Rykers Grand Entrance: A Birth Story

Ryker’s Birth, is something that will forever be a memory I hold dear to me, regardless of how stressful things went, or how nothing went as I had hoped for. It was still one of the best days of my life, because in the end, we have a perfect baby boy. All I cared about was that my child be safe, and once we established that he was, then I was happy.

His Grand Entrance

As every first time mom does, I anticipated what labor would be like. In my mind I had done well to prepare for it, Mark and I had taken a Hypnobirthing course, and practiced our hypnobirthing relaxation scripts and breathing techniques. I had hired a doula (which is a birth coach) who I considered to be a good asset to our birthing team, she is in training to become a midwife, and has worked at a birth center and assisted with many un-medicated births. She taught us about counter pressures, and other ways to manage labor pains.

I had also switched over to the Valley OB Orem Midwife group at 28 weeks, because I felt strongly  the midwives would not only provide me with the kind of prenatal care I wanted, but would also be more likely to help me achieve the type of birth I was wanting. I felt tough, I had worked out until I was 37 weeks pregnant, and been going on 3-4 mile walks at least 3 times a week. I felt confident in my ability to endure the pain, and in my head I had believed I could handle the pain.

May 19th, four days past his due date, Ryker decided to enter this world. If he was going to be born on a day other than his due date the 19^th is the day I would have chosen, since it’s also my dad’s birthday. I love that my dad and Ryker share a birthday, it makes the bond they share even more special.

 Two days after my due date had come and passed, I lost my Mucus plug. I was so excited about this, even though I knew labor could still be a ways off. I had showed no cervical change at my 38 or 39 week appointments, and I had been feeling discouraged.

Mark and I decided to go on a long walk to see if we could encourage labor to start, later that night around 10:30, I noticed some very mild contractions that were about 20-30 minutes apart, I had no problem breathing through them.

Mark and I had taken a Hypnobirthing class to prepare us for the un-medicated birth that I so badly wanted to have, so we practiced some of the hypnobirthing relaxation scripts, and I was able to fall asleep.Our bags were packed and ready to go, along with a copy of our birth plan ( haha!). I texted my doula and told her I thought something maybe happening but wasn't sure. Throughout the night I continued to have contractions that woke me, but they were still spaced out a lot. I woke up Mark to tell him I thought labor may have started, and he let his boss know he wouldn't be in to work.

In the morning, the contractions completely stopped. I felt bad for making Mark stay home, when nothing was happening, luckily we made use of the day, and got some last minute things done that we had been putting off. Later that day at 3:30 we had a doctor’s appointment with Becky Morris, one of the nurse midwives from the valley OB Orem Midwife group. I really, really liked Becky, and hoped that she would be on call when I delivered. She's very up front and matter of fact, but kind, I trusted her opinion completely. She had her assistant, who was doing her 8 week Assistance ship with her. She checked me and told me I was 1 cm dilated, 50 % effaced, and 50% soft. I was pretty happy that my body was making some progress towards labor. She then asked if I wanted my membranes stripped and I agreed to it. Getting membranes stripped is uncomfortable for sure, but it seemed like it was worth a try, since I would be 41 weeks that Saturday, and I did not want to be induced.

Becky did ask me if I wanted to schedule an induction for that Friday, or possibly the next Monday if Ryker hadn't come on his own yet. She was thoughtful, and told me she knew I was trying for an un-medicated birth, and that induction would make that goal a little harder. So we came up with a game plan, I was going to come back in on Thursday morning and get my membranes stripped again, and then if that didn't work I would come in and do a NST scan to make sure the placenta was working properly. The following Monday, I would do an NST scan, followed by a membrane strip again. If this still didn't work we would schedule an induction for Wednesday the 24th.

We left the appointment around 4:00 PM, and I was having some slight cramping, which can happen after getting your membranes stripped. I brushed it off as nothing more than that.

