The Letter Show

Pumpkin and Peanut holding hands while watching The Letter Show (aka Wheel of Fortune):  does it get any better than this?

Reagan's Birth Story

On Friday, Dec. 5. 2008 I started to have contractions around 9 pm. They were very sporadic and were not very painful, but they were definite contractions. I went to sleep, and woke up off and on throughout the night with the contractions. We began to time them around 7 am Saturday morning, and they were coming every 10 minutes or so and lasting about 30-45 seconds. This continued for about 4 or 5 hours. Then they slowed down to only about two an hour, so I thought for sure it was false labor.

I took a nap and had Trey buy me red raspberry leaf tea to drink per suggestion of an online forum. Around 6 pm, the contractions picked up again and started to become more regular. Trey made me a "bed" on the floor in front of the fire, we watched a movie, and I labored for the next few hours with the contractions moving closer together. We got into bed around 11, and by this time they were more painful and coming around every 6 or 7 minutes. Finally, at about 1 am, we called the on call doctor who told me to come in (contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute or longer).

I got to the hospital and was 3-4 cm dilated. I got an IV and they gave me nubane, which relaxed me but didn't take away the pain. At about 5 am, they contractions were very painful and I was 4-5 cm, so I got the epidural. It didn't hurt at all, and it immediately relieved the pain. A few hours later, I was 8 cm but the baby's heart rate had dropped so they put me on oxygen. Not long after I was fully dilated, but the nurse wanted me to labor down since she was still quite high.

At 11:30 I began doing practice pushes. The nurse (who was amazing and completely got me through the delivery) said I was doing a great job pushing. She had me try different positions, she massaged my perinium, she gently stretched me with baby oil--basically doing everything she could so I wouldn't tear or need an episiotomy. Unfortunately, shortly after I began pushing, Reagan's heart rate dropped. The doctor rushed in and told me they needed to get the baby out, so he started to use a vaccuum. Fortunately, her heart rate got better so he said I could resume pushing on my own. I pushed for another 1.5 hours, and then her heart rate dropped again. This time nurses rushed in and started directing me to push now. They had to get the baby out. I had to receive an episiotomy and I tore more (2nd degree tear) when her head crowned. The pain was incredible and I started screaming that I couldn't do it. But the nurses and Trey were great, and they kept telling me I could do it. She was finally born at 2:05 pm on her due date, Dec. 7, 2008. I labored for 41 hours and pushed for over two hours.

Reagan Estella was 6 pounds 7 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long. She was born with her hands by her face and her head turned, which was part of the problem of getting her out. They told me that if she had been any larger, I would have needed an emergency C-section. When she was born, I could see she was blue and Trey heard the nurses call for NICU (thankfully, I did not hear this or I would have freaked out). She was having problems breathing and crying, so I held her for 30 seconds before they took her away. They observed her for about 40 minutes and she recovered beautifully from the hard delivery.

She was everything we could have prayed for or dreamed of--our baby girl was finally here.

Madilynn's Birth Story

My labor with Reagan was very long and arduous.  My doctor, Dr. Stone, was not present for the birth, so we decided that we would schedule an induction.  Inductions can be scheduled at the 39th week for women who have had successful vaginal deliveries.  Because I fit into that category, I trusted that everything would go as planned.  Boy was I wrong! 

I went in for my induction on Friday morning, February 18, at 5:30. I should have known that things were going to be rough when the day started with the nurse blowing my vein in my hand trying to put in the IV. Next, the nurses started me on pitocin and broke my water (incredibly painful since apparently I have cervix that hides behind my pubic bone). Madilynn wasn't tolerating the pitocin very well and her heart rate kept dropping, but the nurses got everything under control.  Shortly thereafter, I received an epidural. It's a good thing I received it when I did, or I would have had to be put under later on.

 I told the nurse awhile later that I could feel something like a twinge down below even with the epidural. She said I should be able to still have some feeling, but she would check. She checked my cervix and acted like everything was normal, but within minutes the anesthesiologist arrived to give me more medicine, which I found strange since the nurse just said she wanted me to still have some feeling. A few minutes later Dr. Stone arrived, and I could tell she had been rushing. She checked me as well and then told me what the nurse had found a few minutes earlier--apparently little Madilynn's hand had already come out of my cervix. As Dr. Stone put it, when she checked me she literally was shaking my baby's hand. I was only five centimenters dialated though and by that point her heart rate had dropped to 60 and wasn't rising.

Dr. Stone stood up from checking me and told me I needed an emergency c-section. From that point on, everyone was running. My mom was standing in the hall and said the doctor ran from the room, followed by a bunch of other nurses. They were literally tearing wires out of the wall so they could get my bed out of the room and into the OR. They told Trey to wait in the room and they would come get him. I was terrified for my baby and for myself. Things moved so quickly that they had started cutting me by the time Trey came back into the room, and Madilynn was born within minutes. She came into the world at 1:23 pm weighing 6 pounds 4 ounces and measuring 20.5 (long and lean is how the nurses described her).

Recovery was very different from Reagan's birth.  I was in a lot of pain for days.  But in the end, of course it was worth it.  Madilynn was safely in our arms, and our family is complete.

Reaganisms

Reagan has always been a very verbal little girl.  She was saying her ABC's and counting by the age of 18 months.  Every day she says something new, something hilarious, and something that blows our minds.  We often look at each other as if to say, how in the world can a 2 1/2 year old make such complex thoughts and sentences?  Reagan has also perfected her own language that I will call Reaganisms.  Here are some of my favorites:

Big Girl Hinies =  underwear
Shooka = cereal
Red Box = Fruit Loops
Blue Box = Frosted Flakes
The Letter Show = Wheel of Fortune
The Dancing Show = So You Think You Can Dance
Mo = Elmo

Why Blog?

As I write this, Reagan is a little over 2 1/2 and Madilynn is already 4 months.  Every day something new, funny, or amazing comes out of Reagan's mouth.  And every day Madilynn is growing more and more into a baby and losing more and more the look of an infant. 

When Reagan was a baby, I used to think that I would always remember the milestones.  As she has gotten older and started to talk, I thought that I would always remember the funny things she would say.  But I have quickly realized that there are too many "firsts", too many cute phrases, too many wonderful moments.  At least once a week Trey will say, "Do you remember when...." and I cannot believe that I forgot about that moment of which he is speaking. 

So the purpose of this blog is to try to preserve those moments, those firsts, those tales that are shaping who my little girls will become.  Because if there is one thing I have already learned in the few years I have been a mommy, it is that the days and the moments are passing me by much too quickly.  Although I can't make time stand still, I hope to capture some of those tales in words and pictures.  I also plan on posting some of Reagan's past memorable moments before they too fade from memory.