Carter's Birth Story

Saturday started off like any other day. Both of us had worked the day before and the plan was to cross off any last minute things off our to-do list since I was technically due the next day. We had been moved into our apartment for exactly one week and my stress levels about not being "ready" were finally leveling off. Richard woke up around noon (he works graves, he's not just lazy haha) and we returned some totes that we borrowed back to my work and then went grocery shopping. Richard let me splurge on a big chocolate bundt cake and some strawberries as a "happy due-date to me" treat since I was just sure at this point that I'd be overdue.

After we got home and unpacked the groceries we just kind of hung around the apartment and I decided that I still felt up for going to the General Women's Meeting later that evening. I opted out of the dinner, but joined my Mom for the broadcast at 6:00pm. During the conference, I was pretty sure that I was starting to feel a few contractions. They felt different from the prior braxton hicks because they were accompanied by some dull cramping. I considered timing them on an app on my phone but didn't want my Mom (or others sitting next to me) to freak out so I just decided to watch the clock a bit just to get an idea of how consistently they were coming. 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 3 minutes. My doctor told me to go to the hospital when the contractions were 5-7 minutes apart.

...Oops?

At this point you'd think I would have started to take things seriously but I was still totally in denial about it possibly being labor because I just wasn't in any pain. The cramping continued throughout the broadcast and at 7:28pm I texted Richard a heads up that I was having some mild contractions just so he would be aware since he was scheduled to work that night. He asked if he should call his boss and I told him no because I know first time labors could last days and I didn't want to jump the gun, especially because I wasn't in pain, just uncomfortable.

I said goodbye to my Mom and had an emotional thought of, "Maybe this is the last time I'll see her before the baby is born" but still decided not to say anything. Turns out she had a feeling something was up anyways. Moms always know. On my way home from the conference, I called Richard to tell him that I was going to head to Target to buy some spray on tan (priorities, I know haha). He thinks I'm crazy and tells me to come home. Since I am the most stubborn person alive, I proceed to head to Target but then I come to my senses, flip a u-turn and take my pasty-white self home. I figure if I can't be tan, then I should at least do my hair since I was on day 3 hair at this point. I hop in the shower and the warm water feels amazing and basically stomps out any of the contractions that I had going. All my previous thoughts of it being a false alarm are validated, and I proceed to blow dry my hair.

At this point, it's about 9:00pm, my hair is dry and the contractions start to creep back. I am in a dilemma because when my hair is just blow dried, not straightened, it is an absolute mane and NOT cute. I knew if this was really labor I was going to have tons of pictures taken and I really didn't want to look like a hot mess in all of them. How vain am I really, you ask?

Well...

My contractions are about 3 minutes apart and at this point I am doubled over on the bed but I am determined to fix my hair. Standing up is impossible, sitting down is even worse...the only thing that helped relieve the pain was being on my knees folded over at a 90 degree angle with my head and chest flat on the bed. In between contractions, I get about 5 chunks of hair done at a time and then proceed to run back and forth to the bed.

At this time, Richard is scavenging around the apartment putting together the rest of the hospital bag with a big dorky smile on his face and I am coming to my senses and realizing that this is really it...we are going to the hospital! He tries to ask questions on whether to bring certain things or not and I put my finger to my lips and just keep whispering "shh, don't talk to me" lol. My pain coping mechanism was apparently silence and darkness.

After he got everything together, he convinces me to give up on my hair and make-up, I slip on my comfiest maternity dress, grab the body pillow and waddle out to the car. I don't remember much of the car ride because my eyes were sealed the whole time but I do remember Richard trying to coach me through breathing because I had a tendency to hold my breath during contractions. Since my eyes were closed, he would tell me how close we were getting to the hospital which I really appreciated. I also remember him calling the hospital ahead of time (10:19pm) and asking for a wheelchair to be brought out because his "wife was in labor". It was so weird to actually hear that since at this point I was still kind of in denial. I had no idea what my pain tolerance was because I've never broken a bone, sprained an ankle, been stung by a bee or anything. For all I knew I could just be wimping out through some intense braxton hicks.

Around 10:30pm we pulled into the emergency room and I hide behind the body pillow as I sign paperwork and am wheeled past everyone into triage. I got changed into a gown, was checked for progress, and was told I was at 6 centimeters. A 6! Hearing that number was absolute music to my ears because that meant this was the real deal and I wasn't going to be sent home. I was then asked if I had a birth plan and I said all I really wanted was to hold my baby right after he was born and to get an epidural haha. I asked how long the wait would be for an epidural and they explained that I had to get a full bag of fluid administered before it could be ordered. After about 10 minutes of getting the IV and monitors all set up, we were moved to our labor and delivery room.

