Reed's First Day

Jess brought the kids back to meet Reed, and he was having one of his first real cries when I heard them coming down the hall.  I think they were worried about him when they heard him cry, and they got all nervous when they came in the room.  It was really cute.  They got quiet and froze as soon as they walked in.  Reed quit crying pretty quickly, and the kids got to hold him.

As the big brother, Cason got to go first.

Then the sisters...

They were so excited and sweet.  Cason had brought a gift for him.

Such a good brother already.  Neely was apparently worn out, and had a nice long nap in my hospital room.

Jess took the kids to get something to eat, and then home, where Grammy stayed the night with them.  (Thanks Grammy!)

I was a little disappointed when I first found out we had to move before having the baby, because I really liked my midwives in Oklahoma and was excited about that.  Really though, I've always been perfectly happy with having them in the hospital.  The main thing was I wanted to avoid the pressure to induce that usually starts as soon as you're getting close to your due date.  When I first met Dr. Whipp I was nervous because he mentioned inducing when he heard how fast my labor had gone with Neely.  He ended up being awesome though.  Once he knew we feel pretty strongly about doing it naturally he was really cool, and in labor he did everything I wanted, including not breaking my water, and making me laugh when I was in a lot of pain.  I also really like the hospital stay.  If not for missing our older kids, I'd be happy to stay there for weeks!  Just hanging out with my husband, admiring our new baby, and having people take care of us.  Awesome.  

I even love the food.  Especially the "celebration dinner" they served to Jess and me.

It involved sparkling apple cider and cheesecake.

There were other desserts too, brought in randomly a few different times.

Best of all, they pretty much never took Reed away from us.  I only remember him leaving our room once, to check his vitals.  Usually they did that in the room with me though, and I think the time she took him, it was really because my night nurse thought I'd finally go to sleep if she took him for a bit.  When she checked on me right after and saw me wide awake she brought him right back.  Ha.  I'm so weird, I slept MAYBE 2 hours the whole time we were there.  I have to fight the urge to wake Jess up so he'll sit and talk with me about what an awesome baby we made.  

I let him sleep though, and admired Reed alone in a semi-dark room like a weirdo.

The next morning we hung out for a while, signed lots of papers, showered, and got ready to bring home our boy.  He looked handsome for the trip.

 

 When we got home, Cason and Neely were playing in the playroom with Grammy and Grampy.  Cason quickly showed me all the artwork they'd done for us.

 Then they swarmed their little brother.

 Grammy held Reed, and then she and Grampy headed home.  (Probably to rest-ha!)

Then Cason and Neely held him again.

Paige got home from school soon and had her turn.

It took Gia a day or two to notice the new kid in the house.  Ha.  When she did though, she was really sweet, and followed Reed and me around the house, lying down by my feet everywhere we went.

Having Reed

I wanted to wait as long as possible before going to the hospital.  It only feels harder once you're stuck in bed and have monitors strapped to you.  I told Jess to take me to Sonic for an ice water first.  He thought I was crazy, but took me anyway.  We didn't quite make it though, because as we got close another contraction hit, and was noticeably more intense.  I told him "Never mind, we better get to the hospital."  Then I tried to hang out in the parking lot before going in, but the next one was even more intense, so I told him never mind again.  Ha.  They checked me in really quickly, and wheeled me upstairs.  Melissa ended up being one of my two nurses.  They were both awesome.  They checked me right away, and I was at about 7 cm.  I was a little disappointed to hear that, I was at 8 when I got there with Cason, and pretty much ready to push when I got there with Neely.  Ha.  I was hoping for that again.  They called Dr. Whipp, who was awesome and came in for us even though he wasn't on call.  While we waited for him, they got my monitors on and my IV fluids going.  Dr. Whipp got there really quickly, and I was already 8 cm.  He went down to get a coffee, and Jess and I were alone in the room most of the time.

I had decided this pregnancy that I was going to try really hard to relax and not be afraid of the pain.  The whole experience did feel different, I think partly because it was in the morning, instead of the middle of the night like the other three.  I also think it was partly because I did handle it differently.  I don't think it LOOKED like I handled it differently, but I really focused on relaxing during the contractions, and I felt more aware of everything this time.  I could actually feel him moving lower and lower with some of the contractions.  I've never noticed that the other times.  Unfortunately my relaxation didn't magically make it less painful.  Ha.

