Reese's Birth

These pictures were taken just 4 days before my water broke. I was hoping when I took them that they would be the last pictures of me during this pregnancy. 

Saturday, April 8 at about 9:45 pm I was walking upstairs after putting the kids to bed and my pants were suddenly wet. I was unsure what had happened and thought maybe my water had broken, but I wasn't having any contractions. I told Chris what had happened and that I felt hesitant to go to the hospital because I wasn't having contractions. Over the course of the next hour I had a few more gushes of fluid, and felt more sure that my water had broken, but still thrown off by the fact that I wasn't having contractions at all. Chris talked me into going to the hospital anyway. It felt SO weird driving to the hospital and not being in labor. 

We got to the hospital at about 11:45 and I was 2 1/2 cm dilated and 75% effaced. After being in triage for about an hour we got the results back on an amni-sure test that confirmed my water had broken. Still no contractions, but we were admitted to the hospital at about 1:00 am. I got an IV and they started antibiotics since I was positive for Group B Strep. We waited for the antibiotics to run for a few hours before they started me on Pitocin at 4:30 am to induce labor. 

About 2:30 am, soon after we were admitted. Super excited that our baby would be here soon!

At 6:15 am our doctor came in and checked on us. I was dilated to a 4 and he broke the rest of my water. Over the next few minutes, my nurse noticed that the baby's heart rate was decelerating, so she checked me and felt the umbilical cord. She called the doctor to let him know that the umbilical cord had prolapsed, which means that the cord was coming out in front of the baby's head. This causes the cord to be pinched, and cuts off the baby's supply to life support basically. The doctor came rushing back in with about 5-6 other people who started running around preparing for an emergency c-section, while our doctor tried to manually reduce the cord prolapse. This means that he was trying to reach in and push the baby's head back, move the cord out of the way, and then let the baby's head come back to rest in front of the cord. It was pretty unbelievably painful while he was doing this, but we are so grateful that he was successful! At 6:30 when he started trying he said I was dilated to a 5. By the time he was done, around 6:45, he said I was dilated to a 7. He had me lay on my side and try to be very still so that the baby's head could start descending. We were worried that if I moved around, the baby would move, and the cord would prolapse again. 

He sat by my bed for close to an hour, watching the baby's heart rate and making sure she was ok. During this time, he had the anesthesiologist come in and give me an epidural, just in case we ended up needing an emergency c-section. I couldn't move because we didn't want to put the baby at risk, so he gave me the epidural while I was laying flat on my side. Since epidurals work with gravity, it wasn't quite able to work the way it is supposed to. I felt numb in my chest, arms, and stomach, but my legs and pelvis had full feeling. 

At 7:30 I was dilated to an 8, and I started feeling lightheaded and dizzy. My blood pressure had dropped to about 80/40 so I got a few boluses of  IV fluid. I started feeling nauseated and throwing up. I got some medication to help with the blood pressure as well. At 8:00 I was dilated to a 9 and still dealing with these symptoms. The nurses and doctors left my room for the first time during this whole ordeal so I could hopefully get a little rest. I was feeling pretty concerned and freaking out a little bit. I was telling Chris that I was so worried because I was throwing up and feeling like I would pass out at any moment, but the baby's life depended on me being able to push her out very soon. I was also realizing that the epidural wasn't going to work the way I was used to, and I was going to be feeling the entire delivery in my pelvis. 

Just as I felt like I was starting to be able to manage my symptoms a little better, at 8:45 the doctor and nurses came rushing back in because the baby's heart rate was indicating distress. My doctor checked me and said even though I wasn't quite a full 10 cm dilated, we needed to deliver the baby. He said he would just push it out of the way. He used a suction vacuum, and I pushed as hard as I could to get that baby out and save her life. A few minutes later, at about 8:58, Reese was born. 

I cannot describe the relief and gratitude I felt. I'm always emotional and overwhelmed with how heavenly my childbirths are, but this was to a level I hadn't quite experienced before. We were so grateful that our baby was ok, and that I had been supported through the harder things about this delivery and was able to get her here. I know I couldn't have, and definitely did not do it alone. I know that no matter how hard it seemed, I would do it all a million times again to have this precious baby. After she was checked and wrapped up and I was holding her, I could have just burst into a million pieces of love and gratitude! This is the best thing I could possible do, and I'm so grateful for Chris, and my kids, and the heavenly plan that allows me to do it. 

Reese Kimberly Brower

6 lbs 13 oz

19.5 inches long

Reese's poor little sore head from being suctioned. I felt so heartbroken about her sore until later when a nurse was telling me how good it looked. I was kind of surprised and said "Really??", and she told me that sometimes they have pop-offs, where the skin that they attach the suction vacuum to literally comes off! After she told me that, I was SO grateful for Reese's little sore, and that it wasn't much much worse!

One of the sweet nurses took these pictures of Chris putting on Reese's first diaper. I'm so grateful for them <3!

After she was born, my arms were still struggling to get feeling and coordination back. Chris had to help me when I was trying to hold her and feed her for an hour or so.

Sweet little baby girl

 Mia is always so sweet with her little cousins

This little boy has been the cutest cheeser lately. He keeps telling me to take his picture and giving me the cheesiest, biggest smiles. I love him so much!

Chris' Grandma and Grandpa Smith's anniversary celebration.