 Later that night though, around 7:30, the contractions became more intense and much closer together. They started in my lower back and made my entire belly go hard. I was able to work through them using my hypnobirthing breathing and an exercise ball. Mark also read me scripts from our Hypnobirthing book to help me relax, and I really felt like I had control of things. I was feeling optimistic that labor was starting, although, I was skeptical that these contractions were making too much of a change, since they just didn’t seem intense enough yet.

Around 8:00 PM I decided we should time them to see how close together they were. We found that they were ranging from 4-6 minutes apart, and lasting between 45-55 seconds. I decided to go take a bath, and see if that helped, or caused them to go away. The bath did help, but I was still having contractions. At this point, around 9:30 PM, I decided to go to bed. The contractions were becoming more uncomfortable though, and I couldn't sleep through them. I had my birth ball and I was doing my breathing, and listening to the hypnobirthing cd trying to work through them. I was so tired.

Around 2:00 AM I woke Mark up, because I couldn't sleep at all, and asked him to time them again. They were consistently 5 minutes apart and about a minute each, following the 5-1-1 rule, five minutes apart, a minute long for an hour that would allow us to go to the hospital. My mom convinced me to just go see if id progressed for some peace of mind at the least, so we headed to Orem Community Hospital and got there by 3:30 am.

They had me sit with monitors on for an hour, and then came back in to check me after an hour I was still only dilated to a 1, but I was 90% effaced and soft. So this was the beginning of labor, it was just moving very slowly. Since I hadn't progressed at all in that hour, I was offered a shot of morphine, to help with the pain and allow me to sleep, but I didn’t feel good about it, so I chose not to have the shot. Maybe this was a mistake?  I was then sent home. I got home around 5:30 am, and took a bat. By some miracle I fell asleep for about 2 hours, I used my boppy nursing pillow to apply counter pressure through the night when a contraction hit, and I somehow managed them. They also slowed down to every 15-20 minutes.

The weird thing about contractions is you get trapped in them, so whatever position you are in when they start you kind of are stuck in until the contraction ends. I found that laying down was the worst position for me, so around 7:30, I got up, made breakfast, and went and sat on the exercise ball while listening to the hypnobirthing tape. My contractions were still at least 20 minutes apart at this time, which allowed me to rest a little bit. Around noon Mark suggested we go on a walk to see if we could get things going. We went up hobble creek and walked the trail, at this point my contractions did start picking up but they were no longer in my back, instead they were in the front part of my belly, which made a huge difference! Instead of searing pain, it felt like intense pressure on my hips, and down the tops of my thighs, I could work through them so much easier, It was nice.

By the end of our walk, they had gotten closer together, where they came every 7 minutes about. At this point I was ready to try some wives tails, so we decided to go to Wal-Mart to get stuff for a spicy chili for dinner, and I ate a bunch of pineapple, got to try those wives tails. I had also started taking  around 38 weeks (per suggestion of my doula and midwives) evening primrose oil, and drinking Red Raspberry leaf tea for at least a week before labor started, and of course Sex, which yeah, wasn't the easiest thing to do at this point!

I had been updating my doula, and at this point she suggested that she come over, and chat with us. She told me she had a "labor shake" that had worked for a lot of her clients, and thought it would help labor along. So around 7 pm on Wednesday night she came over. At this point it was getting harder to talk through the contractions, but I could breathe through them, and the hypnobirthing cd was still helping. Again, front contractions were so much easier to deal with. My doula said that my labor was pretty typical for a first time mom, and that she thought we'd for sure have a baby soon, either that night or the next day. I was feeling really fatigued at this point, and starting to mentally doubt myself. I just couldn't fathom another night, the third night, of no sleep.

I also had this immense fear wash over me, when I realized that this was early stage labor, and things would only get harder, more intense and I had no idea how long it would take before he would get here. With no guarantee or knowing if I was progressing, since in our birth plan I wanted to labor as long as I could at home, I became very discouraged and began doubting myself.