When we got into the room, Richard asked if he could call my Mom and I finally agreed since we no longer risked a false alarm. This call was made at 11:08pm and very shortly afterwards I felt like I needed to push. I felt sooo silly telling my nurse this because I had just been checked 10 minutes prior, but she took me seriously and checked again and told me I was at an 8 or 9! Say...what?! At this point I start to panic a bit and ask if I could get the epidural. She was very sweet but firm when she said, "Oh honey, I don't think there's time for an epidural." I immediately look at Richard and his face was calm and reassuring, which helped me to stay calm even though I felt like I could cry. We didn't take any classes and only watched like half of our childbirth DVD. When I was pregnant I'd read birth stories of moms who prepared for all 9 months of their pregnancy to deliver naturally and here I was with nothing but my body's instincts up my sleeve.

After being checked, my nurse hurried to call my Doctor who was about 30 minutes away. She called in about 3 other nurses and assured me that they could deliver the baby if he didn't make it in time. They told me I could do short practice pushes if I wanted because telling a woman to not push is clearly impossible. The nurses instructed me to push when I felt the urge and helped remind me (along with Richard) to breathe. Breathing through contractions was definitely the hardest part but everyone was very reassuring and told me I was doing a great job which ended up being so important for me. What was weird was that the contractions that were once on top of each other seemed to really slow down once I started pushing. I felt like I could actually take a few minutes rest between each push...which I did take advantage of because I knew pushing could still potentially take hours.

Wrong again.

Once the Doctor got there... he suited up, I pushed three times and at 11:35pm our baby boy was born! I was sooo surprised. I wasn't really told if he was crowning or if I was at a 10 or anything so I still thought delivery was far away. I just couldn't believe that everything was over that I couldn't really wrap around my head that my baby boy was now laying on my chest! He shocked me with a full head of dark hair and had the cutest pair of lips I've ever seen. After soaking him up for a few minutes, Richard followed him over to the table to get checked while I delivered the placenta and got stitched up.

The rest of the hospital stay was a glorious, hazy blur. Watching Richard become a Father was probably my favorite experience to date. Seeing him hold his son just seemed so natural. Like he's always been with us. My recovery was a breeze which I heard is often the case with unmedicated births. I hardly slept in fear that I would miss out on him doing anything cute. Turns out EVERYTHING my baby did was cute to me ;) Laying him in his bassinet was also not an option, I only wanted him in my arms.

Carter's birth was a total whirlwind. I thought Richard and I would be at the hospital for maybe 5 or 6 hours, document with some pictures, maybe play some Words with Friends after I got my epidural, chat with the nurses, watch my contractions on the monitor...you know, the usual. Instead, he was born less than an hour after we were checked into the hospital. Even though it's not what I had imagined, I absolutely wouldn't change a thing. We are so, so in love.

Carter Michael Rindlisbacher
Saturday, March 28th 11:35pm
7lbs, 11.5 ounces & 20.5 inches

Gender Reveal

So our "plan" was to find out when everyone else would find out. Buuuuuut I've learned that is WAY easier said than done ;) We found out early Thursday morning, and planned to have a small get together for our families that Sunday. We had a box full of colored balloons and confetti that we dumped from my parents' top floor balcony for everyone to see. Me, being the genius that I am decided to wedge the balloons at the top of the box which kind of prevented the confetti from coming out. While Richard was trying to dump the box, I was hitting the bottom so the balloons would come out. I obviously don't know my own strength because I hit the box straight out of Richard's hand and it proceeded to fall right on Rachel's head lol whoooooops.

Oh and also, IT RAINED!!! Can you believe that guys? We get married on June 4th 2011, IT RAINS. (I mean seriously, look at what normal Junes are like in Fresno)

We have our gender reveal outside in the middle of a horrific drought, IT RAINS. I've decided that whenever Fresno is enduring a drought, the Rindlisbachers just need to throw a little outdoor party and all will be well ;)

I figure God is just trying to teach my type A personality to go with the flow. I will need a lot of that life skill with our little BOY coming in less than 5 months :)

Well HELLO 2nd Trimester!

1) Weeks Pregnant/Size of baby? 14 weeks 2 days and the size of a lemon. Officially in my 2nd trimester!

