Ryker Thomas!

Our sweet boy made his appearance on August 25th at 4:04 in the afternoon!  He weighed 7lbs6oz and was 20 inches long.  We are so in love!

Here is his birth story:::
I had a very long, drawn out labor... something that I was not at all expecting! With Lexi's labor and delivery, things happened SO fast that I hardly had time to think. I was expecting (hoping!) that things would be similar this time. I was so wrong. 
On Sunday the 24th, my water started leaking around 1pm. I quickly took a shower and got ready, just in case things happened fast... I wanted to be clean! But for the next few hours, nothing happened. It was like my water hadn't even broken. Around 8 pm we decided to go ahead and head to the hospital. They got me all check in and settled into a room. I told them that I didn't want pitocin to speed things up (plus, I can only have a small amount because of having a previous c section). So the plan was to walk a lot, sit on the birth ball, stay hydrated, and monitor Ryker off and on. This continued for the next 8ish hours. And hardly anything was happening. Contractions weren't really getting stronger or closer together. I decided that starting a very slow drip of pitocin would probably be best. They checked me for the first time and I was at 4cm. We started at the lowest amount of Pitocin and slowly added more over the next few hours until things finally began to pick up. 
Sometime late in the morning (I have no idea what time...), I was having really intense contractions and my body felt like it was trying to help Ryker move down. I was having a hard time with each contraction and was really hoping that I would be almost complete/ready to push when they checked me again... but I was only at 7cm. I had planned on having a drug-free birth, but decided at this point that an epidural was the right decision. I was very disappointed that I wasn't further along, and after having no sleep and very little food, I just didn't have the energy or strength to continue without drugs. I got an epidural and had to lay down and wait for it to kick in... which was absolute torture! Having to lay on your back through super intense contractions is incredibly hard. The epidural wasn't working very well, so they added a dose of lidocain, which numbs you COMPLETELY. After a little while, I was ready to push. I tried and tried, and he did move down, but I was SO exhausted from having no sleep and very little food plus I was SO numb that I was almost falling asleep between pushes. We decided to take an hour break for me to get a quick nap. They turned the epidural off so that I could get a little less numb, but that made it impossible for me to sleep. I was emotionally DONE and I knew the only way for things to get better was to muster the strength and push him out. I prayed and prayed that God would give me strength to push. And it only took a few pushes and Ryker was born! Once his shoulders were out, I was able to grab him and pull him onto my chest myself. That is THE BEST feeling in the world!
As he was coming out, the doctor noticed that he had a fore-sac wrapped over his head. It was a tiny, secondary amniotic sac that had been in front of his head the whole time. Who knew?! That explains why my labor never really progressed how it should have and why he wasn't positioned properly to help me dilate! Ryan said it looked like he was wearing a hoodie when he came out. Ha! 
Although I am a little disappointed that my plans for a drug-free birth didn't happen, the circumstances were out of my control and I did the very best I could with the situation I was in. I am so thankful that I was able to have another successful VBAC and that both Ryker and I are happy and healthy!

 (My fantastic doula, Meghann!)

We love you so much, little guy!