I will first start with the "winners" of the baby poll...that way, you can stop reading if you have no interest in the details of Reba's birth.
Winners of Date of Arrival: (they all guessed the 17
th)
GG (Great-Granny)
Aunt Katie
Christine Manges
Aunt Carol Shaw
Winner of Weight:
Molly Smiley ~ she guessed 7 lb 5 oz (Reba was 7 lb 4 oz)
Winners of Length: (they both guessed 20 inches)
Aunt Lisa
Jennifer
Foxx
Winners of Sex:
Jennifer
Foxx
Aunt Katie
Christine Manges
Stacia
Luh
Aunt Josie
Molly Smiley
Thanks again to all who played!
Now for Reba's birth story...
First, I will back up to the 6
th of November. At that appointment with Dr.
Smollen, I had began dilating some. Dr.
Smollen said that if I made progress by the next Wednesday, she would be able to induce me on Friday the 13
th. When I went for my appointment on the 11
th, I was still only dilated at 1. She suggested I move my next appointment from the 18
th to the 16
th because she would be at the hospital on the 17
th...if I made progress by the 16
th - she would be able to induce me on the 17
th!
Doug and I had already decided that if given the chance to be induced early, we would take it giving us the better chance of making it to Indiana for Thanksgiving. When I went to my appointment on the 16
th, I had in fact made progress and Dr.
Smollen gave us the go for induction.
We arrived at the hospital at 8 am on Tuesday, November 17
th. After getting signed in and changed, Dr.
Smollen came in to strip my membranes and to break my water. I was dilated to a 3 at that point and about 80% effaced. Contractions started right away! They were about 5 minutes apart, and pretty bearable. By 11:30 a.m. Dr.
Smollen wanted the contractions to be closer together, so they started me on a small amount of
Pitocin. The contractions slowly got to 2-3 minutes apart.
Dr.
Smollen checked me at 4 p.m., and I was dilated to a 4 and 100% effaced and baby had moved down the birth canal greatly. I decided at that point to get some
Nubain to help with the contractions. I was then able to sleep for about an hour. When I woke at a little after 5 p.m., I decided I wanted an
epidural. The anesthesiologist got to the room around 5:30, and the
epidural was in place around 6 p.m. As soon as Dr. Thomas (the drug lady) left the room, my contractions got dramatically stronger and longer! I was like, "I thought the
epidural was to take care of this!" The nurses said it would take about 20 minutes to take full effect.
Doug helped me breathe through those 20 minutes, but the pain was still very intense. I then had Doug get the nurse again, and she called Dr. Thomas back. It took 20 minutes before Dr. Thomas got back to the room. Thankfully, Doug was still there helping me breathe through those contractions. She asked the nurse if I had been checked recently. The nurse said no, and
proceded to check me. It was 6:45 p.m. and I was dilated to a 9! Dr.
Smollen came in at 7 p.m., and I was dilated to a 10 and ready to push. Dr.
Smollen left to scrub, dress, and call in the other nurses. We had to have extra on hand since I was delivering vaginally after a previous c-section.
I was able to start pushing about 7:05 p.m., and Reba was born at 7:19 p.m.! I did tear some during the birth and therefore have a few stitches, but all in all things went very smoothly and I have recovered very well.
Hopefully, I haven't turned away too many readers with my story.
Until next time...
This was taken on Saturday mid-morning after Doug's parents had headed home. Needless to say, we were all a little tired. It is nice to know that Dallas still likes to cuddle for a nap...It reminded me of this photo. Dallas was a couple months old here...
Miss Reba had a little bit of jaundice when we left the hospital, so she enjoyed sunbathing over the weekend to help break down the bilirubin in her system.
Dallas had to get his close up! Never mind the cut down his chin...he just ran into Gram Bergman's ring.
Miss Reba
Trying to get the two of them together...
We are off to Indiana tomorrow for Thanksgiving vaca. I'll post some photos when we return home and get settled back into the routine!
