heaven.  I could feel the pressure of the contractions, but the pain was a distant memory, until I was 8-9 and the loading dose of the epidural wore off.  They reloaded the dose, and then came the pushing.  I wish I could say that pushing was great, and not painful, but that would be a bold faced lie.  It was hard, it was painful and it was a workout!  I pushed for an hour and a half, not bad for the first baby they tell me, but that hour and a half went by sooooooo slow! Casey was a great coach, and guided me through the whole thing like a champ.  He even put up with me when I just looked at him crying saying, “I can’t do it.”  He just kept telling me I was doing great, and I was almost there.  The best pushes I had was when I was pissed.  Not at Taylor or anyone else, I just wanted this baby out!!!  Finally he crowned.  I then gave the nurse a look of pure shock!  No one told me that the baby stays there like a constant contraction until you can fully push the baby through the last stretch of tissue.  I finally had one last set of pushes and out came our beautiful baby boy!

Casey was able to hold him first, since Taylor had to go straight to the warmer because he was a little early, but this picture of him was worth waiting to hold him.  You can just see the excitement on his face that he is a daddy.  He did cut the cord, and was sprayed with blood, something I thought was funny. 

I also wish I could say that I will forget all the pain, like many women say, but that isn’t true either.  I will definitely have more children, don’t get me wrong, I will just know what to expect next time. It is true, however, it was all worth it to have this little man looking up at me when I say his name or hears my voice. To see his beautiful eyes take in the world around.  To see his daddy absolutely head over heels in love with his son. To feel his skin on my skin.  To be able to comfort him with a simple mother’s touch. And so many other things that I know will be coming.  I thought I had a couple more weeks, but I am so thankful that I didn’t have to wait to meet this wonderful person who has already blessed us with so much happiness. 

I guess he just wanted to be here for Christmas.  He knew that his daddy and I would be alone and couldn’t bear it.