Ryan and Kristal welcomed their first baby on May 5th!
I was super excited that Kristal invited me to attend the labor and delivery. I had imagining of being lots of help but I don't think I actually was. I at least knew some stuff which I think was helpful...but you never know what a person will need when laboring.
They were brought into the hospital for induction on the evening of May 3rd. We thought they were going to actually start pitocin but that didn't turn out to be the plan. So we sort of hung out and waited together to see if the labor would start. I ended up going home to sleep for a few hours and the plan was to start pitocin in the morning.
Once labor started for real the next morning, Ryan and I just tried to be supportive and helpful. It comes right back to you after having been through labor...you see it and remember how it was. It's such an intense time and not knowing how long it will all take is quite hard emotionally. But Kristal was quite a trooper and did a great job for many hours.
After a long time, she decided to get an epidural so she could get some rest. Ryan napped a bit too. During that time, Kristal got a fever and wasn't feeling so great either. They were able to get the fever down pretty quickly, thank heaven. She was pretty much fully dilated but things just weren't progressing. The doctor decided to let her wait a bit and see if the baby would move down so we continued to watch and wait and nap as we could. I eventually went home for maybe 3 hours of sleep when it seemed like labor had stalled.
When I returned after my short trip home, there seemed to be no change. The doctor decided that a c-section was needed. I felt sad about that and Kristal was clearly sad and scared as well. But it seemed like the right decision after so much time. The doctor felt that he just wasn't fitting in the birth canal...we knew he was probably a bigger baby and Kristal is a small woman.
Little Dante (or should I say big Dante) was seriously stuck. He also had the cord very tightly wrapped around his neck several times. It took quite a bit of work to get him free and I was so glad for modern medicine as I don't think he would have ever come down with that tight cord and just being so big.
He was a whopping 10 lb 9 oz! So cute and we're so glad to have him safely here!
