Thursday, February 11, 2010

the story of her

I find it funnily ironic that after everything that I went through with the early labor and trying to keep Reagan in until we hit the magical 36 week mark, I still had to be induced to get her to actually come out. From the time that I left the hospital in December, I contracted consistently every 5-20 minutes until the day that she was born. I remember laying in the hospital bed the morning after they had stopped my labor thinking of multiple goal dates that we had to make it to. I had to make it to January 4th when my doctor returned from vacation. I had to make it to January 6th for the first day back to school so the district would cover my insurance payment for January. I had to make it to January 9th for the baby shower. I was so nervous that I wasn't even going to make it that far that by the time January 10th came, I was convinced she was going to come out that day. Needless to say, that was obviously not her plan.

After the 10th came and went, life returned basically back to normal, or as normal as it can be 9 months pregnant and contracting. I went to work, Keith went to work, and Luke went to daycare. I cooked, graded papers, prepared for my long term sub. I attended my routine doctor appointments. About a week before she was born at my usual check-up, my Dr. kind-of smiled and laughed about how she was going to be a big baby. In fact, he thought she'd be 8.5 lbs. Umm, no. She's supposed to be my teeny baby. I was prepared for a tiny one; I had panicked after the initial labor scare and prepared with newborn clothing. He told me at that point that when I was 39 weeks, he would induce me. An end date....sort of. On the day that I was officially 39 weeks, then he could contact the hospital and schedule me for the next available opening for an induction at the hospital.

Being as how this pregnancy wasn't the easiest and things didn't typically go the way that I expected or hoped, when I was getting ready for my appointment on Thursday, January 21st, I was fully expecting to go to work after and be induced sometime the next week. Just in case though, I took a quick picture of my two boys as we were getting ready that morning.

As soon as the Dr. walked into the office, his first words to me were, "Are you ready to have a baby today?" Let me think...YES! He actually told me to go straight to the hospital from his office, but I had to tell him that I had to get Keith home from work first. Dr. and I both thought it was funny that this was the first appointment that Keith had missed and this was probably one of the most exciting.

We arrived at the hospital around 11am and I was already 5cm dilated. (Half way! I told you I was contracting!) Dr. came and broke my water at 12noon and by 1:45, I was getting the epidural. For my epidural with Luke, I couldn't feel a thing. I actually liked this one better because I could feel the pressure of the contractions, but none of the pain. I felt like I had a more active role in my labor this time.

At 4:20 when I was checked, I was at 7cm. At 4:25, Corbin King, one of our good friends who happens to be an EMT was at the hospital and came to visit. Poor guy wasn't in the room 5 minutes when it started to feel like I was trying to hold a full-sized beach ball between my legs. I turned to my mom and asked her to go get the nurse. Now. Turns out I had gone from 7cm to 10cm in 5 minutes. Dang! By the time Dr. arrived 15 minutes later, I was so ready to push. It really felt like she might just come out on her own at this point. I was doing everything I could just to keep her in. His first question to me when he walked in was whether I had been pushing already or not. When we let him know that I hadn't, he did that same half-laugh and waited to robe up until after he checked me. He was really surprised that her head was right there and moved possibly the fastest I have ever seen in the years its been since I started seeing him.

With Luke, I pushed for two solid hours. For Reagan, I pushed for two solid pushes. And then my sweet baby girl that I had worried about for so many months was here. Perfect, healthy, beautiful, and huge. I thought back to the time when we thought we'd lost her at the very beginning. I thought back to just a few weeks earlier when we thought she was going to have to be taken to a different hospital because of complications from being born prematurely. I thought of all the times I'd been up in the middle of the night counting her kicks and rubbing my belly fiercely because I thought she'd passed. And now she was here with me and her dad. Finally, perfectly.

Can you believe we did this again?!?

Our sweet baby Reagan Rose weighed in at 8 lbs. 15.4 oz. and measured in at 22 in. long. We had thought that Dr. was exaggerating when he estimated 8.5 lbs. He had guessed nearly 10 lbs. with Luke and he was 8 lbs. 11 oz. We'd figured he'd be about a pound off with her too. Turns out his estimate was a little conservative.

Daddy's little girl

Who had a rough day? Me.

Bonding time with my baby

Although this doesn't really have anything to do with her actual birth, I thought it was fitting as part of the story of her and needed to be documented. The night she was born, we had one of the strongest storms I have seen in Arizona in years. At one point, there was even a tornado warning for our area. The wind was blowing so hard that the hospital and my bed were swaying. The rain was coming down sideways. Apparently, the drama doesn't stop for Miss Reagan.

I wasn't kidding when I said that we prepared for a newborn-sized child. Poor Regan's going-home outfit was so hard to get on her. The sleeves were too short and we weren't even able to button it in back. She was a trooper though and didn't even wake up as we were putting it on her.

I'm glad that my Reagan is finally here. I'm glad that she made it out safely. I'm glad that I'm not pregnant anymore. I'm glad Luke is a big brother and an amazing one, at that. I'm glad that my house didn't fly away while we were in the hospital. I'm glad.

3 comments:

Traci Tenkely said...

awww! I am glad too. What a beautiful story.

Jack & Lucy said...

Love it! She's going to appreciate being able to read this when she's older! :)

Heather said...

I love how amazingly you capture everything both in writing and in pictures. You truly are blessed!