Ryan Adley Dobbins: An Origin Story

Serina and I went to bed early on a Saturday night in late September (9/17). We were getting close to our due date, but we both had a long week at work and doing our best to prepare for Ryan to make his debut. Earlier in the week, we had a checkup at the hospital and Dr. Miller said everything looked healthy for Serina and baby. Our due date was 9/25, but Dr. said it would probably still be a while before our son arrived.

Earlier that day, we had gone to Cinco Taqueria in Historic 5 Points for brunch and then over to our go-to coffee shop Brew to enjoy our last moments together as a family of 2. Then, we met up with Charles and Kathy at Hovan’s to grab some take out. We told them what Dr. Miller had said and that it might still be a while before everyone got to meet our guy. Serina was feeling great for 39 weeks pregnant. Of course, her ankles would swell if she stood too long and she got tired more easily sometimes, but she was still going to body pump and yoga at the YMCA and feeling good.

We got into bed around 10pm and were just talking when Serina felt a ‘POP’. I didn’t hear it, but her face visibly was surprised and audibly she uttered a ‘woah’. I asked if everything was alright, and she said she felt fine. “It might just be the start of Braxton hicks“, she said. We kept talking for a few more minutes and then she got up to go to the bathroom, to discover that there was some extra water on the sheets…. “I think my water just broke,” she said. Then, just a moment later, “Yep, that was definitely my water.” In my head, I just thought ‘game time’.

I jumped out of bed and starting packing things for the hospital. We were semi-prepared but didn’t have everything packed just yet. A lot of people had told us about getting to the hospital too early, so we started timing out Serina’s contractions as she took a shower. They were 4-5 minutes apart. Definitely, ‘game time’. We grabbed our things, packed the car, and headed to the hospital (5 min away). I guess Dr. Miller was wrong… we were having a baby soon.

I guess Dr. Miller was wrong… we were having a baby soon.

It was 11.15pm by this point and the hospital was a ghost town. No hustle and bustle like our earlier doctors’ visits. Serina said she felt OK enough to walk and that while she could feel the contractions, they weren’t too bad just yet. We ended up parking in the hospital garage, but had to go through the emergency room entrance to check-in. Unfortunately, the parking garage and the ER entrance were on opposite sides. I offered to drop her off, but she said she felt good enough to walk.

St. Vincent’s Hospital is nestled on the bank of the St. Johns River, and we pass it on our normal walking route often. We decided to take ‘the long’ way around the hospital and took the river route. Beautiful night and a very peaceful way to start. Serina was having some more intense contractions, but she handled them like a champion. She’d be like, “Up. Yep. There’s one…” or “That doesn’t feel great”. But she was extremely calm and in a pretty good mood.

We finally make it to the ER check-in and they sent us up to Family Birth Place on the 4th floor. We walked up with all our stuff and couldn’t figure out how to get in. There was a (seemingly secret) button on the wall to contact the nursing staff that took a couple minutes to find. To me, it felt like forever… but we finally found the button and got in. We checked in with the nursing staff and while my sense of urgency was on fire, the nurses were taking their time checking us in. Serina was still ‘leaking’ a little bit and so the nurses had her go to the bathroom. I started to cleanup some of the mess and the nurses said, “Oh, you don’t have to do that”. I said, “You ladies aren’t maids… we can at least clean up after ourselves.” That kicked off the banter between us which was the start of a beautiful partnership. We started joking around about if they had reserved the ‘penthouse suite with the river view’ for our stay. They hadn’t, unfortunately.

They brought Serina into the ‘triage room’ first where they checked all her vitals as well as if her water actually broke. Apparently, some women just accidentally go to the bathroom and think it’s their water. Serina was pretty sure it was her water and as always, she was correct. Our nurse Danielle said she was 1.5 cm dilated. Serina and I joked about how this is measured. Apparently, the nurses just ‘know their fingers’ and can tell how far along the dilation is. “A very technical and specific measurement technique”, we said (accompanied with an eye roll) as soon as Danielle left the room. As a parting shot, Danielle did mention that we would be having a baby, but it might still be a while. It was 11.45pm.

After a couple more tests on Serina and baby, we were ready to move to our ‘penthouse suite’: the future birthplace of Ryan Adley. It wasn’t quite a penthouse suite, and it certainly didn’t have a river view. But it was very spacious and nice compared to some of the other rooms. Yet another sign the nurses liked us.

By now it is around 1am and we got settled into the room. Lots of people were coming in and out to get us setup, especially the two nurses who were assigned to us. They were both named “Danielle but they spelled it differently… one was the traditional Danielle, and the other was with 2 n’s. The Danielle’s were best friends outside of work. They went on cruises together and regularly hung out. We started calling them “Team Double D” and they ate it up. I thought they said it first, but apparently, I said it to them and they ran with it. Who knows, it was 1am and we were having a baby. I had no idea what I was saying.

Serina’s contractions were starting to get very intense at this point. We were both constantly watching the monitor that told us how bad/intense each contraction was. The times of “Yep, there was a contraction” were gone. It was now the time of cussing. Serina would hold onto the side of the hospital bed handle and use her other hand to punch below it when the contraction would be at its height while muttering some four-letter word. This went on for a bit and I couldn’t stand it any longer. “You don’t have to be a hero, babe. They make drugs for a reason. You already said you were going to take them, might as well get it going now”. I just didn’t like seeing her in pain like that.

