Our Baby story

It all started on Sunday Oct. 28th. After church I couldn’t take it anymore, I told Dustin we are going on a walk around our neighborhood, down and up hill, I will run if I have to but I want this baby here and not inside of me any more. We went on a walk, it gave me a couple contractions that were more significant than my ones in the past but they weren’t consistent. We went over to Bert and Linda’s for Sunday dinner and had “spaetzel” (German noodles that are delicious and Bert makes them for his kids birthday’s that I don’t know how to spell). When we went home that night, still in our attempts to put me into labor, we had a dance party, we played the dancing game on the Xbox. We finished at 11:00 pm and at 11:30pm I started having contractions that felt like menstrual cramps. They were about 15-20 minutes apart so I just “went to sleep” or tried to anyways, then at about 5:00am the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. I woke Dustin up and said, “I think our dance party worked.” We got up, Dustin showered, I put on my make up and did my hair and made sure our bag was well packed and then headed to the hospital. (the final pregnant lady picture! 39 weeks)

We got to the hospital at 7:00 am and I got checked, I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. The nurse told us to walk around for an hour and come back to get checked again. So from 8-9:00 we walked, and marched and jogged the halls of the hospital. This next picture is for pure entertainment, I despise this picture but it is way too funny not to share. Yes I look like an actual Oompa Lumpa. As you can see above I did not weight 360 pounds like this picture makes it seem. I can’t help that the gowns are 1 size fits all, 5’ 0” or 6’ 4” therefore….

Gross, anyway, when we went and got checked again I was to a 4 and then admitted to the hospital to have this baby! At that moment I got super anxious, I could feel my heart fluttering and my blood pressure rising, the unknown of it all scared me a little bit. I was also a lot more nervous for the epidural than I thought, as soon as I got the epidural, my anesthesiologist was awesome by the way, it was wonderful! I know there are a lot of people that would judge me for getting an epidural but oh my gosh it is the greatest thing on the whole planet! Whoever invented it I want to kiss. Things were going pretty smoothly I dilated from a 4 to a 9.5 in 2 hours. There were a couple things that weren’t as smooth, I was having to push my “more medicine button” every 15 minutes and I had a fever, which they told me means that the baby probably has an infection. So the anesthesiologist came in a gave me a higher concentration of the epidural and it was much better, no more pain and I was dilated to a 10 within about 45 minutes. It was time to push!

I was pushing for an hour, she was born at 7:06pm on 10/29/12. When she came out she was completely limp and blue, not making any noise, it scared me so much, they handed her to 2 NICU nurses and they started working on her, they were suctioning out her lungs and giving her oxygen, they kept lifting her arm to see if she had reflexes, it just kept dropping, I was sobbing, it seemed like an eternity, it was about 15 minutes, then they had her stabilized, they brought her over to me and laid her on my chest, she was wide awake and not crying. It was a moment I will never forget.

 

She only stayed with me for about 15 minutes and then they had to take her to the NICU to figure out why she had such a rough start. They finished up with me then they wheeled me down to the NICU, where I saw a perfect little baby being held by her daddy, I was so relieved to see that sight. Dustin was amazing through the whole thing, he took such great care of me and Reese and I feel so much closer and so much more love for him then I ever have. He is amazing and I am so lucky!

She was 6# 4oz

From here it was just a waiting game, they did chest x-rays and a spinal tap to rule out Meningitis, which she did not have, thank heavens! At about midnight that night we found out that she had pneumonia and was going to have to stay in the NICU for at least 7 days. That was hard to hear, especially because literally less than a week ago our niece Kalia was in the NICU, in the same room as Reese with the exact same thing, we couldn’t believe it. So the NICU stay continued. Which was really hard, staying in a tiny room waiting all day with her, leaving her at night, wanting to just have my baby to myself, having to listen to other people telling me what to do, listening to monitors going off every second, having to listen to other babies struggle, seeing other parents equally as exhausted if not more there with their baby’s everyday. We loved all of Reese’s nurses except 2 and everything went really smoothly so we can not complain, it could have been much, much worse and we are very blessed!

On oxygen for 24 hours

First bath

First hairbow

Her bed that we won’t miss!

First outfit

First daddy daughter nap

First visitors

Some cute pics hanging in the NICU

First bath with mommy, it feels SO good!

Finally going home, getting all the cords off and a cute outfit on!

We’re home! We couldn’t be happier and neither could our family and friends that have come to visit.

 

We are so grateful to have her in our home and in our life. I love being a mom, I know I know it’s only going to get harder, but I do love it even if it’s only been a couple weeks. I could never have imagined loving someone so much in my life, I wouldn’t be able to survive without her. She has brought joy and love into our home and I couldn’t be happier. We love you baby Reese!!!

Even if you have a bad rash on your face…