I had been completely opposed to taking castor oil, because its a heavy duty laxative, but my doula reassured me her shake wouldn't cause me to have terrible diarrhea. So I drank it, she only put a table spoon of castor oil in it, and it was pretty good. It had peanut butter, a strawberry banana smoothie mix, the oil and some essential oils.

After this she headed home, and told us to call her when we wanted her to come back over. that was around 8:30, and I had drank the shake at about 8:00, now I'm not sure if it was the shake or not, but by 9:30 my contractions had changed. They were stronger, and so hard to work through.

I was trying to sleep, and felt like I needed to pee when I tried to get up, I got caught in a contraction and I couldn't move to relieve it. This happened three times in a row, and again when I finally got to the toilet. I had met my limit, and started sobbing uncontrollably, I told Mark I couldn't do another night of no sleep, and mentally I just needed to know if things were progressing, but somehow I knew they weren't.  I told mark I wanted the epidural. At this point, I had been laboring for 28 hours.

I just wanted relief, and I wanted sleep. At this point I felt like a failure, I had done all of this preparation to do an un-medicated birth, and I was giving up. My mom helped convince me to go just get checked and see how dilated I was, at least this way I could have some piece of mind. Maybe these contractions were moving things along? Although, in my mind I was doubtful, since I was only a 1 that morning. So around 10:00 Mark and I packed the car and headed to the hospital, again. The drive there was so hard to sit through, and I dreaded sitting on the bed again for an hour. At this point, I would have begged them to let me stay and I was hoping I would be dilated to a 4, or that they would offer to induce me!

 We got to the hospital, and by 10:30 I was strapped to the bed with monitors again. This time, sitting there working through them was really, really difficult. Luckily Mark applied counter pressure, which helped a lot. We had forgotten our hypnobirthing relaxation scripts and cd at home, I wonder if it would have helped, I think mentally at that point I just had decided I wanted the epidural, as the mental and physical fatigue was really wearing on me.

Unfortunately, when the nurse checked me I was dilated to only 1.5 cm, and an hour later she "stretched me to a 2". She let me know that I was definitely in labor, and my contractions were consistent and she went to talk to Sue, the midwife on call to see what she wanted to do. I was on the verge of tears, if they told me to go home, I think I would have started crying again. I was ready to beg them to let me stay, and to argue my case, since Becky had mentioned inducing me that Friday, and it was almost Thursday! I determined not to leave that hospital without a baby, and some pain relief!

Luckily for me, Sue said that they could keep me as long as I was okay with using Pitocin to get labor to progress. Since I hadn't dilated in the time I’d been there very much, she was afraid the epidural would stop my labor. I eagerly agreed to these terms.

It took them about an hour to get the anesthesiologist, and in the mean time I had dilated to a 2, with my bag of water bulging, about 30 minutes before the anesthesiologist got there my water broke! We were having a baby that day for sure! It made me feel so much better knowing that Ryker was coming, and I wasn't evicting him early. I was also so happy he would share a birthday with my dad.

After I got the epidural, they kept checking to see if I was progressing, which I was! I didn't end up needing Pitocin until around 4:30 am, when I got stuck at 7cm dilated, at this point Becky had come on shift, and decided to give me the smallest dose possible. It worked and I was on my way to delivering the baby around 12 noon. I texted my Doula to let her know what was happening, and asked if she would come to the hospital around 10:00 AM, thinking that he would be there shortly after. She was not only our support, but was going to take some pictures for us too!

