Reese's Birth Story

Reese is here! Even as I typed that sentence, almost 3 weeks later, it's still surreal to think that she is finally here. All of these months of writing this blog, waiting, backaches, waiting, heartburn (What a beautiful head of hair!), waiting, swollen feet, and more waiting, have finally brought us to this point. We are a family of three! It has been a whirlwind trying to get the hang of this parenting thing and trying to get a little sleep too. Parenting has already been an amazing ride and I know this is only the beginning. Before I write about the first few weeks, let me fill you in on the days leading up to Reese's birth.

On Thursday, December 29th we went to the doctor for our 39 week appointment. I was really hoping to hear that Reese was getting closer to making her arrival, but instead the doctor informed us that there had been no change since the week before. I was still 2 1/2 centimeters and 90% effaced. Dr. Lowden also informed me that we would have to wait until our next appointment to set up a "bail out" date (induction date) if she still hadn't arrived. She told us that she really prefers babies of first-time mothers to come on their own, which reduces the risk of a c-section. I nodded my head as I listened to her, but what I was really thinking was..."blah...blah...blah...I've heard this a million times before, from a million different people..." On the way out the door, Dr. Lowden said, "Maybe I'll see you this weekend." It took everything I had not to break into tears before we made our next appointment and got back into the car. I sobbed to Elliott about how I couldn't make it any longer, how I wanted to be done, how the doctor just didn't understand how miserable I was, and about how annoying that comment was that she made about seeing us this weekend. Of course she wouldn't see us this weekend. I had made no change in a week, so what makes her think things are suddenly going to happen. Yeah, it wasn't my high point. Fast forward two nights later...


Friday night I started having contractions. I had some minor braxton hicks contractions in the weeks prior, but nothing that lasted more than a few hours. This time they woke me up from my sleep and just didn't go away. They weren't particularly painful, just kind of annoying. Elliott slept right through all this, while I watched movies on the couch. When he woke up on Saturday morning, I told him that I was feeling kind of strange and had been all night. We lounged around all morning and around noon we decided we should start timing the contractions. Elliott decided he needed to keep track of the contractions so that we would know for sure. He even calculated the average time between contractions for each hour. What a great husband!

Elliott's amazing contraction notes

We spent the afternoon watching movies and timing contractions. Elliott even let me pick the movie! We watched "He's Just Not That Into You" and he didn't even complain once. Every 6-10 minutes I had a contraction and had to get up and pace the house until it went away. Most of my pain was in my back, so it helped to pace around and lean over things (like the edge of the bed) when they got really intense. As the contractions got closer and closer, we decided we should probably start thinking about heading to the hospital. At about 4:30pm we called my parents over to get Lucy and we headed to the hospital. I was worried about how I would handle the contractions in the car on the way to the hospital, since I couldn't pace or use my heating pad on my back, but somehow I made it. 

When we got to the hospital, they put us in a room and checked to see how dilated I was. I thought that after a whole day of contractions, I would have made a lot of progress, but I was only almost 3 centimeters dilated. They told us they would check me again in an hour. They like to see change of 1 centimeter per hour. Well, an hour later, I was just a little more than 3 centimeters. They called my doctor at that point and she said to wait another hour to see if the contractions fade away or if things start changing. When they checked me an hour later, I was only 3 1/2 centimeters. Basically, I was changing by 1/2 a centimeter an hour instead of 1 centimeter. They decided to call my doctor again and ask her what to do next. During all of this slow progress my back pain was getting more intense with every contraction. Some of my contractions were "doubling up" too, which means there would be one contraction followed by another without any time in between. Ouch! One thing that really helped my back pain was for Elliott to push really hard on my lower back during the contractions (called counter pressure). He was pushing on my back so hard that his hand hurt. That counter pressure helped relieve the pressure on my tail bone. The nurses and doctors kept saying that there was a chance she was face up, since I was experiencing so much back pain. They said that usually babies will turn around before they get in the birth canal. They said this also could explain why I was progressing so slowly. While waiting to hear from the doctor, I remember telling Elliott that I don't know what I would do if they sent me home. I was in a lot of pain at that point and starting to panic. When the nurses came back in they told me that my doctor decided to admit me, that she wants to get me an epidural, and break my water. Woah- That was all in one sentence. I remember feeling relieved that this was actually happening and that after 2 hours at the hospital, we were finally officially admitted. I also remember feeling overwhelmed trying to process everything they just said. It was around 7pm when I was admitted to the hospital. After I got my epidural (which was way more painful than I expected), the resident OB doctor (I wish I could remember his name...) came and broke my water. The next time they checked me the nurse thought I was 6-7 centimeters dilated, but she wanted to check with the other nurse to make sure. The other nurse came in and checked me and said actually, I was a 10! That was a surprise! They called my doctor to see if I should start pushing or labor down for a while. The doctor said to start pushing. A little before midnight I started pushing. Two hours later, our beautiful daughter arrived. 


