Michael is here!
Michael 
Anthony Riso arrived on August 22nd, 2010 at 10:05 am. It was the most wonderful day of our lives! Here's how the day(s) 
unfolded: I 
checked into Clovis Community Hospital at 10:30 Saturday morning for one of my routine NST tests. Anthony decided not to come with me because so far they have been pretty uneventful. I usually get sent home after 20 minutes. They hooked me up to the machine and as usual, Michael looked strong and healthy. His mother, not so much! My blood pressure was extremely high, a problem the doctors have been monitoring closely, and I began to see stars. These are all signs of preeclampsia or toximia, which can be harmful to mom and baby. After many tests, the doctors decided to induce my l
abor because the symptoms were not going away. On this day, I was 37 weeks and three days pregnant and Michael should be healthy enough to be born. I was surprisingly calm and made the phone call to Anthony who was racing around the house doing last minute chores I didn't do because I was not expecting to have a baby that day! We are down to one car becuase we recently sold Anthony's 300 to save for a truck. That means he had to have our neighbors take him to the hospital! I called my mom and she got right in the car and started to make the drive to Fresno. My dad booked his flight and was expected to arrive the next morning. So Anthony and I just sat in the NST room waiting and waiting until they took us to the labor room around 3:30. It was such a strange feeling that very shortly we would have our child with us! The nurses started the meds to get labor going right away, but it took a good 6 hours before I could actually feel any REAL pain. Anthony just kept looking at me in amazement. I guess he expected me to act like a wild animal screaming in pain and being mean to everyone. We basically spent the hours laughing between my contractions. They were painful, but tolerable. The nurses were checking my blood pressure every 15minues to see how the preeclampsia was doing. Unfortunately, my blood pressure kept going up. If the numbers got too high and the baby started to get stressed, they would do an emergency C-Section. MY WORST NIGHTMARE! I was determined that I would do anything I could to avoid this. Anthony helped me with my breathing and reminded me to turn on my side every 30 minutes to lower the blood pressure and keep the baby's heart-rate up. Finally the nurse said that if I were to get an epidural, it causes blood pressure to go down. I agreed to it around 1am and within minutes I could feel nothing! I honestly could not believe epidurals made you feel completely numb from the waist down. This was going to be a breeze! My mom, Anthony, and I turned the lights down in the room and decided to try to get some rest since I was still only 4cm dilated. It felt like time was dragging and I was the only one who could not sleep. I watched the clock instead, wondering when my little boy was going to enter the world. A short time later, the left side of my body started to feel pain. I mean ALL of it! My right side had no idea what was going on but the left was completely aware. The anesthesiologist tried to fix the problem by repositioning the tube in my back and upping the dosage, but nothing worked. I just stopped asking and toughed it out. Around 8am, the nurse said it was getting close and she was right, he came in an hour and a half!. I know people make it sound like labor is the worst thing in the world to experience, and perhaps they are the ones who did not have any pain medication, but it was the opposite for me. My experience was positive. Although I was exhausted from lack of sleep and 24hours without food, it was all worth it in the end. Anthony and I now have Michael, and we're both so in love with him!
Anthony Riso arrived on August 22nd, 2010 at 10:05 am. It was the most wonderful day of our lives! Here's how the day(s) 
unfolded: I 
checked into Clovis Community Hospital at 10:30 Saturday morning for one of my routine NST tests. Anthony decided not to come with me because so far they have been pretty uneventful. I usually get sent home after 20 minutes. They hooked me up to the machine and as usual, Michael looked strong and healthy. His mother, not so much! My blood pressure was extremely high, a problem the doctors have been monitoring closely, and I began to see stars. These are all signs of preeclampsia or toximia, which can be harmful to mom and baby. After many tests, the doctors decided to induce my l
abor because the symptoms were not going away. On this day, I was 37 weeks and three days pregnant and Michael should be healthy enough to be born. I was surprisingly calm and made the phone call to Anthony who was racing around the house doing last minute chores I didn't do because I was not expecting to have a baby that day! We are down to one car becuase we recently sold Anthony's 300 to save for a truck. That means he had to have our neighbors take him to the hospital! I called my mom and she got right in the car and started to make the drive to Fresno. My dad booked his flight and was expected to arrive the next morning. So Anthony and I just sat in the NST room waiting and waiting until they took us to the labor room around 3:30. It was such a strange feeling that very shortly we would have our child with us! The nurses started the meds to get labor going right away, but it took a good 6 hours before I could actually feel any REAL pain. Anthony just kept looking at me in amazement. I guess he expected me to act like a wild animal screaming in pain and being mean to everyone. We basically spent the hours laughing between my contractions. They were painful, but tolerable. The nurses were checking my blood pressure every 15minues to see how the preeclampsia was doing. Unfortunately, my blood pressure kept going up. If the numbers got too high and the baby started to get stressed, they would do an emergency C-Section. MY WORST NIGHTMARE! I was determined that I would do anything I could to avoid this. Anthony helped me with my breathing and reminded me to turn on my side every 30 minutes to lower the blood pressure and keep the baby's heart-rate up. Finally the nurse said that if I were to get an epidural, it causes blood pressure to go down. I agreed to it around 1am and within minutes I could feel nothing! I honestly could not believe epidurals made you feel completely numb from the waist down. This was going to be a breeze! My mom, Anthony, and I turned the lights down in the room and decided to try to get some rest since I was still only 4cm dilated. It felt like time was dragging and I was the only one who could not sleep. I watched the clock instead, wondering when my little boy was going to enter the world. A short time later, the left side of my body started to feel pain. I mean ALL of it! My right side had no idea what was going on but the left was completely aware. The anesthesiologist tried to fix the problem by repositioning the tube in my back and upping the dosage, but nothing worked. I just stopped asking and toughed it out. Around 8am, the nurse said it was getting close and she was right, he came in an hour and a half!. I know people make it sound like labor is the worst thing in the world to experience, and perhaps they are the ones who did not have any pain medication, but it was the opposite for me. My experience was positive. Although I was exhausted from lack of sleep and 24hours without food, it was all worth it in the end. Anthony and I now have Michael, and we're both so in love with him!
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