Reed's 1 Month Appointment

We went to Reed's 1 month check up on Monday ( a little past his 1 month mark- he is already 6 weeks today!!).  He is doing great!  The Dr is especially happy with his weight- he is now at 10 lbs 14 oz.  Our little man gained over 10 oz in just a little over a week  He is already around the weight that Camdyn was at 2 months!  We have a healthy one for sure though.  Height is about the same, he has only really grown about 1.5 inches since birth and his head also continues to be large :)  We go back for his 2 month appointment at about 9 weeks for him due to the holiday week.  

I think that the adjustment of having two now is just going to continue to happen, but we are definitely managing and enjoying it.  I am especially trying to enjoy the last few weeks of being home with both kids that I can.  I have 2 more maternity leave weeks left and then I am going to take about 1-3 weeks off using vacation.  I have really enjoyed being home with them though.  

I am going to put a couple pictures of Reed's 1 month on here for you guys and a couple others.  Please see the photography website for more recent entries and lots of pictures there!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Love,

Ben, Gabrielle, Camdyn, and Reed

Adjusting to being 4...

I still have to pinch myself at times when we are at the dinner table or head out in the car to go somewhere or even when we go out to eat and it's really noticeable now that we are 4, no longer 3.  While it is a small change number wise it definitely doesn't seem as simple when we get to it, however, even with that being said, I would NEVER change it.  I absolutely love having two.  It's almost like we had been missing something and never knew it.  Camdyn has been an amazing big sister already to Reed and you can just see her immediate love for him.  It is just the sweetest thing.  She loves to hold him and gives him a lot of kisses throughout the day and always has to be in his room when he needs changing.  It has just been so natural for her and I love seeing it.

Reed is doing great- his weight gain is incredible (should be he eats ALL the time!!) and he is just growing growing!  We will already be at one month next week!  I am feeling really good and will be going back to the Dr on Wednesday, I am hoping that he will give me the green light to be able to lift things again, it will definitely help and be nice to feel a little more freedom.  Right now, without that ability there isn't much I can do alone.  Fingers crossed I have some extra good news on Wednesday.  Good thing too is I have at least another 4.5 weeks left of maternity leave of work covering it and then will most likely take about 2-3 additional weeks of vacation after and I am enjoying each day I get to be home with both kids.  

Well, since my last post there have been a couple additional blog posts with pictures on the photography blog- including a new one tonight.  Please head over there and take a look!

We hope this finds you each well. 

Love -

Ben, Gabrielle, Camdyn, and Reed

Welcome Reed!

After a very long, tiring, painful, and stressful labor process that ended in a c-section our baby boy arrived on July 4th at 10:40 PM.  He weighed 7 lbs 11.8 ounces and was 21 inches long.  He is just perfect and we couldn't be happier that he is here and we are now officially a family of four.

I will try and keep our story brief of his arrival as it was not only a long day but a long story :)  We went to the hospital the morning of  July 4th as we had discussed with my doctor the day before.  I wasn't going to go if I still didn't have contractions or pain but sure enough I did.  I didn't sleep well at all the night before.  The contractions were painful and coming fairly close together.  I finally woke up at 5 am and couldn't get back to sleep and they were timing about 3-5 minutes apart.  So we went in.  They hooked us up and my contractions were showing at about 2-5 minutes apart, however, I still had made absolutely no progress and Reed's head was still pretty high.  They called my doctor and he fought against the nurses to keep me in and start some sort of induction.  So we were finally admitted.  We moved to L&D and got a room, they had me walk some, started an IV, and pitocin.  It was a slow process.  I held off on an epidural for a while so that I could move around and try and help the labor progress.  My progress continued to be slow- so my doctor ordered that they would break my water.  Holy pain!  It would have been nice to have the epidural prior to that.  It was extremely painful between that and then little did I know that they put the baby monitors on Reed to get more accurate readings as the ones on my belly were moving all over too much and his readings were becoming skewed.  Immediately after all that was set up, I got my epidural- it is heaven.  My progress started to speed up a bit but we were still slow.  We tried a million different positions to sit me to try and help get Reed lowered, as that was the main concern at this point.  We started moving along and it was really looking like I was going to be able to give birth to Reed without a c-section.  We started pushing and that lasted for almost 2 hours and we were getting nowhere, he still wasn't dropping.  The epidural had been turned off and I was in agony.  Not only did I have the pain of each contraction but Reed's heart-rate was dropping.  To even add to the issues, the Dr checked and believed that Reed wasn't facing in a desirable position.  This could cause issues with dropping if he has a larger head and could mean no matter how long I push he could never descend right.  Ben and I knew it was time for us to make our call and opted to go ahead and do the c-section now before anything worse happened to either of us.  The Dr and nurses immediately went into surgery mode.  It was honestly the longest and most painful 30-45 minutes that I have ever been through.  But then we were in the OR and it was going to be a matter of moments before we would meet our little one.  We are so happy that we made the decision we did at the time we did.  Not only was his heart-rate dropping but it turns out that his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and was also pinching with each push.  While it wasn't the route that we wanted to go, we tried, and we did what was right for our family.  I also must commend my amazing husband for his support- he stepped up and saw more than either of us ever thought.  He was almost a nurse's aide with everything he did and I truly appreciate him- I don't think that I would have made it through everything without him.  With that said, I also thank my mom.  She was a wonderful help as well making sure that Camdyn got to bed and being in the room with us helping when and where she could.  After the OR I was in recovery for a while.  Then we were in our room and starting our recovery and bonding with the new addition.  We were released to go home on Saturday so we have now had 2 full days at home.  We are adjusting pretty well, but we know we have more ahead of us.  

