The Reynolds Fam: July 2012

Harper turned 2 weeks old yesterday! I had ambitions of keeping this up more regularly but it has fallen down on my list of priorities :( I'll definitely do monthly updates to keep track of her growing but besides that these may be few and far between!

The past couple weeks have been pretty great! We're still adjusting to having a little baby in the house but I think we're doing pretty well :) Life is definitely, definitely very different just as everyone told us it would be! We've had a ton of help which has really made everything so much easier. I have not cooked an entire dinner meal for us yet thanks to so many family and friends who have kept us stocked!! :) We appreciate it!

Harper is a sweet, sweet little baby. She's quite the eater and lets us know when she's hungry! Besides fussing whenever she's hungry she is a pretty happy girl. A couple nights ago she did her fair share of crying and I just couldn't figure out why so I did go buy some gas drops in case that's what was causing it. I've been doing the belly massage and keeping her little legs bicycling and honestly I can't tell if it helps or not but I do know she has been the most pleasant little girl today! :) As far as our nights go, they are very unpredictable! I really can't complain though because I am getting a decent amount of sleep. The easy nights are ones where she goes back to sleep right after I feed her. More challenging nights entail her just staring at me wide eyed after a feeding - she's ready to play! She is pretty noisy at night... lots of grunting in her sleep, especially when she's sleeping lightly. I can sleep through the grunting but Andy can't :( I will admit that she has spent her fair share of sleeping time cuddled up next to me (I know this is bad and we are creating bad habits, but sometimes I decide sleep is more important ;)) I'm too tired in the middle of the night to battle and instead choose to let her sleep however she likes. She has spent nights in her bassinet, her crib, our bed, the guest bed, the couch, etc. lol. I have decided that whenever she naps during the day and I'm not so tired, she'll sleep in either her crib or bassinet only... we'll see how that works ;)

We did her newborn pictures last week... that was quite an experience. Our photographer had these detailed instructions to follow beforehand.. they involved a long luxurious bath followed by repeatedly changing her clothes/diapers so as to stop her from falling asleep so that she would sleep during the shoot. We followed the instructions but Harper had other plans in mind. She was awake almost the entire time! I absolutely love the pictures of her so wide eyed but I was a little bummed that we didn't get to use nearly as many of the props/poses if she would've slept. We definitely have some keepers though!

It's amazing how much she has changed in just a couple short weeks! She is definitely getting some chubby little cheeks! Her eyes are working so hard to focus on things and follow them rather than just staring out into space. It's neat to see her changing so much but does make me a little sad sometimes! I do my best to really focus on her and appreciate the time I have with her right now. I want to remember every funny face she makes, the way she loves to throw her arms up by her head when she's sleeping, how she loves being sung to and cuddled up next to a warm body to sleep, her sweet little sneezes and milk breathe :) We are just in love with our little baby!

One of the things that makes me laugh is how much anxiety I get whenever Harper and I run an errand alone. I've made two trips to the grocery store with her and it's embarrassing how accomplished I feel whenever we get home :) Yesterday I was sitting in traffic on my way to Kroger and I realized I was picking at my cuticles... something I do whenever I'm stressed or anxious. I asked myself what was stressing me out and had to laugh when it was the idea of this impending grocery trip! If she gets upset, it's typically because she's hungry and though I have started pumping, I'm saving that up for an exam I must go take next week. Therefore, we really have no food options if we are in the middle of Kroger. Her crying doesn't bother me but I feel awful for making other people listen to that out in public! I am perfecting the art of feeding her, changing, and getting out of the house while her clock is ticking. We basically have 2 to 2.5 hours of happiness before the crying begins and I always hope I'm at least in the car on the way home by the time she gets upset! Andy and I are also running a lot less errands than we used to. We love just hanging out as a little family in the evenings. He misses her during the day so they like to play together and we love going for walks through our 'hood :) Life is pretty great these days :)

1 week old

Pat and Harold came to visit!

My dad likes to coordinate his outfits to my church outfits :)

We asked her how much she loves her dad and this is what she did!! ;)

We love this picture

Our first church picture!

Harper Leigh Reynolds has arrived and we could not be more in love with our little girl! I'm sure most have heard of her quick arrival but I'm going to recap her birth so we'll always have it documented :)

It all started Monday morning, July 2nd. My first thought when I woke up was that I was going to put up a facebook status that said, "Happy 1 year anniversary to my husband! Guess our daughter didn't want to come play with us just yet!".... but before I got on facebook that morning, I hopped into the shower. We had planned to go out to breakfast and then I had an exam at 10AM. In the shower I started to feel this weird pain in my lower abdomen. It was very unlike all the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd ever felt but didn't feel like what I thought a real contraction should be. At the same time I felt the pain I felt some other pop and wondered if it was my water breaking. I turned off the shower real quick but couldn't tell anything so I decided maybe that was her actually dropping down in my pelvis and causing a little uncomfortableness and pressure. I skipped shaving my legs because I was a little bit worried and the lower abdominal pain was still there. I got out and told Andy that something weird was going on but by the time I talked to him the pain was completely gone... so I hopped back into the shower to finish shaving my legs! I hated to have hairy legs if I was going to wear a dress to dinner... or deliver a baby!

