Reid's Arrival

This week began normally enough.  The nursery was ready (even though it's still technically Emmett's room)...

Emmett was practicing with his stethoscope, just in case I had to have a home birth...

And since Phil had that Monday off, I got to spend the day with my friend Michelle eating lunch out, getting a pedicure, and doing a little shopping.  I was feeling somewhat presentable before I left, so I had Phil take a picture of what I looked like at 40 weeks pregnant with my last baby (tear!)...

I got home that afternoon around 4:00 and started feeling contractions around 5:00.  I started timing them around 7:00 and at 10:45 I texted my friend Rocky to come down and stay with the boys.  Phil and I thought for sure this was it!  So we loaded up in the truck and went up to the hospital... only to find out that I was not dilated at all!  We couldn't believe it!  My contractions were painful and pretty regular for about three hours.  I thought for sure I was in labor!  We were disappointed, but went home around 12:30 A.M. to try to get some sleep.  The nurse had given me a little something to help me sleep that night and I did get a few winks in, although I woke up periodically still feeling contractions.

That next morning (Tuesday - my due date) Phil went in to work and I was still feeling a few contractions, although not as many as the night before.  I was pretty tired, but I decided to vacuum the house and stay active to encourage labor to happen if it was close.  As I got close to finishing the vacuuming, there were a few times that I had to stop and grab onto something because the contractions hurt so bad!  I had been timing them since 8:30 A.M. and they were about 7-10 minutes apart and much more painful than the night before.  So around 11:00 A.M. I texted Phil and asked him if he could come home to help with the boys so I could sit down.  By 12:30 I felt like this really might be it this time, so I texted Rocky again and Phil and I headed up to the hospital... again.  And once again... not even dilated and sent home!!  At this point I was in a lot of pain and very frustrated with my body, so I kind of freaked out crying on the way home.  I figured once we got home I would just rest up until the morning and then maybe see about getting induced or something.  Well, by the time 5:30 rolled around I was just totally dying with the contractions and had Phil call my midwife to see what we could do, since I knew there was no way I would be able to sleep that night with the pain.  She said for me to come up to the hospital so that she could check me herself (the last two times a nurse and a resident checked me).  So we called my friend Lana this time to stay with the boys, and off we went.  I was SURE that I would just be coming home again, but when my midwife checked me I was already dilated 7 cm!  We were all totally shocked!  No wonder those stupid contractions hurt so bad!  They were way worse than anything I felt with Emmett or Jackson (since I got an epidural at 3 cm with both of them).  Anyway, needless to say, they put me in a room and within two hours I had my epidural in (oh, such glorious relief!), and within another 3 hours Reid was born!  I had to push for almost an hour, but things went really smoothly.  He made his appearance at 12:40 A.M. on February 23.  It was such a wonderful experience!!  Here are some hospital pictures...

Just a few seconds old!!

Getting cleaned up on the warmer...

Reid Phillip was 8 pounds, 0.4 ounces and 18-1/2 inches long... our biggest baby!  Here he is getting a bath....

He is just absolutely perfect!  We are all so in love with him!

Phil went home the next afternoon and picked up the boys to come visit.  They both have colds, so we didn't want them to get too close to Reid, but we couldn't keep them away!  Emmett was the most excited!  He kept pointing and yelling and was so smiley!!

This is the closest thing we got to a family picture... I was in the middle of nursing, and we didn't want the boys too close!

This is my midwife, Rebecca.  She delivered Emmett, too.  She's retiring in a few days after 30 years or so and going to Africa to do some work with Doctors Without Borders.  I was so lucky to be able to squeeze in my delivery before she retired!  I think she only had 2 or 3 other babies left to deliver after me.

The night before we left the hospital we got about 4 inches of snow.  And we came home to a sweet sign made by my friend, Kylie.  

Since coming home we've just been doing a lot of snuggling (with all three boys) and sleeping whenever we can!  So far, Reid is much easier than either of the other boys were (knock on wood!).  Emmett was up all night and screaming his first night home, so I was prepared for that, but Reid seems very content.  He is definitely up all night, but he just hangs out and looks around.  He's a breastfeeding champ, too.  We are all just totally in love with him!! 

 

I'll take and post some other pictures soon... just wanted to get these first ones on here!  Thanks for all of the prayers and love!