Reese’s Birth Story

I’m smiling as I begin to type this because I’m so excited to write this post.  Meeting your baby for the first time is one of life’s greatest moments and I am so happy to share all of the details with you!  Even though my labor was more difficult with Cooper it was still the absolute best day of my life so I had been looking forward to experiencing it all again.  I just didn’t think it would be such a surprise!

I had spent the last couple of weeks over analyzing how this labor experience would be.  A mid-wife had checked her position and felt she may likely end up face up like Cooper (which is not ideal) so I had started doing little exercises to try to move her.  I began to mentally prepare for another long and more painful labor knowing this would likely extend things a lot more.

Saturday, November 3rd

I was co-hosting a baby shower that morning so was up and ready fairly early and went rushing out the door.  I felt fine while at the shower and actually mentioned to a few people that I thought I might go to or past my due date this time.  I was no where near as uncomfortable or swollen as I was with Cooper at that point so something made me think it would be a while before she came.  I turned 37 weeks that day so assumed I’d at least have another two weeks  before she would arrive.  These ended up being my last bump pics:

Later that day I played with Cooper outside for a while and then headed inside to make dinner.  While we were eating I started having a few intense Braxton Hicks contractions and told Michael they felt a little different.  He responded by saying “I probably need to pack my hospital bag soon.  I’ll do it tomorrow.” ha!  I had been having Braxton Hicks for a while so this didn’t concern me and we continued the night as usual.

Nov. 3rd – 8:15 pm

Michael and I were putting Cooper to bed and were both in his room at this point.  We had just gotten his pajamas on and I sat down in his rocker to begin reading him books.  About a minute after sitting down I felt my water break!  My water also broke with Cooper so I was 100% sure what had just happened.  I said “holy cow my water just broke” to Michael and I’ll never forget his face.  He said back “no way it did”, and I said, “yes it 100% did!!”.  Poor Cooper was immediately asking if I was okay and seemed so worried about me.  I got up and ran to the bathroom and had a moment for things to sink in.   It was such a HUGE shock to me as it was completely unexpected!

I wasn’t having any type of contractions yet so thankfully we had some time for Michael to put Cooper to bed and wait for his brother Chad to come over to our house.  My parents also immediately left to make the two hour drive to Charlotte.  I got pretty emotional leaving the house that night knowing we had just spent out last day as a family of three.  I knew things would change a lot for Cooper going forward and I couldn’t help but cry on our way out the door thinking about the big change coming.  It all felt so quick and overwhelming in that moment and it was hard to focus on the situation when all I could think about was Cooper.

Nov. 3rd 11:00 pm

We were triaged at the hospital and they confirmed my water had broken.  Unfortunately besides some back pain I wasn’t having any true contractions and was only 1 cm dilated.  Even though my water had broken active labor had not begun which was also very similar to what happened with Cooper.  They call this premature rupture of membranes (water breaking) and normally it requires being induced.

Nov. 4th 1:00 am

Once arriving to our room we saw the OB and starting pitocin to induce labor was discussed.  Since no contractions had started at this point she felt strongly I should start a very low dose to see if it would help my body jump start things.  You may remember that I had hoped to avoid pitocin so I was really hesitant on starting it so soon.  She kept assuring me that with this being my second baby – my body should respond quickly especially since my water had already broken.  I agreed to start with a super low dose and wanted to wait on the epidural as long as possible since I knew I had a long way to go in terms of dilating and didn’t want to slow it down.

It didn’t take long for contractions to start and they gradually got longer and more regular.  They were fairly painful but I used all of the Bradley Method relaxation techniques I had read about which helped a ton.  Over the next few hours we slowly increased the dose and my contractions kept getting more and more intense.  Not having an epidural during this time I could actually feel myself dilating and the baby moving downward just like I had read about in the books.  As the contractions got more painful it helped to know that I felt progress being made.

5:00 am

At this point I had made it four solid hours without an epidural in hopes of not slowing my progress down.  The contractions had gotten really intense and my pain quickly went from manageable to excruciating.  I tried all different types of positions with hands and knees being the most comfortable but nothing would help me manage the pain.  It was at this point that I asked to be checked to decide on getting an epidural and when she did I was 4cm.  With all the pain I was in and still having so much more to go the nurse suggested an epidural to help me relax and was super confident that I’d progress really quickly once it was in.

The challenge with me waiting until I was in so much pain is that the next hour was absolutely miserable waiting on the epidural.  Everyone tells you to not wait too long and I for sure did! I begged them to hurry as I felt like I was almost blacking out from the pain and wasn’t getting much of a break since they were so close together.

6:00 am

Eventually the anesthesiologist arrived and inserted the epidural.  Unfortunately things took a rough turn from there as I got super light headed immediately after he inserted it which made him really nervous.  He decided to remove it and do it over to ensure it was in the right place.  This is all so difficult when you are having regular contractions and need to sit very still while it’s being inserted.  This brought back memories of my first labor when the epidural fell out and I had to have it inserted again.  It’s just terrible.

Once this one was in Reese’s heart rate started to drop so they put me on oxygen and tried different positions to help.  I started to feel light headed again and it was due to a sudden drop in my blood pressure.  They quickly gave me some medicine to bring it back up so that was fixed very quickly.  After being on oxygen for about 10 minutes and changing positions, her heart rate stabilized and I was able to relax for a bit.

It was now about 7am and the nurse said she would leave for maybe an hour and then be back to start pushing, ha!.  I told her that there was no way I’d go from a 4 to a 10 in an hour but I appreciated her positive outlook.  I told her based on my previous experience it might be a while longer until we got to that point and I prepared myself for hours more of waiting.  At this point we hadn’t slept all night and we were both getting super tired.

8:00 am

While we were waiting on the nurse to come back I started to feel her head moving down and I told Michael it felt like she was about to come out.  When the nurse came back in I asked her to check me and just as she had predicted I was a 10!  She brought Michael over and showed him how they could already see her head with hair!   I literally went from a 4 to a 10 in one hour!  Turns out the epidural was exactly what I needed to relax and finish progressing.

We were both so overwhelmed that we were about to meet our baby girl and couldn’t believe how fast things moved along.  I was elated that the process was going to be so much shorter than last time and so happy to be feeling no pain.

They started prepping the room for delivery but said we’d need to wait a little bit until the doctor could arrive.  We also needed to have the nicu team there as they were worried about meconium in the fluid again.

8:40 am

The doctor arrived and it was time to start pushing.  They asked me to try a few practice pushes which almost got her completed out and the doctor said I’d just need a few more and she would be here!  I couldn’t believe it was going to happen so fast especially since Cooper had taken an hour and a half of pushing.  After two more pushes she told me her heart rate was dropping so I’d need to get her out with the next one.  I pushed as hard as I could and just like that she was here!

8:45 am

With only five minutes of pushing Reese Elizabeth made her entrance into the world and they immediately placed her on my chest.  Turns out they didn’t think she had meconium in the fluid and I was happy to get those first moments with her instead of her being taken away immediately.   The cord was wrapped around her neck which likely caused the heart rate drop but everything seemed completely fine with her once they removed it.

This moment was just as special as it was the first time and I was overcome with such joy as I held her.  I had already started crying while I was pushing so that just continued for both of us as we stared in awe of her and that moment.

My first comments were how tiny she was and we couldn’t believe it when they said she was just 6lbs and 18 3/4 inches long.  Cooper was almost two pounds bigger and 2.5 inches longer so she felt so tiny in my arms.

Her Name

Michael and I have always loved the name Reese and actually discussed using it for a girl pretty early into our marriage.  However, we are both pretty indecisive with stuff like this and even though we loved it we also strongly considered a few other names but just kept coming back to Reese.  Her middle name is after my Grandma (Mema), Mildred Elizabeth, that passed away this summer and I love being able to honor her through carrying on her middle name.  Elizabeth is also a family name on Michael’s side so it was just perfect for us all around.

Meeting Big Brother

My parents brought Cooper up to the hospital a few hours after she arrived and the meeting went so well!  He was so excited and proud of her and you could tell he felt a sense of ownership over her since he didn’t want anyone else to hold her.

This moment was so overwhelming for me as I had been anxious about it and then was so happy and relived that it went so well.  There is something so special about watching siblings meet and I am so glad we have videos and photos to show them when they are older.

The Hospital Stay

This stay was completely different than the first time as it was so much easier and more enjoyable.  My recovery has been significantly better/easier and I was able to get up and moving later that day which felt so good.  I didn’t have any swelling or high blood pressure either so I was able to really focus on Reese and enjoy the time with just the three of us for a few days.  We also enjoyed having friends and family come by and Cooper visited several times before we headed home.

Time at Home

So far things have been going well for us at home.  Again, with my body feeling so much better I have been able to be up and moving which has made this experience so much easier for me.  Cooper has been so sweet with her and constantly wants to hold her and kiss her which we’ve had to be careful with since he’s has a cold.  Cold and flu season is certainly the downside of having a baby during this time of year  :(.

Even though Cooper has been so sweet, it hasn’t been a perfect transition and he did act up a good bit the weekend after we brought her home when all of our family was in town.  We know this is such a big change for him and we’ve tried to give him grace during this time.  The good news is that this week our nanny is back and he’s been doing so well since getting back to his normal routine.

Reese has been gaining weight well and so far seems to be fairly mellow and easy going.  Since she was early (almost a preemie) she has been super sleepy so I’ve needed to wake her up to feed and be really focused on making sure she is getting enough to eat.

I’ve been so much more laid back with things this time around and feel like I am enjoying this newborn phase even more because of that.  The lack of sleep is really hard but I know this is such a short phase in the grand scheme of things so I’m less focused on getting out of this stage.

I will stop there for now but will continue to post updates on how things are going.  Thanks to everyone who has reached out to us and for all of your prayers and thoughts for us during this time.  To God be the glory  for giving us another healthy baby to add to our family!