They'd brought up a tray of "food"-broth and a sort of shaved ice thing.  Jess fed me bites of those whenever I asked, and other than that I mostly listened to the music he'd put on for me, closed my eyes a lot, prayed some, and talked with Jess between contractions.  Dr. Whipp mentioned breaking my water soon, but I asked if we could wait as long as possible before doing that.  Sometime between 9 and 10 cm it broke on it's own.  I told Jess to go get them and let them know.  They hurried in to check, and Dr. Whipp said it was just about time and asked if I felt like pushing.  It wasn't an overwhelming thing like with Neely, where I couldn't HELP but push, but I did feel some pressure.  So they got everything ready.  Dr Whipp is short, but was standing to deliver the baby, so they lifted the table really high.  I was in the serious part of labor, it always starts to get much more painful for me at about 9 cm, so I mostly had my eyes closed by this point. but I did notice I felt more separate from Jess during pushing this time.  Turns out it was because the table was so high he could barely reach me.  Ha!  He did put an arm around me, kind of across my chest.  I reached up and held on to his arm with both of my hands-couldn't manage to put him in a headlock like when I was having Neely.  Haha.

I was excited to know it was almost over and almost time to meet our baby, but of course terrified, because I know the pain has to get SO much worse before it's over.  I got him out in one contraction, probably like 30 seconds, but it felt like an eternity of course.  I heard Dr. Whipp say that the cord was around his neck.  It didn't scare me too much, because he sounded very calm and matter of fact, and I knew his heart rate and everything had been fine.  A moment later he was out.  They lifted him onto the bed, sort of onto my lap, and I thought he was so cute.  It's cool how no matter how many times you do it, it's still so amazing to see your baby for the first time.  I reached down to touch him while they wiped him off quickly, and handed him up to me to hold.  I kept just saying "Hi" and "Hi buddy".  I wasn't really registering much of anything else around us but was vaguely aware of everyone else talking and just making happy sounds.  I immediately checked if he was really a boy, and noticed he was big, just as the doctor and nurses commented that he was good sized.  I didn't think he was as big as I was expecting though.  He was also a little purple, and Melissa had to suction out his nose and mouth, and gave him maybe 10 seconds of oxygen.  He turned nice and pink really quickly.  I just held him and we stared at each other.

He was so cute.  Wide awake and quiet and just staring back at me while holding on to my finger.  He kept blinking and I was laughing at how much he squished his face up, his forehead all crinkled like he was annoyed at how bright it was in the room.   I remember one of the first things I said to Jess was "He IS Reed, isn't he?", and Jess agreed.  We had still never really found a backup name, so it's a good thing I felt like that was the name for him once I saw him.  Jess snuck off to say his thank you prayer, which I didn't even realize until he came back a bit later, all teary eyed.

Reed was so sweet and quiet and cuddly.  Another angel baby, and we already loved him SO much.

I like this bird's eye view of him cuddling my shoulder.

After I got to hold him and feed him(he's another pro eater) they took him to weigh and measure-8 lbs 9.9 ounces and 19.5 inches long.  So not only was he NOT bigger than Neely, he was actually our second SMALLEST baby.  My belly was a liar.

They got him back to us quickly, and we got to spend a few happy hours, just the three of us.

Grandma picked Paige up from school a little bit early, and Jess went to pick up all three of them to come and meet Reed.  We'd promised them they would be the first to meet him.

A Catch-Up Post

The last few weeks of my pregnancy we were IN our house, but not really moved in because we were waiting for carpet.  So we had the necessities here, but most of our stuff was in storage.  Our computer was set up, but sitting on the ground, and I was pretty largely pregnant to be sitting on the ground to blog.  So here are my belly pics from those last weeks.

37 weeks:  Can't find this one!  I know we took one every week, so if I figure out where this one is I'll add it later.

38 weeks:

39 weeks(this is technically a couple days early, but none we took the day I was actually 39 weeks turned out-the lighting was crazy)

I had my appointment on Thursday, when I was 38.5 weeks.  The doctor checked me and said I was at 4 cm.  I wasn't having contractions or anything, but it made me nervous knowing I was that far along and still had 4 days before the carpet would be put in.  

Jess turned 31 on Saturday, so on Friday night Grammy babysat so we could go to dinner.  Jess was feeling fancy, so he chose Golden Corral.  We both actually really like it, but I didn't have the best time because I was being stared at so blatantly by SO MANY PEOPLE.  One older man was eating alone, and as I walked past him he looked down at my belly and had a look of disgust on his face!  Actually, in a way it WAS fun because Jess and I did a lot of laughing.  Then we went to Starbucks, and to Walmart for one last walk through the baby section for fun.

