She's Here!!!

Making her grand entrance....Tenley Elizebeth-Sue Riggs is finally here!  She is AMAZING!!! She was born on 3 Oct 2010 at 7:35 p.m.  Weighing in at 8 lbs and 5 ounces and 21 inches long. 

Labor and delivery went so smoothly and we are SO grateful for that.  From beginning to end it was a long day, but went so well that is really seemed to fly by.  Here's the story:

Tim and I had a busy day on Saturday that started with me realizing the night before that that Saturday would be the last Saturday in a LONG time that I would be able to sleep in, so with that in mind, that was our plan.  (We had planned to induce the following Friday if she hadn't arrived yet)  Yea Right!! Being 40+ weeks pregnant made sleep very difficult, so we were up around 7:30 am.  It was a cool and beautiful morning to with the hopes of moving things along, Tim and I took Hunter and Maggie for a walk.  While out, we walked by the soccer fields and saw that a friend of ours daughter had soccer games that morning so we headed home to drop off the dogs and then went back to watch Preston make her soccer debut.  After that (around 11:30) we headed back home so I could rest for a bit.  We had a fish fry to be at, at 2 o'clock, so after a short nap we headed to that.  The father of one of our friends lives on an Indian Reservation on Oklahoma and he goes fishing everyday, and once a year he brings his catch to Chanute and fries up tons of fish.  I am not one for fresh water fish for the most part, but this stuff is so yummy.  Of course, everyone knowing I was overdue kept saying..."maybe the fish will do the trick."  I was praying that they were right!  We stayed at the fish fry until about 5:00 then came home for a while before then heading to another friends house.  We went to quickly drop off a book, but ended up being there till about 10:30.  We had decided to grill steaks and have dinner while there since it was now a great evening to sit outside and BBQ.  Besides the steak, Tim and Ken managed 3 bottles of wine and a cigar.  In Tim's defense, he was by no means drunk or really even buzzed, but was going to sleep very well that night.  After we got home, I was off to bed....

I woke about 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning uncomfortable and had to switch sides I was sleeping on...a normal occurrence.  While awake, I decided I may as well use the restroom, lets be honest at 40+ weeks I felt like I pretty much  lived there anyway...so I was up and heading back to bed, when my water broke.  I told Tim, "either I have bladder control problems or my water just broke!"  We waited around for a while and started packing the rest of our hospital bags while I decided if my water had really broken.  Since we had so many people tell us that day that "tonight's the night" I had actually laid out the clothes we wanted to take with us, I don't know if it was more wishful thinking or paranoia.  Whatever it was I guess it worked.  So we got all ready and headed to the hospital and got there at 2:30 a.m. (Sunday)  We got checked in and they checked me and said this was the real deal.  We then called our family and a few clothes friends at about 3:15-3:30 a.m., and not much later the Grandparents were on the road to Chanute.  We anticipate a long day, so told them to take their time....yea right! My parents and Dennis both got to the hospital about 10:45.  It is a 6 hour drive for them from Phillipsburg.  Jumping back a bit to before they got there, they got my i.v. lock put in so that it was there when necessary and then Tim and I had went walking around the hospital to try to get things moving, and after only a few hours of laying in bed I was already stir crazy, and not in any pain.  We walked for a while, and after we got back to the delivery room, they checked me again and I was only at about a 1...where I had been for the last few weeks.  They said that although my water had broke, I was not "really in labor," so they wanted to start Pitocin at about 10:00 a.m.  So that's what we did.  They started me on a low dose since my body was trying to progress but just need a kick start.  My nurse said they would up the dose every 30 minutes and see what happened.  I was not in real pain until about noon.  At that point I was ready for some drugs...I still wasn't far enough for the epidural, so a morphine drip it would be.  It helped a bit, but by about 2 o'clock I was in some real pain.  I pretty much wanted to cry every time I would push the drip and it would "double beep" telling me that it had not been 6 minutes yet and I could not have more yet.  SIGH...or maybe I should say SCREAM!  Tim was obviously in there with me as were my Mom and Dad, and Tim's dad.  Our room that we would be in after delivery was not ready yet (there were people being dismissed that day, and once the room was cleaned they could go in there)  It was nice to have them there to try and keep my mind off of things and chit chat.  The nurse had been back in to check me a few times, and finally she said "oh, you are already at a 5, and can have the epidural"...one of the best phrases I heard all day!!!  They called the anastheologist and he was there by 2:30 p.m. to put it in.  I was a bit freaked about the process (I have seen that needle!!), but honestly I have had shots at work that hurt worse that that did.  Granted I had morphine to help out already and they numb it, but at any rate, it definatly didn't hurt.  And knowing it was going to ease the pain made it so worth it.  Roughly 20 minutes later, I was a happy girl! It worked beautifully!  I was then able to sleep from about 3-5:30.  It was a weird feeling to not feel anything from the waist down, and not be able to move my legs or know if I was moving them.  When I woke up from my nap, it was just me, the Nurse and my Dr in the room...I was a bit confused and recall saying "where is my husband"...after they told me that Tim and our family had gone to the cafateria to get some dinner, I remembered that Tim had told me he was going to do that at 5:30.  Again they checked me and to all of our suprise I was at an 8 almost a 9, and baby time was fast approaching.  They thought that by 7:00 it would be show time.  I was thrilled.  Dr. Taylor and my nurse (Kathy) left to go do some other things, and Dr. Taylor had to go and change for delivery.  Kathy came back in a few minutes later and asked if I had called Tim, I hadn't...we thought about paging him over the hospital intercom and seeing how fast he made it to our room, but decided that would be a mean trick.  I just texted him and said I am a 8/9, go time abot 7; only a few minutes later he was back in the room with me!  Our family came in to say good luck, and then they went to the room we would be staying in after delivery and recovery.  It was nice to have a few minutes with Tim to relax and reflect on what was about to happen. 

As planned Dr. Taylor and Kathy were back right around 7:00 p.m. to prep the room and get ready for the arrival of our little Angel.  I won't lie it did freak me out a bit seeing the table of "tools" that got wheeled into the room,  good thing my body was half numb!  The time had finally come, Tim stood by my side, hand in hand it was time to push.  Since I couldn't feel any of the contractions (Thank God!) Kathy gave me the count and coached me when to push.  It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and we chit chatted between contractions. During one of the contractions, the phone in the room rang....I told Tim to answer it, I guess thinking that maybe it was a family member or something...nope....wrong number actually!  As soon as we heard Tim say, "who are you looking for," we all started laughing and said "hang up!"  At any rate, after about 10 minutes of pushing our lives were forever changed and Tenley Elizebeth-Sue Riggs was born!!!!

Ready and Waiting

Last belly shot...40 weeks and 3 days

about to be a family of 3...(in like 10+ hours anyway)

Tenley is perfect, and I am a Mommy!

Love at first sight!

The Riggs Family!

Daddy is a bit sleepy, but so happy!

Grandpa Dennis and Daddy with Tenley

Meeting Grandma Robin

8 pounds 5 ounces, 21 inches long

I loved getting my hair washed!

Sweet Baby Tenley Elizebeth-Sue

For her name, we simply liked Tenley, her middle name(s) are special becaue she is the 6th Elizebeth on my/my mom's side of the family and Sue was Tim's mothers name.

Cuddles with Daddy

Meeting Uncle Alex

We are truely blessed and can't believe how much we love her already.  Our first week of parenthood has been the greatest experience of our lives, and we can only image what is to come.  Thank you all for the thoughs and prayers throughout our pregnancy, and please continue to pray for our family as we continue our journey!