July 1st-the Big Day

We arrived at the hospital about 6:30 AM. Meranda was already in her room, hooked up to antibiotics. They didn't start inducing her labor until about 8:30 AM. I can't remember how long she went before getting some pain meds in her IV. She couldn't get comfortable in the bed or chair.

Sometime late that morning, the DR broke Meranda's water, which caused her lots of pain. I felt so sorry for her as she cried. Not much fluid came out until much later when she turned over in the bed. Fluid went everywhere, including in my step MIL's shoe! LOL She shouldn't have been standing so close, huh? ha ha

Mid afternoon Meranda was vacillating on an epidural. She was afraid to get one but thought she couldn't do it without one. She finally ended up getting one and after that, she was able to nap. She was also smiling again. =)

I think we went through 3 nurse-shift changes. Our nurse at about 7:30 PM called the DR and told him we were hanging in there...not a lot going on. Well, Meranda vomited about 10 minutes later and then said she could feel the head coming out! The nurse checked and sure enough, there was a head! The RN yelled at someone to call the DR. The RN thought she'd have Meranda do a couple of practice pushes...then had to have her stop because she was an expert pusher and the baby was coming out! The DR ran in and barely had time to get into scrubs. Meranda pushed less than 15-20 minutes and we had a baby!!

Fred ended up coming in and standing at Meranda's head. She wanted him to come in and be a part and now he is so glad he did! I got to see the baby being born...what a miracle!!!! Parts of it are such a blur because it happened so fast then other parts...I'll never forget it.

They immediately laid Ryleigh on Meranda's belly. I cut the cord!! Meranda held Ryleigh for a couple minutes then the RN took Ryleigh to clean her up, etc. That's when Meranda really started crying. It was heart-breaking. I left Fred with the baby and I just held my head to Meranda's and we sobbed together. I told her "thank you" over and over and she just smiled. When she thought I was out of the room, she cried so hard. I was on the other side of the curtain. I sobbed for her...my heart was breaking for her in her emotional pain. I have bonded with her in such a special way. I told Amy that I couldn't leave Meranda and she told me I had to...to take Ryleigh and go. Ryleigh was crying, so that didn't help Meranda to hear it.

After a quick stop in the waiting room, we went to the nursery where they had me put on a gown on the top and do skin to skin bonding with Ryleigh. It was so amazing. They placed her head right on my heart. I just rocked and cried! Fred gave Ryleigh her first bottle in the nursery.

The next day I went downstairs about 8:30 AM and Meranda was standing at the pop machine! lol I took Ryleigh to Meranda's room. Meranda held her, looked her over, had pictures taken, said her good-byes and kissed Ryleigh, then handed her to me. It was difficult for everyone in a sense, but Meranda needed that closure. 3 hours later, she met with our attorney and signed the adoption papers! Our attorney raced to the courthouse and went before the judge. By 4 PM, we had a copy of the notarized papers, signed, sealed and delivered! Baby Girl Min**** was offically Ryleigh Ema Jane Peterson when she was only 20 hours old!!!! The social worker said he'd never seen an adoption move so quickly! I said to him, "I don't know if you believe in prayer, but there are lots of prayers being said on our behalf!"

Then, this past Tuesday, Meranda had her final hearing before the judge and we got those papers in the mail on Wednesday that her part is final.

The next step is checking the Putative Father Registry the end of July. Our hearing will be the first week of August and then it'll all be over!!

God is so good!