Sunday was a nesting day.  We couldn't do much indoor cleaning, with boxes everywhere and all, but we washed our car, and all the carseats and their covers, installed the baby's carseat, and gave Gia a bath.

I was so excited when we made it to September 30th, and I was still pregnant.  The guys came bright and early and started putting carpet in.  They'd finished by about 1 pm, and I got right to work vacuuming.  Jess got off early so we could start getting stuff out of storage.  I picked Paige up from school and we met Jess and my dad at our storage unit.  We(they) managed to load everything into the vehicles and onto dad's trailer and get it home in one trip.  We spent the afternoon and evening wiping down our furniture and moving it into the house.  Somehow we got the kids ready for bed and to sleep, and then Jess and I (just Jess again actually) set up the baby's room.  I helped by relaxing in my glider/recliner and imagining feeding my baby in his cloud room.  Jess put the crib together, brought in his dresser, hung the letters to spell his name(Thanks Grammy), the cloud mobile, and the beautiful cloud shelves Uncle Randy built and I painted.  

Then he put the swing together.  I washed all his newborn and 0-3 month clothes (again) and put them away.  It felt so good to have made it and for him to have a room before he arrived.  (Not that we ever actually thought we'd be putting him in there right away).

I had Jess take a belly pic in there.  Sorry 'bout the lighting, it was probably 11 by this time.  This was 39 weeks 1 day.

I went to bed feeling so glad we'd made it, and planning to get up in the morning and start unpacking and setting up the rest of the house.  I slept really well until about 4:30 am.  I woke up with an upset stomach.  It wasn't too weird, I tend to have that happen toward the end of my pregnancies.  Lots of early mornings I'll wake up with pains or contractions, take a warm bath, and feel better.  So that's what I did.  I went back to sleep at about 6, and slept well again, all the way until 9:30, thanks to our kids sleeping in.  Jess was awesome and got Paige ready for school and let me sleep.  

When we DID get up at about 9:30 I immediately noticed I was having contractions, while I got the kids up to get breakfast.  They were intense enough that I knew right away we were going to have a baby soon, but not super painful.  After we'd been up a while, Jess texted to ask how I was.  I told him I was having the contractions, but not consistent or close enough together to bother timing.  So he told me to time a few.  They were all between 3 and 4 minutes apart.  Ha!  If I'd had to guess I would have told him they were like 10-15 minutes apart.  I'm ridiculous.  Guess I won't trust my sense of time again.  One of the first ones I timed for him was noticeably more intense than the last, too.  So when I told him they were getting more painful and he heard how close together they were, he headed home.  My Grama was here at the time, and said she'd stay with the kids until Grammy made it.  We packed our stuff, and by the time we were ready, Grammy arrived.  I kissed the kids goodbye and we headed off to have a baby.

I had Jess write his version of the birth in that last post, because he has in the past with the other kids, but I'll be posting my version soon too.  

Reed

It began when I texted Brandi on Tuesday morning after a meeting a work. It went like this…

Jess – How r u feeling?

Brandi – Okay. Having fairly painful contractions every little while but haven’t timed them. I mean far enough apart that I haven’t bothered to time them.

Jess – Ooooh. Well try to glance at the clock to see about how far apart they are.

Brandi – Ok. I’m timing one now.

Brandi – So…4 min apart. Also, this one kind of hurts

That’s when I came home. I asked my mom to follow behind me. When I got home Grandma Joanne was there and Brandi was getting ready. We got things in order and got in the Pilot. Brandi had been wanting to wait as long as possible to go to the hospital so she actually asked to stop at Sonic for an ice water on the way. Despite my objections we got all the way to Kino. Then a pretty painful contraction hit and Brandi said we should get to the hospital.

In the emergency room there was an angel man who appeared to be a super tan, blue-collar guy in a tank top. He was soooo congratulatory and seemed genuinely happy for us. They got us up to the maternity area and we heard Melissa White say “NO WAY!” as we walked down the hall. She and the other nurse were great.

