Riley Grace Woody

True to my form, I have been neglecting my blog... but for very good reason.

On December 17th at 9:37pm, Riley was born. She weighed 6 pounds and 15 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. As you can see, she is absolutely gorgeous. Her birth was rather fast, I went from 3 1/2 centimeters at 6:00pm to complete at 8:20. I was probably complete before that time, but I was only checked twice. Nice.

They didn't check me before giving me an epidural. Apparently I was complete when they administered it because it didn't take effect. Refund please. Oh well, hind sight is 20/20. So I pretty much feel like a mega rock star for delivering her the way I did. I only pushed for 22 minutes, thank God because that HURT.

Speaking of thanking God, we have sent up many thanks for Riley. When she was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. Dr. Cole was very calm about it and took care of it immediately. I didn't think twice about it once she started crying, until the next day. Riley was having trouble regulating her body temp, which is the baby equivalent of a fever. And her white blood cell count was extremely high (50,000 when it should have been 10,000). They wanted to start an IV immediately and start administering antibiotics (did I spell that right?). Because of that, they took her to the NICU. Can you say scary? Not only am I a new mommy and afraid I've done something wrong, I'm also hyped up on hormones and everything else that comes along with giving birth, so I comprehended about 50% of what the nurses and doctors were telling me. Mom works at Arkansas Children's Hospital and I've heard some stories from that unit.

I tried to stay strong, then I thought, "What am I doing? I don't need to be strong right now. I'm the mommy. If anyone should be upset, it's me!!" So I let the flood gates open and started crying and praying. Then we started sending texts and emails asking for prayers. It was amazing how quickly I felt the prayers start working. All of a sudden, a wave of calm and peace fell over me. I knew God was in control and everything was going to be fine. I was still able to hold her and nurse her which brought me so much comfort, because seeing her in the little plastic box on her way up to NICU was the worst feeling I've ever experienced. Riley responded very quickly to the antibiotics and her white cell count dropped over half way in 24 hours. She was released from there in 48 hours and we were discharged the following day. Praise the Lord.

More posts to follow. Those might not be as long. :)