That time I made a second human.

[As written on 5/8/14]
Did you know that only 3% of women have their babies on their due date? Pretty remarkable. I feel so blessed. I still can't believe my body housed and created another human being. It's so crazy and surreal when you really stop to think about it. This is Ryder William Heidorn.
I was pretty active my entire pregnancy. I enjoyed jogging until I was 28 weeks when I was told to stop because some dehydration led to contractions (funnily enough in later weeks jogging wouldn't even give me braxton hicks). After that I was out walking on the trails with Caiden and Nixon a few times a week. Having a very active 3 year old helps keep a pregnant momma active too. But the last few weeks of my pregnancy I was super active... walking 27+ miles a week, jogging up and down stadium stairs, did a 5k race with my little family 5 days before my due date. I tried drinking red raspberry leaf tea, driving down bumpy roads, eating spicy foods, had my membranes stripped, you name it I probably tried it if it was approved by my midwife. Nothing seemed to work. The days leading up to my due date were so hot in Atlanta I had absolutely no drive to get out and walk. 88 degrees when your pregnant feels more like 110 and I just wasn't having it, and neither were my poor swollen feet. But Wednesday night Miles text me on his way home from work asking if we wanted to meet him at Fowler Park. There's a big skate park and I knew he was probably hinting at going there, but there's also beautiful walking trails. I said we'd meet him if we could go for a walk after he was done skating. We only walked about 2 miles because Caiden took a pretty bad fall and skinned up his knees. I was having some pretty hard contractions the whole first mile. Then they stopped. I was discouraged. After finally getting Caiden's knees all cleaned up, his body calmed down and put to bed we cleaned the house for my mom's impending arrival the next day and I headed to bed. Around 11:30 I started feeling some painful contractions. I decided to time them just in case. After about an hour of 50 second contractions every 4 minutes I decided to call my midwife. Miles overheard me on the phone and decided to take a shower because he felt like this was it. I waited for a call back from the on call doctor and kept timing contractions.  I didn't really know what it felt like to go into labor because I was induced with Caiden so around 1:15am I called my mom. I was pretty sure I was in labor, but I wanted their prayers to keep these contractions going. Still no call back from the on call doctor. I hadn't packed a bag or anything for the hospital, so I kept busy by getting that ready. Still no call... so I nervously took a shower, afraid the warm water would stop the contractions. It didn't. I got dressed and called our friends the Engers to see if we could bring Caiden over there while we went to the hospital. Rachell is a saint and offered to drive over to our house so we wouldn't have to wake Caiden. Such a blessing! I still hadn't heard back from the on call doctor. We decided to just start heading to the hospital around 2am. I had stopped timing my contractions while we were crazily trying to get ready and started to again in the car. They were now 50 seconds long and about 1.5 minutes apart. The midwife called as we were pulling up to the hospital and I let her know we were already there. I got all hooked up to the monitors and was checked out. I was about 3-4cm dilated and 90% effaced which I felt good about compared to my OB appointment the week previous where I was maybe 1cm dilated and hardly effaced. She said she could feel my water bulging and wanted to admit me because she thought my water would break at any time and that my cervix was ready to go. We were admitted around 2:30am and things got intense for me. My contractions were painful, but the pressure was immense. I finally asked them to break my water because I couldn't handle it anymore. I thought it would relieve some pressure, and in theory it probably could have but that wasn't the case for me. I thought for sure I was going to die, I probably told Miles a million times "I can't do this" I was dilated to a 6 when she broke my water around 4am and by 6:15am I was pushing. Four big pushes and 18 minutes later I was holding my tiny little peanut. No tearing, no stitches.
I am still mesmerized by how tiny he is. He weighs in at 5lbs 15oz and is 18.75in long (compared to Caiden who was 8lbs 1oz and 21.5in long). He looks so much like Caiden it's kind of surreal. He's a furry little guy and I'm mildly obsessed with it. He has hair on his cheeks, his ears, his shoulders, back and arms, down his legs and around his ankles. He has his daddy's top lip just like his big brother, and moves his little fingers in such a way that is totally Caiden. He's like a compact version of his brother. He's so mild mannered and content. Caiden is totally in smitten. He whispers to Ryder when he's crying "it's ok, Caiden's here" is constantly telling Ryder how cute he is, and is eager to tell all the nurses he's a big brother. He wants to hold him, snuggle him, and touch his tiny fingers every second. He spent 6 hours in my hospital room today and was totally content, which if you know Caiden you know how marvelous that is. There's a whole new level of love and pride when you watch your children be reunited on earth and just know they loved each other before they were here. I can't even begin to describe the joy I felt watching Miles hold Caiden on his lap while they held Ryder together. It felt like my whole world was complete and wrapped up in a package for me to marvel at. As I write this I've been awake for 36+ hours straight and yet I can't stop staring at this teeny human being that has captured my heart. Ryder William I am totally and completely in love with you.