Wyatt Peter Ristig

After a weeks worth of trying to get this little guy to come out on his own, I finally gave in to modern medicine, and checked in to labor and delivery at the University of New Mexico's Midwifery at 7:30pm on the 17th for induction.

At about 9:30pm, I was given 1/4 of a dose of misoprostol, which is used to soften the cervix. I was only 70% effaced. Once given, they wait 4 hours, check the progress, and if all is well they start the pitocin. All was more than well, though, and after about 2 hours or so I started having good contractions on my own. We opted out of the pitocin, and decide to let things go as they may. I decided to wait on the epidural too, so I wouldn't be stuck strapped to the bed.

I let Pete go to sleep, and I slept in two or three minute intervals between contractions, until they started getting really, really hard. I was just about to call the nurse when a heard a little POP! My water broke and I was a human geyser! (TMI, but what did you expect. This is about birthing a baby!). The contractions got crazy hard after that, and twenty minutes or so later, my epidural was in place. Sweet relief!

We called my good friend, Megan, who was my extra support person/photographer to come back to the hospital at about 5am. At a little after 7:30am I felt like I needed to push. The midwife was called in to check me, and said I was plus two, and could push whenever I was ready. Push I did. I was hoping that this time the pushing would be quicker since I'd already given birth once before. No such luck!

I pushed for nearly an hour-and-a-half, and finally out came Wyatt's head. Problem was, his shoulders were lodged in my birth canal. Yikes! Two nurses grabbed me by the shoulders to hold me down (and slammed my bed back against the wall in the process, not realizing the brakes were off), and the midwife yanked on Wyatt yelling for me to push with everything I had. Out he finally came! He was gray as a ghost for about 5 seconds before belting out the noisiest cry, and almost immediately turning a nice, rosy shade of pink. They plopped him on my chest, and Pete cut the cord.

Wyatt Peter Ristig was born at 8:50am, weighing in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and 21.5 inches. What a big boy!