Not for the faint of heart...

Last night I woke up in a puddle of blood. Things quickly went from bad to really, really bad as I rushed to the bathroom. An insane amount of blood began pouring down my legs. Of course, Drew was asleep and I'm standing in a bathroom that now looks like a gruesome murder scene. I was losing so much blood that I was honestly scared for my life. After freaking out for a few moments and trying to figure out if all of this was real or a nightmare, I decided that I had to wake up Drew and get to the emergency room. So without further hesitation, I grabbed a towel and threw on a robe hanging in the bathroom. I left bloody footprints on the carpet as I made my way back to the bedroom. I can't imagine having been in Drew's place as I woke him up and he saw the blood in the bed next to him and me totally freaking out, telling him that we had to get to the emergency room. What a rude awakening! But he handled it great and we got to the emergency room and I was admitted by 12:30 am. (Drew - feel free to add anything you want to this part of the story...) I received an IV and a shot to make my uterus contract so as to slow down the bleeding.

The Dr. FINALLY came to see me about 1:00 pm and let me know that it was 'probably just my period' starting back up...that 'yeah, sometimes women are surprised by how much they bleed when it kicks back in.' No one ever told me that this might happen...Yes, I've been dealing with post-partum bleeding since Riley was born, and I did back when Jed was born, and, yes, I've had a period before...but none of that was ANYTHING like this. I was actually really frustrated with the Dr. because, in so many words, he told me that it wasn't necessary for me to go to the emergency room and that if I'd have called he would have had me 'do all the same things, just at home'. Ok, I've since read up on all of this post-partum bleeding on the internet and I do believe that if everything happened again, I would still go to the emergency room freaking out. I read that women can die from massive hemorraging in a matter of 10-20 minutes. How was I to know how long I might bleed for?! And he wouldn't even get out of bed long enough to come check on me; he has no idea how much blood there was because he saw me 12 hours later, after the magic medicine and after a shower. I am one who HATES to go to the Dr. or be seen as paranoid so I always lean towards not acting when I probably ought to. This really was no small matter - and I hate that he made it seem like such. I think he was probably trying to comfort me in the matter of my health, going a little overboard to make me feel like I was ok and that what happened to me was not a big deal...but instead he just made me feel like I was retarded for making such a big deal of it all.

Well, the good news is that I guess I am ok...assuming, of course, that this doesn't happen again...

Riley Ember Caperton

She's here!! And she's beautiful! And we love her so much! Here's the story of how Riley Ember Caperton came to grace our lives with her presence...
[Click on the pictures to see even more pictures of Riley]




Labor: Contractions started around midnight on Saturday night (6/25). I had endured false labor contractions on Friday morning and so I was very unsure of wether or not these were the real thing. The LAST thing I wanted to do was go to the hospital and be sent home. But I also didn't want to wait too long and miss out on the epidural. I wanted this one to have time to work fully! (With Jed I only had an epidural on my right side and there was no time to fix it before it was time to push.) So, we kept timing contractions and eventually called the Dr. around 2:30 am. He told us to go ahead and get to the hospital. We got there around 3:00 am and got checked in and sent to the Labor and Delivery wing. After checking, I was 5-6 cm dilated and so they decided to admit me. It was music to my ears when the nurse said "this means you're not leaving here without a baby"! (My contractions had kind of slowed and gotten irregular after getting in the car so I was nervous still.) They moved me to a L&D suite and got me hooked up to an IV. After receiving a bag of fluids they called for the anesthesiologist. Around 4:30 am I got the epidural and LIFE WAS GRAND!!!! I honestly had no idea that they were that great! I didn't realize how little of the epidural I had received last time until getting one full strength. After it kicked in fully, I honestly felt better than I had felt in the past two to three months...and here I am, IN LABOR! For the next couple of hours I was supposed to sleep. But I could not. I was shaking from the cold fluids going in my arm and probably just from nerves too. Not to mention, my blood pressure dropped really low - to like 85/40. My mind was absolutely RACING - a million things were running thru my head - and the only one I can remember clearly was that we hadn't decided on a (just-in-case) boys name yet. I was incredibly stressed about it. So after an hour of trying to sleep, they came back in to check me and I was between 6 & 7 cm. Things were slowing down...and after another hour (during which I actually did finally sleep) I still hadn't progressed past 6 or 7 cm. The Dr. came in around 7:30 and broke my water. Contractions picked up some after that, but they decided to go ahead and start a pitocin drip to make the contractions stronger. Watching the contractions on the monitor was strange because they were HUGE and I was still feeling NOTHING!

Delivery: Our friends Dallas & Carrie showed up to visit around 8:45 am. At 9:20 am, just as the nurse is telling me that I'm 'complete' - dilated to 10 and totally ready to push - Janis (my mother-in-law) arrived with Jed. They got to come in and say hi while the nurse prepped the room for delivery. It was so great to get to see Jed prior to delivering - one last time with him as my only child...boy was his life about to change...and he didn't have a clue! Then everyone left and the Dr. and nurses and Drew took their places. This delivery was possibly one of the most amazing things ever. Last time, I freaked out about the idea of watching the delivery in the mirror that they provide, but this time, I wanted the option of seeing the miracle of birth myself. I thought, "If I can't handle it, I don't have to look." And I think that if I had been in any kind of pain at all I might not have been able to handle it, because, for me, seeing what's causing the pain makes it hurt even more. But I watched. I watched the entire thing. And felt nothing...except complete awe and amazement. It was incredible! I pushed a whole 3 times total and Riley was completely out at 10:09 am. I seriously didn't even break a sweat. It was absolutely nothing like my last delivery (which I already thought was way easy) or any that I had ever seen in movies or on tv. I got to enjoy every single moment of what was going on.

Post-Partum: After being cleaned and stitched up, Drew stepped out to get Jed. We wanted him to be the first to meet Riley. The nurse taped the entire encounter for us. Our whole family together for the first time. Jed came in the room waving and, it probably wont happen again for quite some time, but plain as day, Jed said "Hi, Riley!" He doesn't really say R's or L's but he did that morning.



Riley's Stats: 9lb 3 oz & 20 1/2 in - I cannot believe she was so big. She came a week early and was still that big! Thank goodness we were planning to induce if she hadn't come by the 28th!

Side Note: Drew got a job the following monday morning. We were still in the hospital when he got the call. It was the job we had been waiting and praying for - that he actually had been told was given to someone else. Check out Drew's Blog to read more on this part of God's story.

At Home: Riley is eating and sleeping well. Jed is adjusting, although occassionally he acts out for the attention. Today has been a really good day with him though and I have been here with the two of them by myself for about 4 hours...and I have survived quite well actually. There have been some rough moments (or hours) for the 4 of us since we've been home but we're just figuring out how this whole two kid thing works...we're slowly getting the hang of things. And my back pain is slowly going away...which helps tremendously in what I can do with Jed. It seems like he has doubled his weight since Sunday - he seems like such a monster compared to little Riley. The heartburn ceased immediately after returning home. So now, if the breasts can just adjust to having the life sucked out of them again I'll be in good shape!

More to Come: There's so much more to say about what life's like right now, but this post sure is long enough already! Hopefully I'll have some free time soon to update more.