The whole labor process went about how I expected. It went pretty quickly and even the nurses were surprised at how fast it went. It only took about 4 hours after they broke my water before I started pushing. I was surprised at how much the OB resident doctor did and how little my doctor did. In fact, she probably got there for the last hour of pushing (if that). One other thing that surprised me was how many people were in the delivery room. We decided not to have any family in the room during the labor & delivery, so they were all anxiously waiting in the waiting room. However, what we didn't know was that at least 10-15 complete strangers would be hanging out with us instead. I knew there would be a few people in there, but with the spotlights shining down from the ceiling, it felt like they were all spectators at a sporting event and I was the main event. I think there might have been a few extra people in the room because they were all hoping Reese would be the first baby of the new year. There was one other lady close to delivering at that time, but she was in the regular hospital. It was her 3rd child and even though she was only at 6 centimeters when I started pushing, she somehow ended up delivering about 30 minutes before I did. I remember the sighs of the crowd in the delivery room when they got the first call to say that we lost the race (and the subsequent sighs as each person in the room got a call from someone they knew over in the hospital relaying the same news over and over again). I remember thinking,"Okay people, we still have to deliver this baby..." 

They weren't very busy that night (I was one of two patients), so I got a lot of attention from the nurses. That could be another reason why there were so many people in the room. In fact, one nurse was in the room with me pretty much the entire night. I think she took a 15 minute dinner break and that was it. We had absolutely awesome nurses and I was so impressed with Wesley's Birth Care Center. Everything was really quiet and comfortable (except for Elliott's couch bed... :-)). It really felt like we were at a hotel, not a hospital.

So, at 2:10am, our beautiful daughter, Reese Katherine, was born. She didn't cry too much when she was born, but she has been crying ever since! She weighed 8 lbs, 2 oz. and was 20 inches long. She was/is absolutely perfect! The two things everyone comments on is how she has a full head of hair and how round her face is (no cone-head for this girl). 


We were released from the hospital on Monday night (January 2nd) and then the fun really began. We have so enjoyed getting to know our daughter over the last three weeks and it makes me sad that she has already outgrown some of her newborn clothes. :-( At her 2 week doctor's appointment, she weighed 9 lbs, 3 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long! I feel like these last few weeks have been such a blur and as much as I am looking forward to seeing her grow and change, I wish we could freeze time and never forget all the special little moments we have experienced already. Hopefully I'll be able to capture some of those moments through this blog. Also, for her baby book, I'm going to write about each month of her life and all the special things that happened during that month. I'll post those stories on this blog as well. I can't believe it's almost time for me to write about her first month! 


Here are some pictures of our sweet little girl. :-)

Our 8lb bundle of joy!

Big feet!

Elliott did not want to take this picture, but I'm so glad he did. She did not enjoy her first bath! :-)

I love the way they're looking at each other. <3

It was a long day for all of us!

Our family of 3

First bath at home...she enjoyed it a little more than the first one.

Her first tutu picture.

I love them both so much!

Our new family.

It's funny how I kept thinking all along that she would be a New Year's baby. I know Elliott was disappointed we didn't get the tax break, but I think we got something way more amazing instead. I know New Year's is never going to be the same for us and I'm already planning her first birthday party. I think this girl is going to have some really fun birthday parties in the future!!! 


Happy New Year everyone! 2012 has already been an amazing year for us and I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings! Lots of milestones I'm sure!


Love,


Elliott, Erin, and Reese (officially!!!)