Out of my womb and into my heart!

Ryker Vaughn Hoffer is finally here!

He was born Monday, November 8th at 2:26 pm.

6 lb 13 oz, 19 inches long.

I woke up monday morning at 2:00 am soaking wet. I was so convinced of the fact that I was going to be pregnant for the rest of my life that I didn't even think that my water had broke! I didn't wake up Nate either because I just didn't want to bother him for no reason! But after I went to the bathroom and realized that I couldn't possibly be peeing for that long I decided I should start to take things seriously. Nate woke up and got all excited (of course) and I called the hospital to let them know we'd be coming. I also wasn't sure that it was legit because I wasn't having any contractions. They told me to come in because the baby would need to be delivered within 12 hours of my water breaking. Nate went around the house gathering the things from my checklist that we prepared one family home evening while I called my mom who was at my cousin mindy's house in Salt Lake. I'm sure Mindy wasn't super crazy about me calling her cell phone at 3:00 am but what do ya do? I had to have my mom there!

Nice socks huh?

We got to the hospital at 3:00 am and after going to the wrong floor, we settled into our room. I started having little contractions so Nate and I walked around the Delivery floor for a while. My mom showed up around 4:30 and walked with us. I bounced on the exercise ball while we watched Bill Cosby "Himself." I was laughing so hard it was almost embarrassing.

My first nurse was awesome. She helped us a lot with different methods that would make a natural birth more bearable. We tried to sleep a little and watched Harry Potter but I was just excited to have Ryker here. 

After a few hours, nothing was really happening with my contractions so they put me on a low dose of pitocin to make them more regular... That's when I started to feel them. 

Nathan started coaching me through the contractions with breathing techniques that we learned from Helen, our Lamaz teacher. He was AWESOME at this. It made it so much easier to get through the contractions. I felt that I was in complete control and that they weren't unbearable - Just uncomfortable. 

She kept increasing the dose of pitocin and when my contractions started really hitting me, she put me on a great drug called Fentanyl. It didn't take away the pain, it just made me not care that I was in pain. In fact, in between contractions I would look and Nate and say, "Nate, I love you SO much. You're SO handsome." And then I would look at my mom and say, "Mom, Thank you for being here, You are the best!"

By this time, they had me in the bed because they wanted to be monitoring Ryker's heart beat. It was harder to get through the contractions just lying there but I never did feel that they were too painful. We just breathed through them and my nurse kept saying how awesome I was at getting through them. Sadly, she had to go into surgery about 2 hours before Ryker was born. Our next nurse was SO nice but she came in and said that she had only been there for 2 weeks and she'd never seen a natural birth before... This is where Nate took over. 

He did all of the coaching and motivating. He was a trooper! My mom kept a wet washcloth on my forehead and that felt very nice. I was just so pampered! 

Unfortunately, Dr. Kirkman was away on a family emergency and was not able to be there for my delivery. Instead, we had Dr. Blackett. She was great but I just didn't know her. She told me the day after that not many people actually make it through without an epidural and before she came in, she didn't think I was going to make it. 

I loved not having an epidural because I felt that I was in complete control. my body told me when I was having a contraction and I started to push. I only pushed for about 30 minutes and Ryker was born. Nathan got to cut the cord and they set Ryker on my lap for maybe... 10 seconds and then whisked him away to the heating table. He was completely white. Nathan was by his side the whole time as the respiratory therapist was giving Ryker oxygen because he wasn't quite breathing well enough. 

Nate wouldn't leave Ryker's side. Ryker was breathing funny when he came out so he was white as a ghost.

The nurse helped me off the bed, change and into a wheelchair. She said it was nice to have someone who could do it all herself - Because I didn't have an epidural I was standing and cleaning myself off.

First family photo.

I didn't get to see Ryker again for a while because they took him to the NICU but they fixed him all up and when I did get to hold him, it was pure bliss. 

This was my view of Ryker pretty much the first time I got to hold him.  He stared at me... and I stared back.