Eventually, at 10:45 am I was dilated to 8 cm and they placed an internal fetal monitor, which I hated because I could feel it, and it was very uncomfortable. I wished they could take it out! Around 11:30 am I was able to take a much needed nap, since I hadn’t slept all night, pretty much I had been woken up every half hour to hour to be checked or had my blood pressure taken. Around noon, they discovered that I had developed a fever, which signaled that I had most likely contracted a uterine infection. I was given Tylenol and started on antibiotics to treat the fever, and luckily it helped.  My body doesn’t like to have a temperature above 100 degrees, and I wasn’t handling this well, I began to shake uncontrollably, luckily, I ended up falling asleep, and slept until around 1 pm.at this time the midwife checked me again to see if I was dilated to completion ( 10 cm)  the decision had been made to have me start pushing as soon as I reached a 10, because the baby’s heart rate had started to decline after every contraction, instead of doing what they like to call rest and ascend, where you dilate past 10 cm to allow the baby to start descending on its own, and have the mothers body dictate when pushing needs to begin, then start pushing. At 1:30 PM I started pushing.

I soon realized that this baby wasn't going to be coming out anytime soon. I pushed, and pushed and pushed, with very little success at moving him along, the midwives( the midwife who was doing her assistantship was there helping too) this was mostly due to his head being very swollen. So swollen that the midwives couldn't find his face to see if he was coming out the right way. Even with my epidural, I could feel them poking and prodding around down there, and it was so uncomfortable. I could also feel the contractions building. My epidural was what they call a walking epidural, or a half epidural. I could feel my feet, and move my legs, they just felt tingly numb. I could also put pressure on my legs to lift my but up if I needed too, either the epidural wasn’t completely effective, or that’s just how it was supposed to be. I couldn’t feel the contractions in my stomach though, but I felt the pressure of needing to bare down to push, and it felt like I was so constipated, and couldn’t get anything out. Literally, it was the worst pressure I’ve dealt with in my life, and left me in fear for a while to have a bowl movement after baby was born!

no matter what I had to push! I couldn't not push. It was so relieving to push during contractions, and in between I would go completely limp and almost fall into a trance like sleep state. I felt encouraged by the midwives who kept reassuring me that I was pushing really, really well, and I wasn't doing anything wrong, but that his head was just very swollen, and it was slowly coming down the birth canal, after about an hour his head was visible, and they told me he had a head full of hair. The only problem was, that the midwives couldn't feel his face, so the part they could see was just the swelling of his head.

After two hours of pushing, the midwives decided that the baby was not progressing, and was stuck behind my pelvic bone, it was also determined that due to the stress of pushing the baby had pooped, they saw meconium in his water, and put some water in my uterus to see how much, and a significant amount came out. I continued to push for another hour, with no progress. At this point it had been 3 hours since we had started pushing, and baby's heart rate was descaling and not coming back up quickly, they knew he was distressed because of the meconium, and his heart rate was becoming a worry, due to this my midwife Becky decided we needed to take a different course of action, and advised me that they would like to try using a vacuum or forceps.

I wanted to have them use the vacuum because it seemed like the safer option, at 4:30 pm we took a break from pushing, to wait for the OB to arrive, Becky felt the OB was very good at her job, and trusted her to deliver the baby safely with either the vacuum or forceps.

The urge to push was so strong that they had the epidural be re-administered stronger, and even with the epidural given at full dose again I could still feel the contractions, but I was able to breathe through them. It took about an hour for the OB to get there.

She explained to me that they could try the vacuum, but they could only try one or the other, so they couldn't try the vacuum and then the forceps. In this case she felt that the vacuum wouldn't work, since the baby’s head was so swollen and coned she didn't think it would suction onto him like it would need too. She also told me that they would only have 3-4 pushes to get him out, and if by then he wasn't out, then our next option would be a Cesarean section, because if he wasn't coming out, it meant he wasn't meant to come out vaginally. ( we were trying at all costs to avoid a C-section due to internal scaring that had most likely occurred from having my appendix rupture when I was 13, not only had the OB told me this, but also an ultrasound technician. They didn’t want to mess with my insides anymore, since they function how they’re supposed to, but most likely aren’t in the spot they are supposed to be).

The OB advised that I go with the forceps. she reassured me that the forceps had a pressure lock on them that prevented her from applying to much pressure, which made me feel better, and explained she wasn't going to be pulling him out, but working with the contractions to gently (as gently as you can) guide his head out from behind my pelvic bone.