2) Symptoms? Well, I threw up once last week and that was right before my appointment. I was brushing my teeth and my body didn't agree with me. It was all very sudden and I never felt nauseous before or after so I'm thinking it was just a fluke thing. Besides that, I've been feeling pretty great! I've been so lucky with this pregnancy. However, I HAVE noticed that my tailbone has started to hurt a bit. I think I'm carrying this baby low and in my back!

3) Sleep? I have had such a lack of sleep because of school that when I finally go to bed I am out like a rock!

4) Mood? Mind is kind of preoccupied from school, new responsibilities at work, laundry, etc but what can you do. Other than that I'm a happy camper.

5) Fitness? No excuses, but staying up til 1:00am every night with homework has kind of killed any desire that I have to work out. I lost a pound this week from not really having significant time to eat and kind of a loss in appetite so the nurse that met with me wasn't too happy haha. I'm supposed to gain 4 pounds by my next appointment so I know I'll need to workout more to boost my metabolism and appetite.

6) Cravings? All the red meat! Honey nut cheerios are also great. I've eaten 3 boxes in two weeks! Chocolate still doesn't appeal to me. I tried again tonight but it just doesn't do it for me. 

7) Maternity clothes? My jeans will start to feel a big snug by the end of the day or after I eat. I know this is a total first time mom statement, but I seriously can't wait to have a legit bump!

8) Movement? I can't feel any movement but we sure got to see the little one moving all around at the ultrasound! He was actually pretty chill at first so the tech had to poke my stomach a bit to get him going! I was dyingggggg it was so magical.

9) Highlight/lowlight this week? Lowlight was having too much homework to fully enjoy all of the exciting news we got this week! Too many highlights but I'll try. First off, we found out the gender...we have a little man coming to join us! You guys, the end of trimester ultrasound was seriously the best 20 minutes of my life! I'm going to recap like, the whole thing because I want to remember everything. For the screening, our Doctor sent us to downtown community hospital at Dr. Wood's office. We waited for over an hour past our appointment time but it didn't even matter because Richard and I finally got some time to see each other and talk, what a concept! Oh also, this was a really nice place but the waiting room happened to be playing Cheaters on the TV! Hellloooo inappropriate show for an ultrasound place?! Lol we were dying. 

We were greeted by our tech (I wish I remember her name, she was awesome) and led to our room. I had my first stomach ultrasound which was really fun. I now know where the baby is, very low! The baby popped up on the screen right away and Rich and I were so surprised on how big he had gotten. She started taking the necessary measurements and was great about explaining everything to us. Heart beat was around 141 when he was relaxing and then in the 150s when the tech was prodding him. If we asked her an off topic question, she was totally willing to indulge us. We got to see him hiccuping for a second but then the little mister went back to relaxing. I asked her if she could get the baby to move and she said "of course! I'll have to get it to move in order to get my measurements." Music to my ears...I had been waiting so long to see the little one move! She used the wand to poke and shake my stomach a bit and off he went! He was doing all sorts of somersaults. When the machine would take a picture there would be a loud beep and he'd squirm around. I'm not convinced the baby can actually hear yet (my app says that starts around 16 weeks) but Richard was convinced that he was reacting to the noise. 

She then asked us if we'd like to know the gender IF she could tell. Richard and I had talked about it just in case on the way over, and we decided that we'd like to know. However, we figured it would still be too early to tell. She had to bump the chill little guy a bit more to get him re-positioned. She then noticed that the umbilical cord was between his legs so that required a bit more re-positioning. Once that was finally out of the way, she said "It's hand is between it's legs, that usually means it's a boy." LOL oooohhh gosh. I was already mortified. Come on son! Really? Richard was cute and stood up for him saying: sometimes a boys gotta re-position himself, leave him alone. After she said that, she got a better shot and said, "Yeah, I think it's a boy." She then got an even clearer shot and she was like, "Nope, it's definitely a boy." For my son's privacy and future dignity, I will not include the "evidence" photos but we'll just say Richard is a proud papa haha :)

Overall it was about 20 minutes of pure heaven. We really felt like we got to experience his little personality during the ultrasound and we can't wait for the next one! Our tech gave us tons of photos and like the crazy obsessed parent that I am, I will show them off below!

>>Facing away from the camera<<

                                                                          >>Waving hi!<<

 >>Sleeps with arms above his head, just like mom :) I have a feeling this one won't like to be swaddled<<

 >>Crossing his feet, This photo is what made my Mom think it could be a girl haha<<

>>The bottom of his feet. This picture slays me!<<

>.Facing towards the camera. I realize this is probably a face only a mother could love lol<<

I feel like I should also have a "cute dad moment" section haha. After we were done looking at the pictures for the day, I put them back in the envelope on the dining room table. Richard leaves for work an hour before I do when we have our office jobs so once I got out of bed, he was already gone and I found the pictures sprawled all over the table. He was obviously looking at them. I am still melted on the floor.