In the past week, we bumped Mia into a booster car seat, and Rhett into Mia's front facing car seat. He looks SO big sitting in it. Then just a few days ago he starting sleeping in a big boy bed and we moved the crib into the baby's room. It has been so CRAZY seeing how big Rhett looks in this bed, I've taken pictures every time he's slept in it, for naps and at night time because it just blows my mind that this is happening. He has been so perfect with the transition, and stays in the bed perfectly for every nap and bedtime! I can't believe how big he is!

His first time sleeping in the bed for nap time

Nap time the next day

Nap time today. I'm obsessed!

I didn't realize Mia had been taking these pictures of all of us just hanging out on my bed. I'm so pregnant right now that I'm most comfortable laying down on my side, so we were all hanging out in my room when Chris got home from work and Mia captured some pretty sweet little moments that I loved finding later.

Rhett came over to snuggle me

When Chris gets home from work…

I'm feeling more and more ready for the baby to come. We have her carseat and her new diaper bag packed with all her stuff right by the garage door. I've gotten out all of Mia's old clothes for the first 9 months, and they're all washed and unpacked in her closet. Her room is all ready for her to come home too. And most of all her sweet big sister is ready to be the best big sister (as always) and love all over her. She always wants to help whenever I have been going through/organizing things for the baby, and every day she goes in the baby room and stares at the clothes and shows me all the things that she thinks are so cute and the baby will love! We can't wait!

Rhett:

We usually go visit my mom once a week with my sisters who live close (usually Aubrey and Charise) and let all the kids play together at Grandma's. Recently when we were there I was talking with my mom and sisters and Rhett came up and asked me to put on 'How To Train Your Dragon' for him. I told him I'd do it in just a minute and kept talking. He waited a second and asked again and I told him the same thing. He finally got very stern, sat on my lap, put his little hands on my cheeks and said in his deepest most gravely voice, "WANT DRAGONS. WANT NOW!!!" 

We call Rhett "Rhett boy" pretty often, and the other day Rhett said "Oh dad boy".

"Wrecky Rhett dot hurt. Rhett tough. Like Wrecky Ralph."

"Mommy you fix it Jr. Rhett Wrecky Ralph."

We've struggled a little bit with getting Rhett to stay in his crib the past little while. Before bed, Chris will often give Rhett a 'little talk' about staying in his crib, and we heard Rhett saying it to himself over the monitor after putting him to bed one night. He said "No det out bed or daddy spank bum. Dot it? Dot it? Tay. Dot it? Tay!" He's just the cutest!

We went to a store and Rhett whispered in my ear, "Mom, let's det out of here."

We started having to lock Rhett in his bedroom to make bedtime and nap time more smooth. It worked wonders at home, but on a vacation we had him sleeping in a room with no lock, so I was sitting outside the door to keep him in until he fell asleep. Rhett got out of bed and came and tried the door. When he couldn't get out because I was blocking the door I heard him say, "Oh my het (heck), Oh my het!. Mom yock door!"

"I love you Brooklyn." 

"Ov you dad, want you dad. Ov oo much!"

Rhett "Mom, yuv dad too much.

Me "You love dad too much?"

Rhett "Ya, sink so."

One night Chris had put Rhett to bed, and Rhett had gotten out of bed and they were talking over the monitor. Chris was trying to get Rhett to get back in bed, and Rhett said, "You do to bed dad. You tired!"

On the phone with Chris, distraught that Chris had left for work, "Dad want you. Dad want hug you. Dad want tiss you too much. Dad love you too much!"

Chris "Rhett are you going to go potty on the toilet?"

Rhett "No. Too hard. Rhett fall."

After I told Rhett and Mia they were doing really good with something Rhett said, "Mommy doing really good."

Mia:

Rhett and Mia were jumping around on the couch when I was in the kitchen, and all the sudden Rhett disappeared and fell the the ground. Mia and I both gasped and Rhett just popped up and said "Rhett ok." Mia said, "I was really worried you got a bad owie Rhett. That would be horrible!"

"OOOH! I LOVE the way you look mom!"

Mia asked me what a word meant, and after I explained it to her she said, "Hmmm, that sounds odd. I don't know what odd means, but that's OK."

"Dad, I really love you and like what you look like and what you voice sounds like REALLY badly!"

Rhett kept saying "Want milk! Want milk!" one day, and Mia came up to me and said, "We will teach that boy to be grateful."

"Awe shucks mom, I love you so much!!"

"Ooohhh. What a long week it was a long time ago when we got me this carseat." Oh the life of a 4 year old…:)

Mia has been obsessed with eating plain slices of bread lately. I try to get her to eat other stuff, but the other day I had let her have one and she said "Mmmm! What a treat!"

Mia had gotten in trouble for something during the day, and when I was putting her to bed she asked me, "Mom, do you still love me when I make bad choices?" I told her that of course I do. I tried teaching her that the reason we try to help her make good choices is because we love her so much and we want her to be happy. I usually sing her a song before bed, and when I asked her what song she wanted, she said 'I'm trying to be like Jesus'. I was singing it to her and when I sang the line "at times I am tempted to make a wrong choice" Mia said, "Sometimes I'm tempted to make a wrong choice." We talked about how everyone feels that way, and sometimes it's hard, but we are all trying really hard to make good choices even when we feel that way. I told her she was doing a really good job and if she just keeps trying that will make Jesus really happy. It seemed to wild to talk about such big things with my little baby girl