Riser's Birth Story

Riser Mark was born on March 21st at 2:12 in the afternoon. I woke up around 3:45 that morning to contractions. I tried to go back to sleep but after about 45 minutes I realized that wasn't going to be possible. I went downstairs to try and let Benny get a little more sleep, in case this was the real thing. My contractions were between 2-4 minutes apart.

Around 7 AM I went upstairs to get in the bath. I told Eric he should probably call his boss and take off work that day. Bonnie was waking up so he went to tend to her while I labored in the tub. We still didn't know if it was the real thing (I'm not sure what we were waiting for to convince us, as my contractions were getting pretty intense and painful by this point). We toiled back and forth with asking mom and Katie to start heading our way. Mom thankfully started making her way down to us. We told Katie to wait until after she dropped the kids off at the bus stop before heading our way (which would have been around 9:15 that morning). However, by 8:30, I told Eric he needed to tell Katie to come now, contractions were only intensifying and I needed someone to take Bonnie so I could get Eric's support. Katie headed straight over. 

As soon as Katie arrived, she and Eric started moving quick to get us ready to make our way to the hospital. At this point, I was moving slow because I had to stop every couple minutes and wait through the contractions. I used the bathroom right before we left, and my water broke. We said our goodbyes to our sweet girl and were on our way to the hospital around 9:30. The drive was treacherous, things were consistently intensifying and I was not quiet about it.

When we arrived I was put in a wheelchair and everyone in the ER waiting room stared, as I was quite a spectacle at this point. We got to triage by 10 AM. I was checked and confirmed that my water did indeed break and I was dilated to 6 cm. Once they brought us to our room, I was checked again around 11 or 11:30 and I was already at 9.5 cm. It was clear things were happening fast so we were hopeful it wouldn't be much longer before I could start pushing. 

Unfortunately I ended up stalling at 9.5 cm for 2 hours. Everything was starting to feel pretty unbearable at this point and I had no idea how much longer I would be at 9.5. The anesthesiologist came in and prepped for an epidural. At the same time, around 1:30 PM, the nurse checked me and said she thought she could feel a little pocket of fluid that still hadn't broken yet. She brought the doctor in, he agreed, and broke it. After a few more contractions, I was checked and told I was 10 cm. The anesthesiologist was no longer needed so he left and I was more than ready to push.

We started pushing around 1:40. I told the doctor I wanted Eric to announce the gender when he/she came out. The nurse wishes she got the reaction on video, as she said it was one of the best reactions she's witnessed. At 2:12 PM, baby boy made his appearance, Eric screamed as loud as he could "Oh my God, it's a boy!!" and immediately started crying. 

We enjoyed some sweet sweet moments with our little one, something I was desperately hoping for this time around as we missed it with Bonnie. I ended up hemorrhaging and was losing a lot of blood. Our skin-to-skin time was cut a little short (though no less sweet) as the doctor aggressively worked on delivering the placenta and stopping the bleeding. 

It was a little unnerving for a bit while the doctor tended to me, but everything turned out just fine. I ended up losing about 1.25 liters of blood, but thankfully didn't need a transfusion and am now on iron supplements. 

Throughout the entire labor/delivery Eric was such a rock for me (and has been during my postpartum craziness too). It's been one of the greatest experiences we've ever had together. 

Our handsome boy weighed in at 7 lbs 11 ounces and 20.5 inches long (biggest grandkid yet). 

Mom and Katie were able to bring Bonnie to come meet her baby brother later that afternoon. It was such a sweet moment. Bonnie took to her brother much faster than I expected her to. 

The amazing women of whom I could not do life without. 

My sweet baby girl, now feeling so big in my arms!

And of course, my beautiful family of four. Doesn't get better than this.

We had quite a hard time deciding on a name for this little guy (we weren't prepared for a boy!) This guy has been such a redeeming experience for us, and has survived despite some odds that were stacked pretty high against him through IVF. The name Riser felt very fitting to us, as well as his middle name Mark (my father-in-law's middle name). 

They originally wanted us to stay an extra night at the hospital so that I could be monitored due to the blood loss, but we were able to leave after one night. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better experience this time around. I am so happy the way everything turned out and just feel so blessed. 

39 weeks:

40 weeks:

We are finally settling in, with a lot of help from my mom, sister, family, and our community of friends providing all kinds of meals and baby boy clothes. It has been a wild ride and I will share more soon - although it has been much harder to find time to blog in these early days! 

Riser has been the perfect addition to our family and we are all loving on him so much. He is such a sweet baby so far. Happy birthday son!