10) Looking forward to? Well now that we know the gender I'm mostly looking forward to feeling him move and getting a bump myself! I can't wait for the day when strangers ask when I'm due. I'm sure people now just think I really enjoy my cheeseburgers (which I do) ;)

I will recap our little gender reveal party in the next post!

Baby Rindlisbacher | Due March 2015

                         ( Photos Courtesy of:  Amanda Rayas Photography | https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amanda-Rayas-Photography/135404856528012 )

As 307 of you already know...we are expecting our first baby next March! We were so overwhelmed with the amount of love and support that was expressed when we shared the news. In fact, when Richard's dad called us later that day, he said something along the lines of "Well, it looks like like your post went unnoticed" haha ;)

We told our families about 2 weeks after we found out. AND LET ME TELL YOU. Their reactions did not disappoint! For Richard's family, we snuck into their house while they were at church, and propped up the chalkboard (pictured above) right where they'd see it when they walked in.

They ended up staying like an hour late after church & this was Richard waiting by the window like a puppy for them to come home lol.


We also have a fabulous hidden camera video of their reaction but after a solid 30 minutes of me trying to get it off of Richard's phone to the internet I have given up for the day. Maybe later! Let's just say there was lots of cheering involved :)

For my family, we had a different plan. A few weeks ago my mom commented on one of Richard & my older Facebook photos asking for a 8"x 10" of it. We decided that she'd probably like a pregnancy reveal photo a little bit more than the one she was previously asking for haha. We waited until after dinner that Sunday and then gave my mom the photo envelope to open and she was PUMPED! This is their 11th grandchild so I wasn't expecting too much from them but they were very happy. My mom said she had a feeling something was up and my dad was suspicious because I was practically begging and inviting myself over that night. There were a lot of circumstances that would have warranted us just rescheduling, but I was persistent to the point of being pushy! My dad said that he was tempted to ask me during dinner what my due date was haha.

We are so excited to welcome this baby into our family and know that it will be loved beyond measure!

"All the Flowers of Tomorrow Are in the Seeds of Today"

As many of you already know, we are expecting our first baby! Truth be told, it's been in the plans for awhile but honestly some things just are easier said that done. I feel like I owe it to myself and to anyone else reading to be real with our whole story. So often, when something amazing happens in our lives, we forget all of the pain and struggles that came before. (Like childbirth, so I'm told). However, I don't want to forget. Our journey helped me to humble myself and rely more fully on our Father in Heaven.

 I had a miscarriage a week before Mother's Day this year that was more emotionally draining than I could have expected. It's amazing how quickly and how much love you can develop for something you've never even seen or felt. I learned that a mother's love begins the very second you see that second line on a pregnancy test and truly never stops. Miscarriages are actually very common. I've read on multiple sources that 10-25% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. Often time, without the mother even knowing that she was pregnant in the first place. However, I think this quote really speaks well to the issue:

"A miscarriage is a natural and common event. All told, probably more women have lost a child from this world that haven't. Most don't mention it, and they go on from day to day as if it hasn't happened, so people imagine a woman in this situation never really knew or loved what she had.

But ask her sometime: how old would your child be now? And she'll know. - Barbara Kingsolver"

In total it took us 9 months of lots of charting, apps, ClearBlue tests, fasting and prayers to make it happen. I know that is probably TMI but I want to share because when we were trying I was desperate to know that I wasn't alone. That I wasn't the only one who didn't succeed on the first month. 

Now, I know in the grand scheme of things that isn't a very long time. At all, really. I know couples that have been trying for years as well as couples that aren't even able to have children of their own. But when you are in that situation, every month contains a constant roller coaster of emotions. From despair to hope to optimism to let down to despair. Over and over again.  My heart truly goes out to anyone who is there right now. Let yourself buy 10 dollar store tests a month, go ahead and grab some chocolate on the day of despair (the expensive kind, Ghirardelli dark chocolate with caramel & sea salt!), pray for comfort and know that you have not been forgotten. Father in Heaven loves you and knows your situation.

(The quote above is from a picture in my childhood home that I've walked by probably a thousand times. My mom reminded me of it during our struggles and it now holds a greater meaning to me. Thanks mom! It's going in the nursery for sure!)