Reed Thomas Day

Born: Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 4:10am

Weighing: 6lbs. 15oz.

Measured: 20 1/4" long

The Baby Story

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.

37 1/2 weeks

We are ready...or at least I am. :) The nursery is ready, I picked up a bunch of last minute baby things this weekend with my sweet mother in law, clothes and bottles are washed and our hospital bags are packed. Now all we need is for this little one to arrive! Jer and I had a doctors appointment today to figure out what we wanted to do, being that the baby was still breech at my appointment this past Friday. Our appointment was for today at 2 o'clock and the plan was to do our routine fetal monitoring, have an ultrasound and if the baby didn't miraculously flip over the weekend then we were going to either schedule an ECV for later on this week (procedure to try and turn the baby) or a c-section for sometime around my 38th/39th week. Well low and behold the little one turned! I think I almost jumped off the table, I know I yelled "it turned"!?! I think I had the entire staff laughing at me on our way out. I had been so nervous about today because I really didn't like either of our options, but most babies turn by the 32nd week and as you hit week 37 I think the percentage of babies that turn from a breech position goes down to like 10% so I knew that time was not on my side the longer the baby stayed head up. Thank god it all worked itself out. Now I just hope that the baby stays there. I have another ultrasound on Thursday, which should be my last one to monitor the baby's growth, and after that I would say all systems are a go! My doctor said that as long as my body is showing signs of being ready then he will look to induce labor sometime the week of the 28th which sounds perfect to me!

Nursery

I don't have any really great photos of the nursery, mainly because my camera is acting up and I am having a really hard time taking pictures. I guess I need to take it in before the baby comes and I really need it. Anyhow, here are few pictures that I managed to get. The nursery isn't really complete being that we are moving in a few months. I am doing a mural behind the crib, but I can't really do anything with that until we get into the new house, so for now the crib wall is totally blank. I am really happy with the fabrics we choose, for a neutral nursery I think it still turned out cute and I know once the baby arrives it will take on a tone all its own. A few things that I want to do when we move to really complete the room is have some custom curtains made out of the yellow fabric you see in the accent pillows, find a cute a mobile for when the baby actually goes in the crib, as well as the artwork for the crib wall. For now though I think that this is it!

So Much is Going On...

Where do I even begin? We bought a house, we are selling ours, we have a baby coming in a month, this little stinker in my tummy is still breech, I have a baby shower this weekend and am hosting a bridal shower next weekend...oh and I need to finish the nursery!!!

It seems like the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. We closed on our new house today which we are so happy about! We will officially be moving to Lincoln sometime this summer. I can't wait to be close to so many of our good friends and family. Plus, I really like our new house! It's a little bit smaller than our current house which is actually kind of nice considering that this house we are in now is made for a family of 6. It has an awesome backyard, pretty finishes and will be the perfect spot for us to call home. We had less than 3 weeks to close escrow and so needless to say the last few weeks have been a little bit stressful making sure that everything went smoothly.

Also, we just listed our house. Know anybody interested in living in West Sac? We are going to miss this place, but the new move is the right one for us at this point in our lives. I will say that there is a part of me that is going to miss Sacramento. We are 5 minutes away from downtown, super close to work and I love living on the river with all of the pretty views. I absolutely hate having people come through our house though. Tonight I wanted to punch this realtor who was showing our house after she tried to just walk right in. Ugh, excuse me...KNOCK! Can you tell how excited I will be when this part is over?

On the baby front I am just about 5 weeks away from D-Day! I can't believe how soon that seems. Even more so, I can't believe that in 5 weeks I will be holding this little nudger! I can't wait to meet him or her and kiss her and kiss my husband and look at our little family that we have grown.

As always I have a thousand doctors appointments and today the doctor told me that the baby is still breech (which I already knew). I want to say that I'm convinced its a girl only because I think she's being stubborn like her mom, however I'm not really convinced. :) The doctor also told me that I am not really a good candidate for trying to turn the baby because my stomach is so tight and I am so tiny. He said that he doesn't really want to put me through that because the ECV's are usually more successful when someone has a little more room in their belly to try and turn the baby. That being said, they are trying to prepare me for a cesarean. I guess I'll just take whatever comes my way as long as I have a healthy little baby at the end of it.

This weekend is my last baby shower and I can't wait! America, one of my girlfriends from highschool is flying up for it and I can't wait to see her and spend Saturday night catching up with her. I have the sweetest group of friends who are hosting it for me and the other sweetest bunch who are all coming to celebrate with me. I truly feel lucky.

Next week my mom and I are hosting a bridal shower for a good friend and I am so excited about it. I have been scheming over this party for months now and I really think it will be a lot of fun! I got a really cute idea for a martini bar from me and mine's blog which I can't wait to use and I have a really cute bartender coming to serve cocktails (my husband). After that I am hopeing to have a couple of weeks to finish the nursery and get things ready for baby.

And what about this little man, isn't he the cutest? He's not a baby anymore :( Every time he see's me he points to my stomach and asks "is that my baby in there"? He is going to be such a good cousin and I love him.

Maternity Pics

I just received a cd full of baby bump pictures from my dear friend, Sara. There were too many cute pictures to share, and rather than post a bunch of pictures of myself carrying a baby, I thought I would post a few of my favorite "bump" shots.

Nesting

I am totally nesting these days. All I want to do is get organized and ready for this baby. I have spent the last couple of weekends washing blankets, organizing and trying to put together the nursery. Up until now our nursery has been more like a storage unit for all things baby, but with only 8 weeks to go I figured that I am getting down to the wire and if I want a cute place for this little one to call it's own I better get moving! The room is looking super cute, although I still have a ton of little things to do before I can call it done. The large pieces are all finally in, but I still need to finish accessorizing; mainly a few more things for the walls, baskets for storage, a couple more throw pillows and fabric for window treatments.

Jer and I just found out yesterday that the house we put an offer in on up in Lincoln has been accepted and we are supposed to close in 3 weeks. We just got our house up on MLS today and so I feel like there are so many things happening and I am suddenly realizing that the nursery will likely not be 100% complete until we move, which will more than likely not be until the end of the summer. It's funny how life presents all of these big moments all at once, but I know that in the long run it will be worth all of the chaos.