The Reynolds Fam: Happy Birthday Emma Kate!!

Our sweet girl is now almost a week old but it's hard to put a snuggly newborn down in exchange for a computer. I'm sure you all know by now but she was born May 9th at 5:47PM... the most perfect birthday present I'll ever receive!!

I know I joked last week about scheduling an induction but in preparation for our doctors appt on the 9th, we had decided we were going to ask to be induced on Monday the 13th. I was mentally prepared to enjoy the rest of the weekend as family of three and start the new week with a new baby! Well, on exam I was 5-6 cm dilated and 80% effaced so we bounced back and forth between going straight to the hospital to be induced or waiting the following morning. After a lot of discussion we decided we'd go ahead and head over to the hospital as it would ensure I would also receive a four hour course of antibiotics that I needed prior to delivery.

Well... I had such mixed feelings about that decision. I was holding back tears until I made it home to get my bags and then had a meltdown as soon as I walked in the door. Harper had made me the sweetest mother's day/birthday gift with our sitter and I just did not feel ready at all to go have another baby - and not to mention my house was a total mess and I really did not want guests under those circumstances. ha! Andy met me at the house and although he clearly preferred proceeding onto the hospital that afternoon, I just felt that I would be more mentally prepared and excited about everything if we could wait until Saturday morning. I called the doctor's office and they said that would be fine and just to come into the hospital the next morning at 8AM. They did ask that I run over to OB triage that afternoon for a non-stress test as I had mentioned that I had noticed the baby moving a bit less over the past couple days.

I felt good about that plan and headed to the hospital for what I thought would be a quick 30 minutes of watching baby's heartbeat and Andy went back to work for an hour or so. Well, they got me into triage and both the charge nurse and chief resident were like... umm.. are you positive you want to go home given my exam from earlier in the office? I just told them yes as long as baby looks good on the monitor I'll go home and come back first thing in the morning. So they got me all hooked up and I started watching the contractions on the monitor. I had four in the first 8 minutes I was laying there but they were not painful at all and similar to contractions I'd been having for weeks. Regardless, I had a feeling they were really going to pressure me to stay and by that point I had calmed down and realized that would totally be fine if that was what was best for baby girl. I had texted Andy a list of everything I needed just in case they made me stay and lucky for me, he had already packed everything into his car.

Around 5PM as I was laying there my water broke on it's own. I immediately called Andy who was just as shocked as I was but he immediately headed to the hospital during rush hour traffic. He is very proud of the time he made... 12 minutes... and says he was driving 70 mph down Winchester road.. haha. I seriously felt like crying for about five minutes because I was laying there, hooked to monitors with no one around for me to call out for help and at the same time the contractions were becoming much more painful. A little clerk popped her head in randomly and I told her what happened but she just said oh ok, I'll go get someone.... that never came. Fortunately, a few minutes later the same charge nurse happened to be walking through and I told her the situation of a previous precipitous labor so she got things moving quickly.

They wheeled me back into the L&D room and things began moving very quickly. I texted David asking him to run out to the car and get my camera since he happened to be in the hospital. Shortly after, Andy arrived and I've never been happier to see someone in my life. As they were taking me back they offered an epidural and while I thought I'd tough it out it had already gotten so painful so I said yes please. And dont ya know, the anesthesiologists were apparently all tied up in a big OR case and there was no one around to do it :( I was expecting this delivery to be much less painful given that I'd already been through it once but I can't say that was the case.

The attending was on his way over from clinic but didn't make it in time although another maternal fetal medicine attending did come in to oversee everything. We started pushing a little after 5:30 and she was born just a bit later. I don't think I could ever describe how amazing it is for them to place your brand new baby on your chest and you get to hold this tiny thing that has been with you for the last 9 months. It's also amazing how the size of your heart and love can instantaneously double when this new little person arrives. I felt so, so silly for all my tears earlier because it is clear that God has plans of his own and she came exactly when she was supposed to. I could not have been more thankful that I had been at OB triage when my water broke because I would have been an absolute mess driving into the hospital had it happened at home.

When Emma Kate first came out everyone kept commenting on how big she was... they were not kidding! She was 9lbs 4 oz! Harper was 7 lbs 6oz! I figured she would be a little bit bigger than Harper but not almost 2 lbs!! She's a solid baby but not a lot of rolls, just feels sturdier to me than Harper did. She definitely has a sweet little round face and a double chin to go with it. Her hair is much lighter, a light brown/blondish color and not as much as Harper. Initially we felt like she looked like Andy but by the end of our stay in the hospital we felt like she looks a whole lot more like a chunkier version of Harper :) We will see!!

She has been a dream baby so far. Sleeps and eats, fusses only when her diaper is being changed and for about two seconds before she eats. We really have had the best week at home, feels like a staycation! Andy has been off so we have made the most of our time doing fun things with Harper and spending our down time cuddling our two girls. I can't tell you how many times I've thought this week just how lucky and blessed we are to have these beautiful babies.

Harper has been great with the change. She asks to hold Emma Kate multiple times/day and is so gentle. Although when she's done, she is done and you better grab that baby quickly ;) She will occasionally try to sit on Emma Kate when she wants in momma's lap but I'm doing my best to ensure she gets plenty of one on one attention as well.

We went back to the doctor the day after discharge and her weight was down to 8lbs 11oz but as of today she's back up to 9lbs 1 oz. She is a great eater and I didn't realize how much I missed having a tiny baby around. I joked with Andy that during the delivery I thought maybe I was finished having kids but immediately after they put her on my chest I knew I wanted about 5 more ;)

Last dinner out as our family of 3