I have been avoiding hopping onto blogspot to write this blog because its been about 10 weeks since I last visited, and so much has happened in 10 weeks that I'm not sure I can do it justice without writing a novel...and I'm bad about being too lengthy anyways so settle in because I'm guessing this will be a long one..
Well, November 13, 2012, ended up being the day that will change our lives forever. Our beautiful son, Rhyder Josiah Ratliff, was born, and boy howdy are we in love! I had a routine doctor's appt on the 12th (he was due the 18th) and after a few minutes with my doctor, he had me in the ultrasound room with great concern that I had very little amniotic fluid left. Sure enough, the ultrasound proved that to be true and he could only find a 2cm pocket of fluid. At about 11 oclock that morning, he told me he wanted me to check into the hospital at 3pm that same day! Whoa! Talk about not expecting that one. Derrick was in Baytown that day for work about 2.5 hours away and he could not get away immediately. Of course my parents were in Shiner and Derrick's parents in Boyd so I was on my own for a while. I had 4 hours to put my entire life together including running last minute errands, wildly sending work emails, packing hospital bags for me and Derrick, preparing our dogs for a few days alone, preparing our house for post baby guests, etc etc. I was THE most productive person in the world those 4 hours.
At 3pm, I headed to the hospital and checked in at admissions and was then issued into my labor and delivery room. It was huge and everything we'd need for the next 24 hours was there waiting for Baby Rhyder.
I got all checked in and settled in and then Derrick finally arrived around 5-6ish. The doctor came to see me around 5 and as it turned out, my body went into labor that night...was getting contractions every 2-3 minutes. The nurse gave me something to slow them down a bit so I was getting them every 6-7 minutes, but they were twice as painful, so I'm not sure which was worse, but either way I got very very little sleep. The anesthesiologist came at 5am and gave me the epidural....wow, that stuff was God's gift to the descendants of Eve. :-) I respect women who choose to go all natural, but to be honest, I think they're a little crazy! haha. If I had been in that much pain that whole 24 hours until he was born, I would have wanted to die. I highly highly recommend an epidural!
The induction began at 6ish am and I contracted through the day and we finally got ready to go mid afternoon.
 |
| Apparently women in labor are hot...because I didn't think it was cold at all in there :-) |
I will skip all the lovely details of childbirth and head right to the point...our lil guy was born at 4:26pm and he was perfect..and BIG! My doctor and the nurses said they thought he'd be small to average. All assessments they'd done said 7-7.5ish pounds. The moment he was born, the doc said "whoa! big baby!" The nurse weighed him and said 9 lbs, 1 oz! Yikes.
He got to stay with us in the room after they cleaned him up and our family got to come meet him. Tears were shed and love was everywhere...it was truly a special time.
 |
| One of our first family photos! |
After about an hour, they moved me to my own private room where everyone was invited to come visit. I was totally impressed with everyone at the Med. My labor and delivery nurse was awesome and my recovery nurse was awesome too (get this...she was 81 years old and uh-mazing!!)
I have so many great pics but it would take forever to load them all so special thanks goes out to my mom and dad, Derrick's mom and dad, Logan, Kelly, Austin, Jason, Ian, Brittany, Nancy, Karis, and Kelsie for coming to the hospital to meet Rhyder. We were there for a total of 3 nights including the one before the night of the induction and I will admit, recovery was indeed very hard - a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. We got to go home on the 15th, but I was in pain for days afterwards and so far, the first 4 weeks have been extremely taxing on my body. One bad thing happened to me after another, but I think maybe, hopefully, I am finally on the up and up.
 |
| I came out of the shower one night to Derrick reading "Sheep in a Jeep" to Baby Rhyder :) So cute |
 |
| One of my favorites...my sweet lil boy with the necklace Derrick gave me for Mother's Day this past year with the November birth stone. What a sweet gift from my incredible husband! |
 |
| Our lil guy, Rhyder |
 |
| Welcome home son! |
 |
| Rhyder's first bath :) |
 |
| His first visit to the pediatrician...talk about dumb parent moment. We needed a new diaper and didn't have one. Needed to feed him and couldn't. The next appt I needed a blanket and forgot it in the car. Ha! We're learning. |
 |
| His nursery! Ready and waiting for him....not that we'll be using it for a couple more months. |
So we got home on the 15th and today is now December 15th. Since coming home, we got to attend my family's Thanksgiving celebration, we've had visitors including Uncle Doug, Aunt Laura, Kyle, Jennifer, Trent and Kelley, all the Ratliffs, Tricia, my parents. and the Maders, we've traveled to Boyd to let Rhyder meet some of Derrick's family, we've attended the B/CS Christmas parade, went Christmas tree cutting, shopping, eating out, and right now we are at Agarita Ranch on Rhyder's first hunting weekend. We hoped we wouldn't slow down TOO much after he was born, and so far, we definitely haven't! He is a precious precious little boy and our parents have said he is going to spoil us as a first child because he is so good. He is sleeping well in between his every 3 hour feedings (not gonna lie...every 3 hours is A LOT - especially at night). Because you sleep for those three hours between feedings, it literally feels like you go through the long feeding process, you lay down, and then you sit back up and start over since you were unconscious for the previous 3 hours. Its tough. For the first 2 weeks, I had a lot of crying and sad moments. There was something about the night time that really depressed me. Once it started getting dark, I had this really forboding feeling wash over me. I knew it was hormones as it wasn't logical at all, but knowing that didn't make it easier. Once I finally recovered from the initial pain and sorta got over the emotional turbulence, I came down with an infection that left me with severe chills, 103 degree fever, vomiting, and achy muscles. After that was finally over, I got a terrible cold that lasted 7 days. So...needless to say, its been a hard road, but somehow, someway, Rhyder is 100% worth it in every single way. He is beautiful and we absolutely love him.
So that was the story of his birth. I look at him sometimes and are just amazed that he didn't even exist one year ago. Its crazy that a new human exists on this planet that I brought into the world. He is an amazing and precious miracle.
Rhyder means "Warrior" or "Knight."
Josiah means "God will Save"
We loved the combination meaning of the names. We pray for Rhyder to be our humble warrior. Our chivalrous knight in God's heroic army.
