Our little bundle has arrived! I am a little late in posting, considering he was born 2 weeks ago tomorrow, but settling into life with a newborn has been busy. Reed is such an awesome baby, he truthfully is the easy part. Life in general hasn't really slowed down a whole heck of a lot, which is the real reason why it's taken me so long to get this post up.
I want to share a little bit about my birth story, nothing graphic. Mainly so that I can look back on this as a reference. As many of you who read this already know, Reed was very happy in my belly. He truly made no attempt to escape and as we approached 40 weeks we started to consider what we were going to do to start the progression of labor. I don't want to say that we were in a real rush, but we were all getting pretty anxious. Our goal from the get-go with this pregnancy was to get both baby and I to term safely (38/39 weeks) and then get me delivered before any complications with my heart medications could affect our little one. Certainly this risk was not something anyone had expected, however there was always a concern about the baby's growth being that I had to take heart meds, which is why I was monitored so closely throughout my pregnancy. So once I got to term we all started anxiously awaiting the signs of labor....and there was nothing. I was checked twice a week up until I hit 40 weeks; and still no dilation, no effacement. So at my last doctors visit Jeremy, myself and our doctor all sat down and evaluated our situation. Do we wait for this baby to come on it's own and run any sort of risk with my meds, although we were all quite confident that this risk was very low, or do we induce labor and get this baby out, knowing that both baby and I are in good health? Well, I choose to induce. We left the doctors on June 3rd with a slip in our hand admitting us into the hospital on Saturday, June 4th at 7:00, my due date. That night Jer and I decided to go out and have a nice little dinner, so we went and sat at the bar with Jeremy's friend who was bartending that night at Malabar. We ordered appetizers, dinner, I had a glass of wine (disclaimer: it was one glass of wine and I promise I wasn't being neglectful - the lady sitting next to us at the bar was shooting me daggers so I still am feeling a little guilty for my indulgence), Jeremy had a nice little martini and we toasted to our last night out before parenthood. It was a truly nice evening and we were both so excited about all that was to come.
The next day my brother, sisters and Brock all came down to watch over our dogs while we were at the hospital. They sent us off and we were on our way. We got to the hospital, got checked in and started the monitoring. Well as it turns out I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart that I couldn't feel, however I was still not dilating or effaced, so they gave me some fluids to try and space out the contractions and by 11pm that night I got my first dose of cytotec. With the first dose I started to feel my contractions, so Jer and I spent the night walking the halls and hanging out. The next morning I was in the same situation, my contractions were too close together to administer another dose of cytotec so we had to do some more IV and by 5 am June 5th I was able to receive my 2nd dose of cytotec. By 9am that morning I was 90% effaced and barely dilated so they decided to start the pitosin. I got up to 2cm by 11am and so my doctor decided to break my water. By 1pm I had my epidural and from there I was happy although apparently my body wasn't. My labor continued to progress very slowly. I was stuck at 2 cm for hours and then I was stuck at 4cm for even longer. By 10pm that evening my doctor was sitting in front of me discussing the option of a c-section, a word I had heard all too often during this pregnancy already. But my uterus was getting tired and falling into an unhappy pattern which was concerning my doctor and so he said that if I didn't get into a normal labor pattern and progress significantly by 11pm then we were going to have to strongly consider a c-section. And of course, like everything else during this pregnancy, things started to move in the direction that they were supposed to. By 11pm I was dilated to a 6 and after 18 hours of labor, I was finally ready to push at 3:00am on June 6th. An hour later at 4:10am Reed Thomas Day was born.
He truly was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I know he is my baby and so of course I am going to think that, but truly I have felt nothing like the feeling I felt the moment that the nurse placed his little life in my hands. The second he was placed on my chest I started to talk to him and he immediately calmed down, I think it was the sweetest moment I had felt, and I instantly knew that he knew I was his mommy and I was in love.
Reed was born 6lbs. 15 ounces and 20 1/4" long. He was happy and healthy and now shares his birthday with his Aunt Paige. Two weeks later I can say that he is the most happy and content little baby. He is just so sweet. We are all sleeping relatively well, waking usually once in the middle of the night to feed. Both Jer and I just feel so blessed and lucky. Since he has been born we have had so many wonderful friends and family bring us dinner, come to visit and shower him with love and all sorts of fun gifts. It has truly been the most amazing couple of weeks and we are so excited to share an amazing life with this little man as we get to love on him and watch him grow.