As I was curling my hair (yes, I felt like that was important for some reason), I was feeling the pain a couple more times and having another weird tmi symptom. Andy said, should you really be curling your hair right now - you need to call your dad. At this point, I was on the verge of tears... not sure why really. It's obviously so exciting to have a baby but the thought that the day could be here where you have to shove the baby out is kind of scary!! Anyhoo, I called Dad and he said we definitely needed to go to the hospital to get things checked out. Andy then told me he had planned on driving to Louisville that morning to pick up a top tier of our wedding cake (since we ate ours after our honeymoon last summer ;)).... that fortunately did not happen. We decided we had no idea how fast this was all going to happen and in hindsight are definitely thankful we just headed on into the hospital!

We left our house around 7:45 or 8 probably. All our bags were packed just in case. About a mile into our trip Andy realized he forgot his wedding band at the house and was upset! (Rumor has it I was the one who fussed at him... not true ;)) He didn't want to be the center of any hospital gossip about the married lady and single man with the baby but at that point I told him I just really wanted to get to the hospital and get things checked out. It was also about that point where I told him how pissed I was going to be if this wasn't real labor because this hurt! I lamented that I had planned to stop by Krogers on my way to the hospital to get the nurses some snacks so I could be a favorite patient, haha... I called Mom while we were driving in and told her what was up... she said she was on her way to work and I told her it was fine for her to go on in and we'd just give her a call after things got checked out.

By the time we got to the hospital, I was pretty confident that these definitely were real contractions as they were wrapping around my back which is kind of how I had heard them described. I was also feeling a lot of pressure and they had gotten much more regular - probably every 2 minutes or so. They were painful enough that I didn't feel like chatting much during them but in between it didn't hurt a bit. Andy was cracking me up on the way there... he said, we should've practiced driving to the hospital!! (yes, the hospital I go to every day of my life) Apparently what he meant was that I should've told him exactly where to park. The OB had told us he could walk me up but I just wanted to be dropped off and he could park then get up there as quickly as he could. I was so happy to get to triage and not see any other patients waiting there so I knew I would be seen quickly. Andy made it up a few minutes later while I was still sitting in the waiting room.

They got us back into a room and got me hooked up to the monitors. I was definitely having regular contractions at that point but I felt like everyone was moving so slow. I think I might've caught some eyerolls when I told them this all started just an hour ago but I wanted them to check me so badly to see what kind of progress we were making! I did request no med students or interns (as it was their second day on the job). A third year resident who I had worked with on my OB rotation came in and saw me and was so sweet. I always felt like he did such a good job talking to and calming his patients and felt super lucky that he was the one who came in to see me. I told him how my blood pressure had been creeping up a bit and how dilated I was at my last exam and he said he'd just check me out and would look for any reason to keep me there if I was in pain. About two seconds into my exam he says, yes, we are definitely keeping you... you are completely dilated and 100% effaced. My first thought was..... omg. they're not going to give me an epidural. Sure enough, that was my first question and they said no, there would not be time. He then tried to tell me how I'd really done all hard work on my own and how all that was separating me from meeting my daughter was a few pushes... he couldn't trick me though - I knew that those few pushes were going to be the worst part of the whole event but I also knew we had no option ;)

Dad had called while we were getting settled in triage and told me he had cancelled his days clinic and was on his way up with Mom and OJ! I was pumped that he was going to make it but didn't realize just how quickly everything was going to go. The attending came in and they wheeled me into the labor and delivery room. I seriously got some VIP treatment and was pretty thankful for it. Both my nurses knew Dad as well as the attending and I can't say that I was above some name-dropping. The doctors were both in the room pretty much the whole time. They said they wanted to let me go ahead and try pushing so that's what we did. In hindsight, I was not doing a good job pushing in the beginning... it's hard to describe to someone how to do it properly if they've never done it before but I was definitely not pushing properly. After a couple sets of 3 pushes, they offered a mirror and I accepted for some reason. I always said I didn't need to see that but it actually was incredibly motivating. I could see the tip of her head and could see it descend when I was doing a good job of pushing. Andy was a trooper the whole time and told me afterwards that he watched the whole thing go down! I didn't realize that at the time but he said it was actually pretty cool to see.

