We were blessed with the birth of our second son, Rhys Alexander Woodley, on November 16, 2009 at 4:58 PM. He was 19 1/4 inches and weighed 7 lbs and 1 oz on his birthday. We all woke up that Monday morning to my complaining of cramps and pain. I wasn’t sure if Iwas going into work until around 6:30 AM..when I finally called in to request my substitute teacher. After dropping Hayes off at Ms. Rachel’s, we drove through Chick-Fil-A to get a breakfast burrito and a sweet tea for me and a breakfast combo of Chicken Minis for Jeremy. We arrived at the hospital around 9:00 AM. I was having trouble concentrating and answering all those demographic and insurance questions as we checked in to the hospital. As we left the elevator to arrive at the labor and delivery wing of Central Baptist Hospital (Lexington, KY), we saw Jeremiah 1:4-5 on the wall:
4 “The Word of the Lord came to me, saying,
5 ” Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
This is one of Jeremy’s favorite pieces of Scripture. What a blessed thing to read as we began to prepare for the birth of our newest son.
We got settled into our room and the nurses began asking me questions about how I was doing. By 10:00 AM, we hadn’t really figured out if I was really in labor, or if this was just a false alarm (like we had with Hayes..5 times.) I was hooked up to all the machines and was able to listen to Rhys’ heartbeat as we tried to find something to watch on TV. (We were excited about getting to watch cable, because we didn’t have that at home). I got in trouble with the nurse as she walked into to find me eating and drinking my Chick Fil A breakfast. As the nurses and dr tried to determine if I was really in labor, we found a pretty interesting show about people surviving bear attacks and other attacks of violent creatures. This helped take my mind off the slightly painful contractions. At some point, we were told that I could walk around to see if my labor pains would increase. Since I was at 37 weeks and 5 days, (full-term, but still a bit early) Nurse Tammy told me that I would have to “prove” that I needed to be there if this was indeed early labor. As I walked around, Tammy noticed that I was in an increasing amount of pain. As I got settled back into bed after our dizzying walk around the labor wing, Nurse Tammy brought me some pain medicine. Things started to get fuzzy and silly. Contractions were irregular coming every 4-7 minutes. Jeremy ran to the car to get our cameras as the Stadol lulled me to sleep for a bit. As I woke up, I was apparently saying some really silly things and Jeremy was amused.
The next few hours seemed to fly by. Not long after the medicine wore off, the contractions started coming regularly and fiercely. Soon after (around 3:00 PM), the dr. came in and broke my water. Jeremy and I had a slight moment of panic and immense joy as we realized that we were going to meet our newest son very soon. We began calling everyone we could think of to let them know we were in labor. YEAH!
Note: Nurse Tammy told us that she was known for having her expectant moms deliver by 5:00 PM and that she’d never broken this record.
I had agreed earlier to an epidural and began pleading that the dr would come in and do it immediately. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long. The anesthesiologist and Nurse Tammy told me that I was handling the contractions like a champ. The epidural took a bit to work itself out. Shortly after 4:30, I called the nurse to tell her that I felt like I needed to push. The dr came in a few minutes later and Rhys was born at 4:58 PM. (Nurse Tammy hadn’t broken her record!)
Rhys was so alert the second we met him. Jeremy went to take pictures of our newest son as the nurses cleaned him up. I was able to hold Rhys almost immediately to help him warm up. We enjoyed those first few moments with our newest son and wished that time would have stood still. We noticed how much he looked like his big brother and how dark his thick, black hair was. Every part of him was perfectly formed. How wonderful are the promises of God. We praise Him for the birth of our newest son, Rhys.
Shortly after his birth, I was moved to the Mother and Baby unit on the 3rd floor. My dinner was there to meet me. That was very good thing, since I was ravished! Our friend, Gina, came to visit us after Jeremy called her to ask her to bring Rhys’ baby bag. In all of our hurry to get out of the house that morning, we grabbed everyone else’s bag except, Rhys’! Rhys got his first bath that evening and wailed during that experience. During those first few hours, we spent a lot of time cuddling and changing diapers. What great lungs he has! Our friend, Joey to see us that night as well. Fortunately, our nurses were quite lenient about the visiting hours!
I spent the first night listening to Rhys’ little noises and grunts. He is a very loud sleeper. Some how, Jeremy was able to get some rest that first night. Rhys has a vigorous appetite and is a great eater!
Rhys had several visitors on his second day. Jeni, Cory, Gina, and Joey, some of Jeremy’s group from a class at Asbury, came to visit us that night and we had dinner together eating some of the “yummy” hospital cafeteria food.
Rhys passed all of his “tests” during those first two and a half days. It took a second run at the hearing test for Rhys to pass since he had fluid in his ear after delivery. Rhys had a special visit from a pediatric urologist to check his kidneys and bladder since fluid was found on his kidneys at my 36 week visit. An ultrasound on the day after he was born found a bit of fluid still on his kidneys. Dr. Shaffer reassured us that he wasn’t too worried about it and that we would need to follow up in two weeks.
We have been so blessed since moving to Wilmore. It is difficult to be far away from our family and friends in Texas. The Lord has blessed us as we have made some new, wonderful friends that have helped us transition from begin parents of one to parents of two beautiful boys. Thankfully, many family members have been able to come visit us and help us with their wise ideas and insights, not to mention doing laundry, dishes, and cooking meals. Thanks for reading. Keep watching for updates.
It has been a fun couple of months getting settled in to the small town lifestyle. One gas station, one grocery store, one stop light and a lot less distraction. Over the weekend we went to Main Street in Wilmore for the annual “Treats on Main”. We had a great night! Main Street was blocked off and there were people everywhere in the street dressed in some pretty good costumes (ours were probably the best). There was a community feel that you can’t get in big cities. Walking up and down the street with our neighbors and watching Hayes’ reaction to strangers putting candy in his bucket was the best Halloween I can remember. 