At this point our room was packed full of nurses, and doctors who would be there to help in case of emergency. In total we had 19 people in our room. I also had the OB and the midwife, and the midwives assistant there encouraging me and supervising.

Forceps are interesting things, they look like giant salad spoons, they are giant and metal, and even with the epidural it was extremely uncomfortable. They were more uncomfortable than the contractions, which were really hard to feel at this point because I was focused on the forceps, and because I had been redosed with the epidural. I pushed through the first contraction with the forceps and Mark and my doula helped me hold my legs. My entire birth team was encouraging me, and I felt like I was pushing with everything I had. With the first contraction the baby didn't move, and I knew that I needed to get him out, I felt kind of frantic at this point.  With The second contraction luckily, I was able to get his head out from behind my pelvis bone! I was so worried that he wasn't going to come out still, that my midwife made me reach down and feel his head.

His little head was so pointy, and I could see it had hair! With the last contraction I pushed with every ounce of energy that I had to get him out, It was my last chance, and the OB said to give it my all, I knew if he didn’t come out with this push that I would be likely to get a C-section.

The one and only time that I yelled during labor was for this push, I literally felt like I couldn’t have pushed harder, and luckily it worked! With that push out came my beautiful little boy. Ryker Aagard Christiansen entered this world, with the help of an amazing birth team and forceps, at 5:38 PM, 46 hours after the onset of actual labor, and 3 hours of pushing. He weighed 7lbs. 6.0z and was 21 3/4 " long. He easily was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life. I truly believe that had I not worked out during my pregnancy, I wouldn't have had the muscle or endurance to push him out. Even though nothing went as planned, I still believe that was so beneficial to me during my pregnancy, and has aided in my recovery. I also think I would have had a C-section had I not been in shape. 

 I was so afraid seeing him like he was, limp, and kind of purple and brown (from the meconium- a nurse later told us he had more meconium on him than she'd ever seen on a baby! poor little guy was so stressed). I burst into tears, because I felt so bad about what he had endured, and his head was so, so, so swollen and coned. I was also worried, because I couldn't see what was going on, and he took a little while to cry. Luckily Our wonderful doula, captured some pictures of him for us. This is what I saw after he was born.

You can see that not only was his head coned it was slightly to the side, this is because of how his face was turned in the birth canal. His head came out sunny side up, and he had been facing my pelvis bone! it was a scary thing to see. The red part was a bruise that extended to the back of his head , and the sides. It is still a little pink on the top of his head but, it's no longer painful.

I had wanted so badly to do delayed cord clamping, and skin on skin right after he was born, but that didn't happen. My midwife explained they didn't want him to breath in any meconium so his cord would be clamped soon after he was born. However, Mark told me later that right after Ryker was born, his cord ruptured!! I'm so glad I didn't see this, Rykers cord was thin and very short, and a thin cord is a sign that a baby is overdue. It is one of the reasons he ended up in the NICU. He lost more blood through his cord, and his blood volume was really low. He was also very dehydrated. On top of this the bruise on his head was so severe that they worried it may have caused a hemorrhage between his skull and his brain.

This was partly from the forceps, but also from the long labor (my active stage of labor had lasted 18 hours from the time we got to the hospital). They were also worried that he would have the infection that I had contracted during my labor. Due to these 3 things, Orem community decided it would be in his best interest to go to Utah Valley Medical Regional Hospital in Provo, because there NICU was more quipped to handle the situation, if it were to get worse.

His little head was so conned! This was the most I saw him ( wheeling him off to the NICU at Orem Community) until 8:30-9 pm that night.

I only saw Ryker for a short amount of time before he was taken out of the room. I couldn't see him because he was surrounded by people, and when he didn't cry for a little while I started crying, and then again I cried when I heard his sweet little cry. It was a scary couple of minutes, and that night was scary because we didn't know if he had a hemorrhage or not.

