Isla Ryan Skene has arrived!

At 2 am on Friday morning, September 19th, I was awoken by a fairly large contraction. I told myself it was nothing and tried to go back to sleep. About twenty minutes later I felt another one. This continued on until about 3 am when I decided it was time to get up and time the contractions just to make sure it was still "nothing". I couldn't possibly be going into labor, I still have just over two weeks left. So I sat downstairs and watched old "Saved by the Bell: the College Years" episodes as I timed my contractions. They were fairly inconsistent being anywhere from fifteen to five minutes apart. I got out my trusty pregnancy book we got at our birthing class and started to read about how to tell the difference between true and false labor. I had heard so many stories of moms who went to the hospital because they thought they were in labor, only to be turned away because they were in false labor - I did not want this to happen to me. If I was going to the hospital I wanted to stay there. The first test was to take a walk and see if the contractions subsided or if they got more intense. Since it was about 5 am in the morning and still dark out I figured I would wait as long as I could to wake Ryan up so he could go with me. At about a quarter to six I decided it was time and went to wake Ryan up. After I told him the situation he quickly got up, got dressed, got his handy stop watch, leashed up the dog and off we went for a nice morning walk. During the 30 minute walk I had about four very intense contractions (we had to stop at a tree so I could brace myself against it as the contractions happened). You would have thought that by now I would have been convinced that I was in "true" labor, but I wasn't. I decided to go home take a bath and continue to time my contractions.

During the next hour as I took my bath, the contractions were about five to four minutes apart and lasting a minute long and getting more intense. At this time Ryan was running around the house packing his labor bag and getting the car seat base strapped into his car. He loves to save these things for the last minute! After I got out of the bath we decided it was time to call the doctor to see what they thought about my situation. "Go to the hospital" was their response. So Ryan and I said good-bye to the dog and got in the car. We called our families on the way to let them know what was happening so they could make arrangements to get to Boise. Also along the way to the hospital I had two contractions, with one lasting over a minute, that were probably the worst yet. Thank goodness the hospital was only seven minutes from our front door. On the way from the parking lot to the hospital I had two more contractions that were intense as well. So intense that Ryan and I had to stop walking so I could bend over and brace myself against a concrete pillar. This caused many people to stop and ask if I was okay and needed a wheel chair. By this point I was hoping I wasn't in "false" labor because if I was I couldn't imagine what "real" labor felt like.

After a nice man met us at the door of the hospital with a wheel chair they rolled me up to triage on the labor and delivery floor. The triage nurse (who was probably the meanest person ever!) checked me and realized that my water had broke and began to drill me on when I think it happened. I had no idea, not to mention I was having a contraction at the time she was drilling me. My guess is that it happened sometime between when I woke up at 2 am and when we arrived at the hospital at 8:30 am. I now realize this is why my contractions were so intense. After the nurse got over drilling me she checked me and I was 3 cm and 100% effaced and told Ryan and I that we were definitely going to have a baby that day. She called my doctor who informed her to get me into a labor and delivery room and get me an epidural whenever I wanted it. I told the nurse that now would be as good of a time as any, but they needed to get me on an IV before that happened.

About thirty minutes later (or six contractions later as this is how I was measuring the time now) I got into my labor and delivery room and met my new nurse Hope. At this point I was having bad back labor so she showed Ryan how to massage my back to lessen the pain. Hope quickly hooked me up to an IV and sometime later (by this time I had no concept of time as I was in another place due to the pain) the epidural arrived and I was saved! The nurse checked me again at about 10:30 and I was 5 cm dilated. Anna arrived right as the drugs were kicking in so Ryan was the only lucky one to witness me during my painful contraction phase. He was such a great coach and helped me remain as calm as I could have been.

I tried to sleep after I got the epidural, but I was so excited that I was going to meet our little girl, I couldn't. Ryan, Anna, Hope and I all chatted about who knows what as we waited for me to progress. At about 11:30 Hope checked me again and I was already at 9cm! I was progressing very quickly. So we waited another hour and at 12:30 I was 10 cm and it was time to push. For three whole hours I pushed and pushed. My poor baby got her head stuck in my narrow pelvis bones so we had to corkscrew her out of there. Her heart rate never dropped so we continued to push as long as she was doing okay. By 3:15 my doctor arrived and decided it was time to just get her out of there. So two more pushes later, at 3:30 pm, little Isla made her entrance into the world. She weighed in at 6 lbs 11 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She had a full head of black hair (not sure where this came from, but we love it!) and had lips the size of Angelina Jolie's! We later learned that she had been sucking on them and that is why they were so big at birth. They have since calmed down, but are still just as beautiful.

I am proud to say that I am now a part of the exclusive club of giving birth. It was painful, scary, amazing, and emotional. I would do it all again if it meant that Isla would be there at the end. She has been such a joy and we can't imagine our lives without her. Here are some pictures from her birth day:

Happy Momma after her epidural:

Freaked out Dad when we learned I was already at 9 cm:

Isla has arrived! Check out those lips:

Holding Dad's finger:

Proud Papa:

Proud Auntie:

Tired after a long day: