Well it has been months since I have blogged and I am hoping to get back into it but there are no promises. Life with 4 kids is a bit hectic and I don't have a lot of free time right now but before Reid gets too old I wanted to document his birth story.
This picture was Thursday night and I was sure it was going to be the last night before Reid came and I was correct! I went into labor the next day. It is always a little sad for me when I know my current "baby" won't be the "baby" anymore.
So onto the birth of our little man. I was 39 weeks on Thursday and I thought for sure that he would be here before then. I was so anxious for him to be here but also want to fully love the last few days of pregnancy. I had been having Braxton-hicks contractions for about a week but on Thursday they were very regular and I was getting really excited. But then as soon as I thought they were going to start getting closer together, they would stop. I went to bed Thursday night thinking it would be soon. When I woke up Friday morning the contractions were very sharp and no longer Braxton-hicks. Dave went to work and I had a doctor's appointment that morning so I headed in to see what was going on. I was already 4 cm dilated and the doctor didn't think I would be pregnant for much longer. We had a plan for me to go into the hospital Saturday morning if I still had not had the baby because I needed to have antibiotics and with him being my fourth she thought I would have a quick labor.
After the appointment I met my friend Shannon for lunch and was having contractions all during lunch. After having a few she said, "those seem like they are happening often, maybe you should time those." So I started to time them and they were happening every 6-7 minutes and were pretty intense, I needed to stop talking during them. After lunch I needed to run a few errands so Finley and I headed over to the post office and didn't even get out of the car because I was continuing to have contractions. I called Dave to let him know the contractions are coming often and headed to pick the kids up from school early.
Once the kids and I got home I kept timing the contractions and they were about every 4 minutes. I called Dave to tell him to come home and he had just had his eyes dilated so he couldn't drive home at that time! I was getting all the bags down by the door and getting the house and the kids ready. I was completely thinking I was going to have to drive the kids to Shannon's house and then me to the hospital. I called Dave again and said, you need to come home. He said he would leave work soon. About 30 minutes later, no Dave and more contractions. I called him again and said "GET HOME NOW!" He finally came home around 4:45 and told me that we didn't need to go to the hospital yet. I told him to go change and that we were going to the hospital. We loaded up the kids and took them to Shannon's house. My contractions slowed down to every 6 minutes but when they came, they were so intense!
Dave had not ate anything yet so he ran to Subway and then we went over to the hospital. He ate downstairs at the hospital and I walked around until they kept getting more intense so we went upstairs. As we were leaving the Anesthesiologist was about to leave and he decided to just head to Subway also and then come back since we would be needing him very soon! It was fun to have Reid at a military hospital where Dave works and know all the people there.
When we got to the hospital I was 6 cm and they didn't check me again because they were afraid they were going to break my water and we wanted labor to go slow. We got to the hospital at 6 and I didn't get my IV in until 6:20 because they were having a hard time finding a vein. I needed 4 hours from then in order to get all the antibiotics in so baby was not supposed to come until at least 10:20.
Dave needed to take a picture of me getting the epidural because we had been talking with Quinn about how many shots I would be getting. Just like with Leo, the epidural only worked on one side so that was not fun. The Anesthesiologist was great and spent a lot of time working with me to get me comfortable.
I was super uncomfortable and told Dave many, many times, "I am never doing this again!" I was having pain and just miserable. I wanted to push so bad but we were trying to wait as long as possible to get all of my medications in. Finally around 9:30 I was just crying and wanted to push so they checked me and I was ready to have a baby. As we got closer to delivery, I started to feel super nauseous which happens with every baby for me. We were still trying to wait as long as possible but by 10 o'clock I started pushing and I started vomiting. The poor technician that was in the room waiting for the baby asked if he should leave! My doctor was great and let me lay in the bed how I was and didn't get out the stirrups or anything and it was relaxed and she let me take my time. I continued to vomit while pushing which was pretty miserable. I think that you should not have to simultaneously vomit and deliver a child at the same time! After a few vomits and pushes our little Reid was born at 10:22. However, at the time of his birth he was still nameless.
He weighed 7 lbs 6 ounces making him our second biggest baby behind Leo. After he was born, Dave asked me what his name was because I thought I would know just like I did with Finley and I did not. So he remained nameless until the next morning.
He wanted to nurse as soon as he came out and has been an amazing eater from the get go. He was and still is just the sweetest thing. When I first saw him, I thought he looked very much like Quinn.
Dave had to run back to the house to let the dogs out at 1 am since he didn't take the key to my neighbor as we were leaving to the hospital. He thought we were going to the hospital too soon and he would just come back later and let the dogs out, bad decision. When he went home he was looking at the names on the board in the kitchen and thought we should name him Reid. After he got back to the hospital we talked about it and agreed that Reid would be it. He also turned extremely red when he was screaming and one meaning of the name Reid is "red" so that was perfect.
I forgot that staying in a military hospital with no baby nursery is not the same as a swanky Utah hospital with a nursery and fountain coke machine! Everybody at the hospital was really nice but I was ready to leave because it was just not very relaxing. But because of not getting all of the antibiotics in before he was born we had to stay at the hospital for 2 nights. On Saturday morning Dave went and got the kids from Shannon's house and brought them to the hospital. (We literally could not have had this baby in a foreign country without the help of our friends! We had friends watch our kids, bring us so much food so that we could focus on the kids and check on us and offer to help however they could. We feel so blessed with the people we are surrounded by here in Italy.)
It was the best watching them meet Reid for the first time. My heart literally melted! They all thought he was the cutest thing in the world. However, it may have been cute but 4 children in a hospital room is not very fun so they didn't stay for a very long time. Dave took them home and thanks to Livia, he was able to come back and stay with Reid and I for the rest of the day.
Dave went home for the second night to stay with the kids and I was by myself with Reid. It was really difficult actually because there was no nursery and I was so tired. Needless to say, I was more than ready to head home Sunday and be at my house with the help of Dave.
Reid relaxing in his little "pea pod" as we call it.
The day we left the hospital it was raining so getting everybody in the car was fun. It was the first time the kids were sitting in their new spots in the car after Reid's carseat switched up the arrangement. I always find that drive home from the hospital such a surreal experience. When we drove to the hospital we were a family of 5 and just like that we are going home with a whole other person!
Reid's going home outfit was a dinosaur sleeper. When I saw it, I just had to buy it because I knew Leo would love it. It really has been an easy transition with Reid and we are so blessed to have this little man in our family.
Babies are good, life is so good!
