Rain Mayumi Price

I realize this post is 6 weeks past due, but considering the drastic change life has taken in the Price household hopefully none of you will hold it against me!

First and foremost, Rain is absolutely the most precious, beautiful, wonderful little thing. EVER. The only word fitting in my opinion is PERFECT.

Rain Mayumi was born October 9th, 2010 at 12:15am in Yokosuka, Japan. She was 19 and 2/3 inches long and weighed 6 lbs. 7 oz. I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself though...

I guess you could say my pregnancy had its ups and downs. All in all I consider myself lucky because other than all day nausea for the first few months, painful feet, and the usual tiredness I didn't suffer from most of the other pregnancy ailments. I DID however have many false alarms with the pregnancy itself... first a short cervix, then an out of place placenta, LB measuring too small, an untwined umbilical cord, and finally a heart arrhythmia for LB. All of which turned out to be non issues but certainly created major concern and worry and the heart issue even resulted in us delivering a week early.

The only other major concern during the pregnancy was whether Shane would be here for the birth. Since the GW was on its summer deployment there was no guarantee that Shane would be home. Luckily, everything worked out and he was able to fly home when the ship pulled in to Thailand for a few days and he made it home 3 days before I was induced.

On the morning of the induction I think we were both in a state of shock, excitement, fear, disbelief, and joy that the day had finally arrived. I was admitted about 10am on the 8th and once settled in, the doc checked and I was 3 centimeters dilated but not effaced. I was given medicine and the waiting game began. I wasn't feeling contractions at all, though I was having small ones and Shane and I entertained ourselves by watching Heroes, reading magazines, and listening to music throughout the afternoon. Around 4pm the doc broke my water and I still didn't feel the contractions even though they were getting stronger. My only indication that I was having them is that I would get REALLY hot. Then around 7pm I got pitocin and each contraction gradually got stronger and stronger. At this point I hadn't gotten an epidural because my birth plan was basically to just see how things go. A big part of me wanted to go natural, but I also knew that with an induction there is a good chance for a long labor and I didn't want to be completely exhausted when there were perfectly good drugs available. So, around 9 or 10 I asked for an epidural or I should say I told Shane I wanted an epidural. I've never seen him move so fast! I think he was out of the room before I even finished the sentence! :) And I'm sure some of you are wondering... no I did not yell at him. There was only one time that I very directly asked him not to touch me, but I didn't yell and I even said please. (Yes, I'm very proud of myself! :) Shane was absolutely wonderful thru it all, he was there for me every step of the way and I can't even imagine going thru it without him!

Sooo, they decided to check me after I got the epidural and low and behold I was 9 centimeters! Pretty soon after that it was time to push. I fully understand why it's called labor now... I just kept thinking to myself, "this has to be a lot like running a marathon! I am soooo exhausted!" Of course the second Rain arrived I didn't feel tired at all, just completely overjoyed!!

I got to hold her immediately and it was truly one of the most special moments of my life. I can't even describe the rush of emotions I felt or how in that instant time was frozen and even with all the doctors and nurses in the room no one else existed except Shane, Rain, and I.

Eventually we had to let them clean her up, check vitals, and do an EKG (because of the heart issue). While we were waiting we realized we had left the radio on which made the room feel much more relaxed and added to the celebration - Rain's birthday celebration! I enjoy knowing that she came into the world with country music playing in the background! She might have been born in Japan but we found a way to bring a little bit of Texas to the hospital room!

Once things settled down (and I finally got some feeling back to my legs) the 3 of us moved to our recovery room where we spent the next 2 days anxiously waiting to go home. Rain's bilirubin levels were high so she had to be under the UV lights for 24 hours. It was such a helpless, awful feeling to see her under the lights with no clothes on and her little eyes covered. Luckily after 24 hours her jaundice levels were low enough that we got to go home! Unfortunately we had to go back to the hospital every day that week to have her foot pricked and check the levels again to make sure the jaundice wasn't getting worse. After 6 consecutive days of foot pricks and cries we finally got a clean bill of health and could settle in as a family!

Now that we're home and 6 weeks have went by I still feel just as lucky and overjoyed as the first day. Watching Rain is amazing and she's growing sooo fast - she already weighs more than 8 pounds! She's also very strong - she can hold her head up for several seconds at a time, does assisted crawling (if I put my hands at her feet she pushes off and moves all the way across her play mat), and rolled over entirely on her own already! She's also really good about letting you know when she's not happy about something! ;)

I will post more soon - very proud to finally get this out!!!