Life with the Riley family: Oliver Davis Riley's Birth Day

To my precious baby boy,

On August 22, you entered the world and made Mommy and Daddy proud parents once again. Your due date was August 15 and I tried to give you the chance to make an entrance on your own, but you were just too cozy and it was time for you to be born at 41 weeks.

We arrived at the hospital at 6 am. The nurse got me all situated, started an IV, and at 6:50, she said she would be back to start the pitocin (that's the stuff that kicks your little tooshy out!). Daddy and I ended up falling asleep until around 8 am. I turned to Daddy and said, "I think they forgot about me." Shortly after, a new nurse (Jenni) walked in and she was suprised that my pitocin had not been started. Her shift started at 7 am and she thought the previous nurse had taken care of it. Well, we didn't get it started before Dr. Morgan came in and he was not happy to see that the process had not been started and it was 2 hours after I checked in.  Oops! :)

That morning, Daddy and I watched tv, talked to the nurse, walked around the hospital floor, all as our anticipation was building. About 12:30 or 1, I got my epidural.  Daddy and I took another nap until around 2 pm. Then, things started progressing really quickly. I called Grandma and Grandpa who were home with your brother and sister and told them that they needed to get to the hospital as soon as they could. Daddy had gone to eat lunch around 3:00 with Mema and Papa and I was starting to panic with him not there as I could tell you were going to be here very shortly!

I was right!  The real fun started around 3:45. Your birth was so different than your brother's and sister's birth. With Ella, I pushed for about 2.5 hours. With Parker, I pushed for about an hour. With you, we were waiting on the doctor!  It was crazy! When you were ready to come out, you were ready! I told the nurses, "C'mon, we can all do this!" They replied that they could do it without the doctor, but they really didn't want to. All I knew was that it was time!  After what seemed like forever, Dr. Morgan came in and the look on his face was priceless.  I'm not sure he believed the nurse when she said to hurry since he knew my history. He put his scrubs on (not fast enough according to me) and we had our baby minutes later. You were born at 4:04.

It was amazing, awesome, miraculous. I said to Daddy, "What do we have?" and he said "BOY!" with so much excitement in his voice.  Then, we were anxious to see how much you weighed. I think the nurses were guessing in the 9 lb range and Dr. Morgan was guessing around 8 lbs 15 oz. He was a little low...9.5 lbs and 21 1/2 inches long. You were a big boy! The biggest of all 3 children, but the easiest to deliver.  Here are some pictures of your birth day.