The whole pushing process truly was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I felt a little frustrated in the beginning when I wasn't pushing correctly and I can't lie, I fleetingly thought they would definitely have to cut her out of me because there was no way I was going to be able to push her out! ;) I found it super helpful for them to count through my pushes. Andy had asked me a while back what I wanted from him and I told him I just didn't know at the time. It all becomes clear on the big day - I loved hearing him count because it gave an endpoint to each push. I felt like I was at the gym holding planks or something... it's impossible to do it forever but a goal makes it much easier!! I truthfully felt great between contractions and was able to laugh and joke with the nurses. I did apologize for not bringing them snacks which I think amused them! They had me a little scared when they explained that at some point she would get far enough down that I would feel continuous pain/pressure without the relief in between but if that happened, it must've been so quick or right when she delivered that it really wasn't bad at all.

I went through probably a total of 8 sets of 3 pushes and Miss Harper finally popped out crying at 9:48AM. They immediately put her right up on my chest and it seriously was the most amazing thing in the world. She cried for a minute or two then opened her big eyes and looked up at us. Andy cut the cord and the nurses helped me get her settled and she started nursing immediately. The doctors finished up their work down below while I held her and Andy snapped a few pictures of our sweet girl. Everyone left us for a few minutes and it was amazing to just be sitting there with our family of three and the best anniversary present ever. We got to admire her head full of hair, her loong skinny limbs, and her big hands and feet! We may have a tall girl on our hands :) She looked so beautiful and healthy and I could not have been more thankful to have all my worries quieted!

David had been outside the room the whole time watching everything on the monitors. He popped his head in afterwards to say hi and I was flattered that he asked me if he brushed my hair! haha... I was like no, does it look awful? but he assured me that it actually did look like it had been brushed :) I can't lie, I have always hoped I would make it through labor without looking awful and somehow I was lucky enough to escape relatively unscathed.

The rest of my fam showed up soon after... obviously Dad missed the delivery but that was okay. I wanted him there in the case that something went wrong but we were so, so lucky to have the smoothest, safest delivery. After Harper hung out on me for a couple hours they took her to weigh her, give her first immunizations and antibiotics in her eyes. We were all betting what she weighed because she looked like a decent size to us... and she was! 7lbs 6oz! (Think that means Aunt Jennifer is the winner... the only person to guess a baby in the 7lb range!) She was also 20.5 inches :) Andy finally got to hold her for the first time after they finished the Kangaroo care and I must say, he was/is a total natural. He looked so comfortable holding her and not a bit nervous at all! We took our first family picture and loved on her a bit before passing her around to the rest of the fam. Andy's parents were on their way down from Indiana and got to meet their granddaughter just a couple hours later!

The fam was sweet enough to bring me some Subway so I got to chow down on my turkey sandwich that I've been longing for while everyone hung out with Harper :) The OB floor was super busy that day so rather than getting moved over to the mother/baby unit quickly, we stayed in the same labor and delivery room until about 7PM that night. I absolutely loved my nurses there and was almost sad to get moved! Harper had a few visitors and was the sweetest little thing all day long. Everyone discussed who she looked like, eye color and her head of hair! We're thinking she favors me a bit more in the face at this point but I'm thinking she got her Dad's long lean limbs!! We haven't come to a consensus on her eyes yet - I think they look a really dark gray or navy now. Andy's mom says that's what his looked like when he was born so we'll see. I'm sure they will change so we'll keep everyone posted ;)

All of my friends have wanted to know how bad it really was and how much pain I was in afterwards. Truthfully, it was not that bad and recovery wise I am doing great. I've been taking a couple motrin a day just to ward off any swelling but really would probably be fine without it. Harper was so alert and nursed so well immediately after birth and the pediatrician said that likely was due to not getting the epidural. I guess that's just an added benefit because prior to her birth, I would've said give me a sleepy baby over experiencing the pain ;) I was feeling so well afterwards that I begged to be released early and they did send us home Tuesday afternoon! The hospital is not a good place to get any rest at all so we were thankful to get sent home so soon! One question I've thought of is will I try to do it naturally for the next baby as well?? hmm... I guess it depends how quickly the next baby comes! I do know that I would not change a single thing about Harper's delivery. It was absolutely perfect and I could not have asked for anything better. All babies/pregnancies are different so I can't rule out an epidural for the next but I can say how great it was to have free movement and be up just a couple hours after delivery!

Here are a few pictures from the delivery but I will definitely be writing more updates soon to share pictures of Harper's hospital stay and her homecoming!! In my rush to get to the hospital on Monday I didn't get a final bump picture like I had hoped but I took one this morning with my new "bump"... definitely an upgrade to have my little bump on the outside :) I apologize for the mixed up order - I couldn't get them arranged how I wanted!

I also wanted to thank everyone for all their sweet texts, notes, cards, flowers and well wishes! We so appreciate everyone's support and cannot wait to introduce Harper to everyone!! We are doing great so for those of you in Lexington, come visit anytime and meet our little girl!!! :)