Anniversary Weekend

We recently celebrated our five year anniversary with a trip to Charlottesville for the weekend - kid free! We dropped Bonnie off at Katie and Chris's house Saturday morning. We are SO thankful for their constant willingness to help with B anytime. We are so lucky and blessed to have them, and so is Bonnie!

Bonnie went straight to playing with cousins (pictures curtesy of Katie). Seeing how well she was doing made our trip a thousand times more enjoyable.

As soon as Eric and I got to Charlottesville we grabbed a quick lunch then headed to Blue Ridge Tunnel Hike. When construction finished in 1858, the 4,273 foot tunnel was the longest tunnel in the United States. It only recently opened to hikers in November 2020 so we were excited to check it out! 

It was a 4.5 mile hike out and back but all very flat. The tunnel was pitch black, there were signs leading up to it the whole way reminding you to bring flashlights or headlamps. 

This picture was taken with a flash, but it was completely dark and disorienting without light.

Our favorite thing to do is explore new places so this was a great way to start the trip. We also snuck in a little shopping trip to try and find an outfit for baby (we hadn't bought any clothes for him/her yet) before we got checked into our hotel and cleaned up. 

For dinner we ended up going to Sedona Taphouse which had fantastic food. Most of the restaurants had pretty long waits or very late reservations, we honestly didn't care because we weren't on a toddler's schedule! It was SO nice to be able to just do things on our own timeline. 

Once we got back to the hotel we headed down to the indoor heated pool/hot tub. This was the perfect way to end the night after a full day. 

The next morning we walked the Charlottesville historic downtown mall which was right outside our hotel. It was very cute but also a little early for many of the shops to be open on a Sunday morning. 

From there we checked out of our hotel, grabbed some breakfast and headed out to Humpback Rock Trail. This one was recommended by a few people we knew.

It was a gorgeous (albeit strenuous) hike up 1.5 miles to the top. It was a pretty steep hike up and I was moving slowly so it took us longer than expected to reach the top.

It was well worth it when we reached the top! 

We ended up taking the longer 3 mile hike back down on the Appalachian Trail because it wasn't as steep. All in all we underestimated how long the hike would take and it was already 2:30 by the time we were finishing. We still had a 2.5 hour drive home so we got back on the road.

We were so excited to pick up Birdy and be back together again! We asked her if she ever wanted to do another sleepover with her cousins and she immediately said yes. It was getting late in the evening so we went to dinner together before heading home and were all smiles. 

I honestly am so so incredibly glad we planned this trip and just decided to do it. It's so easy to make excuses (especially when you have a kid and are preparing for another) and just put it off. But it was much needed, Benny and I got some really good quality time together before we add another one to this crew! And of course we couldn't of done it without our amazing family nearby. 

37 weeks with baby #2

My 36 week update completely slipped past my mind - so here we are at 37 weeks! For reference, the picture below is the largest I ever got with Bonnie at 34 weeks. It's crazy to see the difference this time around, and we still have 3 more weeks to go.

At 37 weeks I am feeling good and getting excited! It's becoming surreal that this is actually going to happen within the next month. I never actually got to the point of mentally thinking about it/preparing for it with Bonnie so this already feels so different, just trying to anticipate what may happen and when.

I am going in every Friday for weekly appointments now. Throughout a majority of the pregnancy, baby's heartrate has been hovering in the 130s. At my 37 week appointment, it was down to 110 which they said was a little low (they say normal range is between 120 - 180). My appt ended up lasting 3 hours with lots of monitoring, tests, and an unexpected ultrasound to make sure everything was okay. After all that, I was reassured that baby is perfectly healthy and there is nothing to worry about. I'm told baby is measuring on the smaller side (totally normal), around 36 weeks. 

I haven't had any braxton hicks or contractions at this point. I just started last night to throw a couple things in a hospital bag, but still need to finish getting it put together. The friends that came to visit recently gifted Eric and I two free virtual birthing classes with their doula so we completed those last week and it was very informative! Looking back at my pregnancy with Bonnie, I feel like I didn't know anything. 

We are still working on getting projects done around the house (reorganizing furniture, clearing out cabinets to make space for baby things, cleaning out the fridge/freezers, pre-making meals, decluttering, sterilizing bottles/breast pump parts/pacifiers, working on photo books I've been wanting to get done, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and most of all getting as much quality time with Bonnie as possible). I know I won't get it all done and I'm sure I could always find more to do, but it is definitely keeping us busy while we wait. We sure are excited to meet this little one!