The last month of my pregnancy was a rough one. I was exhausted every sec of the day. I am not even sure how I made Christmas happen! But I did it! Must be the pregnancy hormones causing my OCD to be on overdrive. Any ways, I started our family Christmas cards early and we did our Christmas shopping a few months in advance and also took advantage of some of the Black Friday deals. Therefore, I really only had to focus on baking Riley in my belly for a few more weeks and then bringing her into this world safely. Well as many predicted, Riley wanted her arrival to be on her terms. For four weeks I remained at 2 cm dilated and barely effaced. Plus my cervix was still very posterior. So no where near approaching labor. When I was 38 weeks a long I went to my scheduled prenatal check up. I had high blood pressure and bad pelvic pain. Because of my history of preeclampsia and my heart condition the doctor that saw me that day (there are 7 doctors in the office I go to) decided that I needed to go to the hospital for monitoring and possible inducing. So there I went... I spent about 5 plus hours in the maternity triage. My blood pressure fluctuated so it was not consistently high. Because I was only 38 weeks the hospital could not allow my doctor to induce me unless he had medical reason. Well... at this point I was a little bit disappointed but I understood that Riley just was not ready. I had a follow up appointment later that week. I went to my follow up appointment and still had no changes. At that point I turned 39 weeks pregnant. My doctor offered me some options: to wait out the pregnancy and see if labor will start naturally or have him induce me. He highly recommended the inducing because of the lack of changes my cervix was making. Therefore, Ryan and I decided on inducing. We decided on Dec 26 at 8:30 am. I thought well that gives Riley 5 days from my appointment to decide if she wants to come on her own, otherwise we are giving her a little push the day after Christmas...
Well as you know, Christmas came and gone and the morning of the 26th came... I was very nervous, barely got the sleep I needed to deliver. The inducing was very fast. The nurse started the pitocin at 9:30 am. The doctor came in around 11:30 am to break my water, and by 2:05 pm Riley was born. I was relieved to have a successful delivery. I was blessed to know that although Riley was small to me, she was healthy, and very alert. Nonetheless, Ryan and I are just over joyed by the arrival of our beautiful daughter.
Here are a few pics from the hospital stay: Riley Aurora Richardson, 12/26/2012, 2:05 pm, 19 inches long, 7 lbs and 7 ozs.