So I guess I lied and that was a lot longer than I had originally planned.  Even though we went through everything we did, we couldn't be happier.  We are so blessed and happy for our family.  We are enjoying every moment and Camdyn is such a great big sister!  She is adapted very well to the new addition and has been a great big help.  I must even brag for a second on her but tonight was her first time peeing on the toilet- maybe this is a sign that the two are going to be competing against each other down the road.  

So if you made it through all of this I thank you.  We wanted to update everyone.  If you would like to see any pictures, I have posted them all on my photography blog.  

We hope this finds you all well!

Love always,

Ben, Gabrielle, Camdyn, and Reed

1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back

Today was our appointment with our new doctor that will be taking over our "case" from my normal Dr (since his leave starts tomorrow).  I had actually seen him once before during Camdyn's pregnancy on a false  call.  He is a nice Dr but man he has huge hands.  So anyway, our appointment today :)  The Dr checked me out and did another ultrasound.  Reed's position was still in head down, however, he wasn't as far down as he had hoped.  He showed us on the ultrasound where his head was and where he felt it should be.  The space could still allow him to turn again- UGH!  That is really what we were hoping wasn't the case.  And in his exam we haven't progressed any further than we were yesterday.  So where does that bring us now?  I am told to do a lot of walking to try and get his head further down.  We will visit with the Dr again on Tuesday which is my due date.  We will take another look to see how we have progressed if any and to see his positioning.  He won't let us go past 41 weeks so I guess we are looking at Reed arriving regardless sometime between now and July 10th.  At this next appointment we will talk about the next and final trip to the hospital for his delivery and will probably decide on method that day.  This could all easily change if Reed decides that he is ready sooner than later.  So we wait, more and that is where we are at with the Dr.  I am still very very uncomfortable and having pain but some of the contractions seem to have slowed down, so who knows.  We will just take it day by day and do a lot of walking.

We hope that everyone is doing well.  Wish we had more exciting news...especially since we had so much family come up and do the drive this week for his arrival and have no baby to show.  We love you all and hope it won't be too much longer now till we have news to share. Till then..

Love,
Ben, Gabrielle, Camdyn, and Reed

A mind of his own...

Out little man has a mind of his own for sure!  We went to the hospital as planned, got checked in, started bloodwork, and then came ultrasound time.  Sure enough, Reed moved back into a head down anterior position.  Great news as this is what we were hoping would happen and wanting, bad news (can't lie) to know that this meant there was a huge chance that we wouldn't get to meet him today.  The nurse (who was absolutely amazing) called my Dr and he came to by to assess the situation and see what our next plan was.  We weren't sure if induction was going to be an option as we ideally wanted to let Reed come at his own pace, however, we didn't want the chance of him to turn back around to breech again.  

The Dr came in and checked everything out.  Sure enough, head down, anterior position (most ideal) with his head at a -2 station, 2 cm dilated.  Considering where we were two days ago and my honest belief that he turned during dinner last night, that is pretty good in my books for that short of time.  However, at this time we were not favorable for an induction.  Fortunately as well my Dr did not feel as though we were in much danger or risk of him turning again due to how his head was lodged so didn't even think that a c-section was necessary and recommended that we try and wait to see where we are next week.  So the last kicker of everything is that my Dr's last day is Saturday.  So he is turning my files over to another Dr and called him to set up an appointment with him.  We go in tomorrow morning between 9 and 10 to meet the new Dr and see how things are coming along, plan would be if I have not progressed more tomorrow we will see him again next week and reassess to see if I am ready for induction - if Reed even allows that.  

So we are home and waiting.  I started to contract at the hospital and have had some pretty rough ones at home since them so I am hoping that he will pull this through on his own.  Time will tell and we will definitely be keeping everyone updated.

It was a pretty long day so I think I am going to head off to bed.  More to come soon!  Fingers crossed it is sooner than later.

Love,

Ben, Gabrielle, Camdyn, and Reed  

Waiting for tomorrow

So by this time tomorrow we will have already been with our baby boy for a couple of hours.  Hard to believe.  We are in the process of just finishing up getting ready and making sure we have everything together before tomorrow.  I want to be able to try and relax as much as possible in the morning before we head out to the hospital. Unless we hear from my Dr's office we are supposed to head to the hospital around noon to get checked in and started up.  Surgery is scheduled for 2 but you know how that can go.  We had one more appointment with my Dr yesterday and Reed is still in his comfortable breech position.  So I guess this is it.  I must say that it feels weird this time knowing when he is coming and how.  With Camdyn the pregnancy seemed rather textbook with the suspense of when she would make her debut but this has been a little different with different emotions, but the one that is very similar is the excitement and of course the love we already feel.

We plan on updating as soon as we can!  We can't wait!

Love,
Ben, Gabrielle, Camdyn, and Reed

Thursday is the day

Our last Dr's appointment was on Thursday (the 21st).  Everything with Reed appears to be the same.  He is still in breech position (and looking quite comfortable at that) and my body is still not really progressing toward labor, which in his position is good.  So with that being said, we are definitely scheduled for the c-section this Thursday (the 28th) at 2 PM.  We have to be there around noon but the surgery is scheduled for 2.  They usually do them in the morning, however, with my Dr's schedule and the hospital's schedule that was the best they could do.  So that is what we are moving forward with.  We have another Dr's appointment Tuesday to do a final check before checking in on Thursday.  We had a good weekend though and enjoyed spending some good family time with the three of us.  It is hard to believe that this is our last weekend as a family of only 3  This time next weekend there will be 4 of us.  So that is our brief update.  Not sure what else there will be to report on Tuesday but we will definitely keep everyone posted and are looking forward to soon sharing the news of our addition with everyone!

Much love,
Ben, Gabrielle, Camdyn, and Reed