Thursday, March 26, 2009

Aunt Tamra's Birth Story for Ryan

I have asked Aunt Tamra to please tell one of her stories and she chose to write about Ryan's birth. Thank you Aunt Tamra for taking the time to tell his story.

Two weeks late, but I finally went into labor on Sunday, July 13. It was so exciting to think “today is the day!” I got up that morning at 7:00 a.m. and told Jim, “this is it.” He didn’t believe me but after timing the contractions which I had been having most of the night, we found they were very regular at five minutes apart. By 10:00 a.m. we were on our way to Show Low. Jim’s mom went with us. We went to Aunt Clea’s house and I hung out there all afternoon. We went for a walk, tried to take a nap, and in general, tried to make the time pass. At 3:00 we met Dr. Garver and he checked me and I was only dilated to 4 cm., so he said to meet him at the hospital around 6:00. So we drove around Show Low and the pains kept getting harder and closer, but not near hard enough I was soon to find out!


Mike and Helen showed up thinking we would have a baby here by now and of course we didn’t. But we went to the hospital at 6:00 p.m. and I was given a room next to a lady who was having her 12th child. I was still only dilated to about 5 cm. so Dr. Garver took the other lady in to be delivered because I still had a while.


About 8:00 my water broke and totally soaked the bed I was in. Dr. Garver came in and I said, “Am I just supposed to lay here and wallow in this?” He got quite a chuckle out of me using the word “wallow” and I really think that was my last laugh until Ryan was finally born!


Jim stood by me the whole time and massaged my back and gave me water and wiped the sweat off my forehead. Labor is sure hard work. I had no idea even though I had done some reading about it, but now I had firsthand knowledge! By 9:00 I was finally at 10 cm. and I was so happy that this labor was going to be over soon. The lady next to me was done in 15 minutes or so after she had reached 10 cm. so I was really pleased to learn that. But….


They didn’t take me into the delivery room until 10:30, but I had already been pushing for an hour so I was already feeling exhausted. They suited Jim up and he came in with me. There weren’t many nurses so Dr. Garver invited Jim’s mom to come into the delivery room, too. (OK, so let’s make this a real family affair! Haha) By midnight, I truly felt like giving up when they finally said they could see the head. I was so exhausted that I would almost fall asleep between contractions. Finally at 12:37 a.m. we had our baby boy Ryan. Jim was so proud and happy to have his first son and half a second after he was born I had already forgotten about the pain and the exhaustion because I was so happy, too.


Ryan was in the birth canal so long that he had a very pointed head. Dr. Garver assured us that the swelling would go down. After they cleaned Ryan up, they let me hold him and that was so special. Seeing a newborn that just came from Heavenly Father is a feeling that you don’t soon forget. Jim was so proud that he carried Ryan out to the hallway to show him to everyone who was there. Lots of family had showed up by that time. When they put Ryan in his little bassinet in the nursery, Jim kept hearing people in the hall talking about that BIG baby next to the two smaller newborns. Ryan weighed 9 lb. 3 oz. He was so chubby and he laid in his bassinet and sucked on his forearm until they finally brought him to me to be nursed. He came out one hungry little boy!


Having a baby is an experience like no other and completely changed my life—for the better. I couldn’t have been more blessed. To have three more children after the first was a blessing, too. Each one is different and unique and brought a whole new dimension to our little family. I am indeed blessed to have such a sweet family. I love each one so much!

1 comment:

Amanda Griggs said...

Thank you for posting these. I am getting a kick out of reading them. So many different stories!!!