The whole labor felt less surreal than the others because it was in the middle of the day. Brandi was completely amazing as always. She calmly endured all of the contractions. I fed her beef broth and rainbow sherbet between contractions. Dr. Whip came in after a bit. He was great. He made some bad jokes and hung around. We had decided not to tell anyone we were in labor other than whoever was watching the kids so we didn’t text or call anyone. When Whip checked Brandi she was at an 8 almost 9. It took at least another hour for things to get close. Eventually, Brandi felt her water break. I went to get Whip and the nurses and they started to set up shop. Whip is fairly short so he had the nurses raise the bed up to a ridiculous level. I was on my tip toes and could barely reach Brandi to hug her when it was time to push. We had Pandora playing on the Norah Jones channel to help Brandi relax. I heard Whip say the umbilical cord was round his neck but he sounded very casual about it so I didn’t stress. When Reed came out I looked down to see him and we was a little purply gray but clean. 

They wiped him up quickly and let Brandi hold him. She was all smiles and I was teary. Melissa gave him some oxygen and he started to turn pink right away. They had to use the booger sucker device for a minute or two because they said he gulped some amniotic fluid.

Brandi looked ridiculously pretty afterwards.

After a few minutes Brandi started nursing him and he was a pro right away. I took my customary trip to the separate bathroom to say my thank you prayer to God and then came out and started to text everybody. We got to spend some quality alone time with him. After a bit I went to pick up the kids. The whole time from picking them up to bringing them to see Reed was officially the happiest point in my life. 

They were so excited when I drove up and were so cute skipping in to the hospital. They all got shy and quiet when we got there but it was so great to see them all hold Reed. We got settled in to the recovery room and Brandi displayed her usual superhuman ability to endure pain and never feel sleepy after childbirth. I made a few trips to the house later and grabbed some Panda Express. Then we settled in for the night. Reed is an incredibly cute guy and he has cute shifty eyes. He looks around without moving his head much. He has a fuzzy head and is another perfect baby produced by my Brandi. Thank you Brandi and thank you God. 

AAARGH!

Well, we had another pretty productive weekend.  

We started with soccer, and then a quick and hot trip to the fair.  

 

Then we went straight to the house to get some stuff done.  Drywalling, texturing walls, more painting, put up a new door, and even some work out front.  

 

 

 My mom and dad-in-law showed up and helped a lot too.  Even brought and planted some flowers, with help from the kids.

Paige even lost her first tooth while we were there.  She was so excited.

So this week the carpet was supposed to be put in the 17th, 18th, or 19th.  Nobody ever called, so Jess finally called THEM.  After many attempts he finally talked to someone who told him they're coming on the THIRTIETH.  Good thing we ordered it a month before the baby was due, so that we could still have no home until the week before he's due.  That is, assuming he doesn't come early.  I nearly burst into tears when Jess told me.  I think I would have but we were walking into my appointment and I have a talent for not crying in public.  Ha.  I'll do my crying later. 

I guess we'll probably move in this weekend anyway, just without setting up the bedrooms yet.  We're all sleeping in one room at the moment anyway, and at least then I can start getting stuff out of storage that I was hoping to work on before the baby comes.  We'll just set up our big bed in the living room or something.  Ha. 

Head Down Baby!

Well, the carpet won't go in until NEXT week.  I was disappointed, but there's always a silver lining.  More days to paint and get things how I'd really like them.  Jess has been awesome, working so hard every waking moment.  He gets home from work, we eat dinner and head right over to the house and he works until just about time to go back to Grama's and get everyone ready for bed.  We get them to sleep and then I'll do my workout and my exercises to turn this baby head down, while he'll work for the OTHER school (back in OKC) on the computer until 1 or 2 am, if not later.  Then he wakes up and starts over.  It will be nice to get moved in and finish up the projects so he can have a little time to relax, and get some sleep.  (For about a week anyway, then we'll have a newborn, ha.)  I bet Grama will like having a little space again-not to mention her dog back from Aunt Mollie and Uncle Tim's.

Thanks to Uncle Chris the kids now have a game cube that keeps them entertained at the house while Jess is painting or tearing out carpet or whatever.  I was unpacking bathroom stuff over there one night while they played Mario Kart, and Neely found the headbands in the box I had.  She told Cason he was "an gewrl" (The way she pronounces girl is pretty hard to spell out phonetically I just found out) and talked him into wearing a headband too.  He's such a good brother, does whatever she asks(or demands).

He's also still a cute little artist.  He often draws things he knows I like, so rain clouds and snails have been popular lately.

