Birth Story

I know a couple of weeks ago I promised to share details of Ryan's birth. Well, I guess I've been busy because I'm just now getting to that post. I considered not writing about it now because of how much time has past. But since Ryan doesn't have a baby book yet I thought I should get the details written (typed) down before my sleep deprived memory forgets them.

As many of you know we were to have a Super Bowl party on Sunday Feb. 7th. We were to spend the end of the week cleaning the house and finish running errands. Kyle friends were coming into town on Saturday and everything need to be ready for Sunday before they got here.

My water broke Friday (2:30am) during the first big snow storm. This was 2 and a half weeks early so we weren't ready. Needless to say the Super Bowl party was put on hold. Also her early arrival meant there as no bag packed for the hospital and I had no clean clothes to pack anyway. Kyle plowed the driveway, we did a quick load of laundry, I took a shower and we waited for Nonna to come over to babysit Carter. We arrived at the hospital around 5am. The contractions were manageable until noon, that's when I asked for the epidural (6cm). Around 2:00pm the doctor said we should have a baby within the hour. I was shocked because we fully expected to be in the delivery room for several more hours. I was in labor with Carter for 20 hours. At 2:45pm the doctor told us we're ready to push. I pushed twice and the baby was out! Under 13 hours of labor, Ryan Michele was born at 2:56pm.

Some people have asked about her name. We didn't find out the sex when we were pregnant with Carter. We had a short list of names for both boys and girls. Carter could have been Brady (if Dad got his way) or he could have been Jillian or Ryan if he was a girl. Looking back I can't imagine Carter being anything other then, well, Carter. When we found out our second baby was to be a girl we reevaluated the short list. Jillian (a name Kyle and I liked for years) lost popularity and Ryan became the front runner. We were concerned about using a boys name for a girl so we thought we were being smart by spelling it "Ryann". Her future teachers would know she was a girl. It didn't occur to us how many people would pronounce her name Ry-Ann. We decided to drop the second "n" before heading home from the hospital and her official birth certificate is spelled Ryan. Her middle name, Michele, is also the middle name of her Aunt Robin. Note, Michele is spelled with one "l", not 2. I've been told Robin was named after our late uncle, Robert Michael, and that's why they spelled her middle name with one "l" (more like Michael). Ryan Michele is now 5 weeks old and we feel her name fits her perfectly. She also goes by peanut because of her small head (measuring in at the 17th percentile). FYI...there's no unique spelling of Peanut.