After some careful negotiation between us and a couple more contractions, we finally called the nurses in to give her the epidural. That process took 45 minutes and would be the most intense part of our experience. If Serina was in too much pain to sit still, she couldn’t receive the epidural… which was a little scary. Everything was just going so much faster than we imagined. The ‘Danielle’s’ AKA Team Double D assured us that they had woke up the professional who gave the epidurals and she was on her way. It seemed like forever to me. I even walked out to the nurse station to check at 15 minutes… Serina was in some serious pain. Finally, our ‘white knight with drugs’ showed up. I was pretty unimpressed as she had fake eyelashes on. I thought, “She had time to put those on, while my wife was in pain?”. Serina had enough self-control to stay still and “Eyelashes” got to work. Turns out she was pretty good. 15 minutes later, Serina was already feeling some relief… and so was I. Nice work, ‘Lashes.

During this time, the Danielle’s were also issuing the Pitocin to speed up the process. Using the handy-dandy ‘finger test’ again, we learned that Serina was 5 inches dilated after only a couple hours. Handy-dandy, get it? No wonder those contractions seemed so intense. It’s just not common for everything to happen that fast. Team Double D was shocked. But they also mentioned that we should try to get some sleep. Their shift was up at 7am and likely another nursing team would deliver the baby. Of course, they would check on us regularly but wanted us to get some sleep anticipating a long day ahead. With the epidural at full force, Serina was relaxed, and her contractions were managed. The same contractions that caused punching/cussing before barely warranted a reaction. We just watched the contractions rise/fall on the monitor and thought “Thank goodness for modern medicine.’ We both closed our eyes, but there was no way we were going to sleep. It was 3.30am.

Team Double D said, “Let’s get ready… we’re going to have a baby!!”

The nurses came back in around 5am for a routine check. When they checked Serina’s dilation, she was at 10 cm. Team Double D said, “Let’s get ready… we’re going to have a baby!!” What? No way. Serina and I both now wide awake prepared ourselves to meet baby Ryan and we even got the all-star nurse squad, the Danielle’s, to help us through the delivery! Now it was truly ‘game time’.

There was lots of shuffling around in the room and equipment preparing. They propped Serina and up and put her feet up. They notified the on-call doctor who was sleeping. At this point, Serina really couldn’t feel any contractions/pain, so Danielle gave her some great advice: “When you push, keep your face calm and take your chin to your chest. Focus on pushing down below and keeping calm above the waist”. Then Team Double D started timing the contractions and would encourage her to push. “Push Mama. You got this. Great job!”

At this point, I’d like to mention that I had brought our Bluetooth speaker from home. I had been playing the role of DJ Dobbins throughout the night with mellow, calming songs. You know, songs that normally would relax the mood and help us get some sleep… not this night. No music or white noise would have let my heart stop racing with anticipation of my baby’s arrivals and fear for my wife’s health. Just normal worrying things.

BUT NOW, it was time to amp up the music! “Hedrick, what do you want to hear?” In between pushes, she said, ‘she we go with Young Hedrick mix?” “Let’s do it!” We started off hot with the beats of Lizzo, Shawn Mendez, Camila Cabello and Ed Sheeran. Team Double D was grooving and shouting out requests. I had skipped a Shawn Mendez song and one of the Danielle’s was like… “Did you just skip that? Go back, that’s my jam!” Everyone was singing and dancing in between push sessions. It was a party. Serina wasn’t in pain, Baby Ryan was coming, and everyone was in a great mood!

Serina wasn’t in pain, Baby Ryan was coming, and everyone was in a great mood!

The was only one problem. Serina had done such a great job that Ryan was already breaching, and the doctor was nowhere to be found. Danielle said, “I’ve delivered babies before without the doctor. Baby Ryan is ready to make an appearance!” I thought to myself, ‘oh man, here we go!’ Then Danielle said something the surprised me, “Dad come look at this. You can see his head.” I had kind of already made up my mind that I wanted to stay at Serina’s head level. But Team Double D and I had built up a trust… so I went for it. THERE HE WAS!! And he had SO MUCH hair. I couldn’t believe it! It wasn’t gross. It was AWESOME. There was our son! “You’re not going to believe it babe”.

Young Hedrick Mix was still playing and the song, “Nice to Meet Ya” by Niall Horan came on. It’s not a song we listen to often, but it was playing, and it couldn’t have been more perfect timing. Everyone couldn’t wait to meet our little guy! Just then, who walks in??? Ol’ Dr. Miller. Remember him? Yep, the same Doctor that we saw 3 days earlier that said there was no chance we were having a baby soon. We were glad it was him. He was a perfect fit. He got re-introduced to Team Double D and loved it (he just knew them as ‘the Danielle’s’ before). He said, “You have no idea. That is a perfect nickname for them”. The three of them were dancing and encouraging Serina in between contractions. “Just a couple pushes more, Mama. You’re doing so great. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Push, push push! Let’s get that baby out!”

Ryan had so much hair that Dr Miller commented, “He hair is being born before he is.” He even made a mohawk out of it. Everyone got a kick out of it. Then, with one last push, Dr. Miller had in his hands a newly born, beautiful and healthy Ryan Adley Dobbins. He did some kind of lasso move (or at least that I remember it) with Ryan’s umbilical cord and asked if I wanted to cut it. I said, “You’ve got it Doc.” Team Double D both said, “We want to do it”, but Dr. Miller said he had it. Team Double D got some of the fluid out of Ryan’s throat and we heard him cry and take his first breaths.

Welcome to the world, my son. They cleaned him off and put him right on Serina’s chest. She was a hero! She had done it.

Ryan Adley Dobbins was born at 5.48am on a rainy September Sunday morning. 6 lbs. 6 ounces. 19.5 inches long. At last, he was finally here, and we were parents. Our lives were changed forever. Now, time to raise a son who would change the world.