Grammy saw my post about Neely wanting to "peent", so she met us over at the house yesterday with paint and little rollers so the kids could all help her paint a closet.  They all had fun, but Neely especially was so excited.  She talked about it nonstop on the drive over.

Then they planted grass seed out front, so hopefully it'll be looking nice again soon.

I had an appointment today, and this boy is head down!  Either I am crazy and he was never sideways at all, or all the hanging upside down this past week did the trick.  :)  I think it has helped though, because I've felt kicks higher up the last couple of days, but still a little over to the side so I wasn't sure.  I'm so happy and relieved!  I would be very sad to go from planning it drug and intervention free to having to have a C-section!  So please pray that he stays head down. 

The achiness has hit all of a sudden.  I wake up with throbbing femurs and crazy calf cramps.  I'm definitely waddling around and have a tough time getting out of bed.  Pretty much have to roll out, now.  :)  I feel big sometimes, and other times not that big, but my pelvis is definitely aching.  I must look good sized though, because this last week the looks started.  I went into Walmart alone the other night and everywhere I walked heads were turning and obviously staring at me.  I hate being along when that stuff happens, because it's harder to pretend not to notice everyone looking.  Ha.  I got quite a few comments one certain day, so I had to go into Grama's bathroom where the mirror was at the right height for a belly selfie, ha.  The shape makes me laugh.

Baby Shower #4

Tyra threw me a little baby shower this weekend.  I didn't think I'd get one, with it being my fourth baby and everything.  Ha.  I didn't need gifts or anything, but it still makes me a little sad for any of our babies to not get a party.  I'd thought about doing one after he's born, just so people could come and meet him and celebrate him, but then it'll be flu season, and he'll have enough parties in his first few weeks between Halloween and the girls' birthdays.  Anyway, the shower was really nice.  Small, so it was just close friends and family, and fun.  They all had mimosas, and we all had good food and dessert.  Then they gave us lots of really cute little outfits and gifts for him.  Every single outfit was something I LOVED and would have bought myself-some I almost HAD bought.  (Sorry-I'm now going to post pictures of lots of it because I want him to believe that we did have a shower to celebrate him, even though I have no pictures of the actual event-at least none that turned out)

 

 

 

 

I have no idea why I randomly started taking pictures sideways.

We also got some good bath stuff, and things to decorate the room-including this painting by Skye, which I love!

  

I wish the carpet was in so I could set up his room already!

We also got a blessing ring, some stuff for bath time, and a bib and really nice swaddling blankets.

 

Tyra, Veronica, Marcy, Skye, Paige and I went out on the back porch to talk, because it was so nice and cool and cloudy out.  The sky was so pretty.

We stayed out there talking for at least a couple of hours.  It was fun. Thanks everyone!

The next morning, Sunday, I was 36 weeks.  Sometimes I feel like my belly is gigantic, but I don't as much the last couple of days. 

 

I have been worried that this baby is transverse.  None of ours have ever been breech or transverse, and I really want to everything with no interventions again.  I'm starting to do some exercises to encourage him to move head down, I really hope it works.  Pray that he moves down please, I really don't want a c-section.  :(  Mostly just pray that he arrives safe and healthy though.  

I had a serious belly rub in Walmart the other day.  The lady that checked us out came around the counter, and very gently, slowly, and intimately rubbed my belly in circles.  Ha.  I actually don't mind having strangers touch my belly-it's another reminder of being pregnant, so it makes me happy.  This one caught me off guard a tad though, it was SO intimate-a caress in fact. 

Anyway, we went over to the house after church to work again.  I quickly remembered how worthless I am over there at the moment.  Jess was working, I was standing around and trying to keep Neely from stepping on the little tacks left on the strips after pulling up the carpet.  I told Jess I had no idea what to work on and he said I should take a trip to Target and use the money and gift cards we also got from people at the shower.  So Tyra drove down with me and the girls, and Cason stayed with Jess and Chris, and helped move some stuff to the house. 

Neely wore her birthday hat she got at church(it was the first anniversary) the whole time.  I'm used to that stuff now and didn't even really notice until Tyra said something about loving that Neely wore it all day, and all through Target. 

 

Thanks to all those generous folks we got our carseat, some cute Halloween socks,

a cute little Frankenstein outfit, 

and a couple more sleep gowns, which are one of my favorite baby things on Earth.

 

Then we came home and went back to the house.  Jess was back to getting the floors ready for carpet, and I spent my time decorating for Halloween.  Maybe a tad premature but I just don't care.