Through this all my doula was by my side, and Mark remained calm, and was able to talk to the pediatrician and see what was going on with Ryker. I'm so grateful for my doula who is training to be a midwife, who reassured me that things were going to be okay, and literally held my hand while they stitched me up.

I'm lucky because I only had 2nd degree tears, and a cervical tear. I also hemorrhaged some, but didn't end up needing to go to the OR, which they thought I would end up needing. Because of this I didn't eat anything until 9:00 pm. About a 1/2 hour after Ryker was born they took him to their NICU at Orem Community.

Mark came in and showed me his sweet, and swollen/bruised face, since he was able to go with the baby to the NICU, and I wasn't able to leave my bed.

Mark took this picture from the Orem Community NICU because I wasn't in a state to go and see him. Ryker Aagard Christiansen, 7 lbs. 6. oz, 21 3/4 " long, and the most beautiful baby I'd ever laid eyes on.

My family arrived around 8:00 pm, and during this time I hadn't seen my baby for more than the few minutes after he was born. Shortly after they showed up, the pediatrician came in, and informed us that he felt it was best that the baby be transferred to Utah Valley Regionals NICU as a safety precaution, in case he did have a brain hemorrhage, and infection. I hadn't gotten to see him or hold him yet, and it was around 8:30 pm that I was wheeled in to see him before they took him via ambulance to UVRM.

My poor little boy was so exhausted he was just passed out, his face was so perfect, I got to talk to him and touch him for about 15 minutes, during which the pediatrician and one of the OB's on call gave him a priesthood blessing. It made me feel better, as I strongly believe in the power of prayer. After this they wheeled me back to my bedroom, where I ended up passing out while attempting to get back into the bed. I think this was from exhaustion, blood loss and having not had solid food for 18 plus hours at this point. Before they transported him to the NICU they brought him by my room so I could see him one more time, and so they could explain a few things to me.

This was what they took him in the ambulance in, it was the last time I got to see him, before they took him to Utah Valley Regional Hospital. It was so sad to see him like that, but I knew they were doing what they felt was best for him.

I spent the next day and a half in bed resting and getting IV antibiotics. It was really hard to be away from my baby. I felt like he needed me, and I didn't even know if he would know who I was. I was jealous that Mark got to hold him and feed him his first bottle. Mark sent me pictures from the NICU, and came back every night and told me all about the baby, it was comforting, but I can't say it wasn't hard. I cried a few times, because I was feeling bad for him, and for myself. One thing that helped me feel useful was pumping to get my milk to come in. I wanted to make sure he had something that could help him fight off the infection if he was sick.  

Of course I was also so happy that Mark was there with him. My family was so supportive too, Ryker had visitors every day that he was in the NICU, I am so happy that he is so loved.

One of the first pictures Mark sent me of him and Ryker in the NICU, He said that Ryker opened his eyes to look at him, and tried to follow him with his eyes any time he heard his voice. It was so sweet to me, I believe babies know who there parents are, even if it doesn't seem like it.

While he was in the NICU they did a bunch of brain scans to make sure there wasn't any brain damage, as well as monitored him for excess swelling that would signal a hemorrhage, luckily he didn't have any! His blood culture also came back clear after 48 hours of antibiotics, and he didn't get the infection! It was a huge relief to me.

On Saturday morning I was cleared to leave the hospital, and I headed over to see and hold my baby, I was so nervous and excited that I got the nervous shakes. Holding him for the first time was so precious. He opened his eyes and looked at me, and I just melted. It’s insane how much I love him, and how relieved I was that he was going to be okay.

That is the conclusion to how this little man arrived into this world, and although it was tough and scary and probably pretty painful, he is completely healthy, he eats, sleeps and poops like a champion and his cone head and bruise are pretty much gone. Mark and I are so grateful to have him here.

My first picture of him, he is sort of perfect to me. I can't believe Mark and me made him!



Our first time doing skin to skin, it was so nice to be able to hold my baby.