Andrea Michelle Reese born May 7, 2014 at 11:51~ 7 lbs 1 oz ~ 21 inches
We are officially a family of four! Our sweet baby Andi joined our family on Wednesday May 7, 2014. Here is her birth story. :)
I was originally seeing an OB in Elko Nevada, but at 30 weeks switched to a high risk OB in Salt Lake City at the University of Utah hospital due to complications. Other than baby girl being breech until 36 weeks she was healthy and growing perfectly. It was more so an issue of my body not handling the pregnancy well. I had severe varicose veins on the left side of my body that appeared pretty much the second I became pregnant, and progressively got worse as the pregnancy went on. By 18 weeks I had to wear compression stockings 24/7 except at night when I slept, and at 30 weeks I stated getting blood clots in my leg and was put on blood thinners that I had to inject into my stomach twice a day. Not fun. I think i'm finally over my phobia of needles now. haha Not only do varicose veins look unpleasant, they are extremely painful. I couldn't stand for more than a couple minutes without being in pain. If it wasn't for the compression stockings, which helped ease the pain, I probably would have been bed ridden my whole pregnancy. In Sept/Oct I will have to get surgery to repair the veins.
At 34 weeks Ella and I moved to my parents house in Salt Lake City, so that my doctor could monitor me more closely. They also wanted me close by in case this babe decided to make an early debut like her sister (Ella was born at 36 weeks). Brandon unfortunately had to stay in Elko for work, but was able to visit us on the weekends.
At 35 1/2 weeks I started going into preterm labor in the middle of the night and had to go into labor and delivery. Luckily, they were able to stop the contractions with morphine and sent me home early that morning. From then on I continued to have strong contractions off and on for 3 more weeks until I was induced. They decided to induce me at 38 weeks because of the varicose veins. I didn't think little girl was going to stay put until my induction date, but she did which I was grateful for! I wanted to make sure she was fully cooked, and that her daddy was there for the deliver. I didn't want another NICU baby.
Wednesday May 7th was the big day. They had us check in bright and early at 5:00
am. They wasted no time, and by 6:00 am they broke my water, started IV fluids and the pitocin. I was dilated to a 2 and 85% effaced when I got to the hospital. The nurse continued to up my pitocin every hour or so to help me dilate. My mom, Michelle, and mother in law arrived around 9:30 am. Around 10:00 am I was in quite a bit of pain and decided I was ready for the epidural. The anesthesiologist couldn't do the epidural right away so they gave me fentanyl to help with the pain until I could get the epidural. The fentanyl made me super dizzy and loopy. Luckily it didn't take too long for the anesthesiologist to get there. Once the epidural was in I felt great and was able to relax a little.
Sometime after 11:00 the nurse came back to put in my catheter and check to see how far i'd progressed. My family went down to the waiting room while she checked me. I was only at a 4. Brandon and I made guesses as to when our little girl would arrive. I was guessing around 2:00 pm. I was definitely wrong. I was feeling nice and relaxed from the epidural and decided to try to take a little nap. Brandon went down to the waiting room to tell our family that I was going to try to rest. Twenty minutes or so later I was in excruciating pain. I kept hitting the button for the epidural and it wasn't working. I was in so much pain that I was literally bawling. The pain was near where the catheter was, so I thought maybe the nurse had put it in wrong. I told Brandon to call the nurse. The nurse came in and I couldn't even talk I was in so much pain. Brandon explained that I thought something was wrong with my catheter. The nurse had me lay on my back and checked me. The nurse looked at us and in a shaky voice said "There is a reason you are in so much pain. Your baby is coming right now." Surprise! The nurse seemed a little in shock. I don't think she had anticipated me progressing from a 4 to a 10 in 20 minutes!! I told them I couldn't do it, and that my epidural wasn't working. Apparently I had progressed so quickly that the epidural couldn't take effect. The nurse said by the time the anesthesiologist got there I would already have my baby. It was time to start pushing. The nurse made a call to the waiting room asking the Reese family to come to my room. They were literally walking in the room as I was pushing. They were just as surprised as we were. No one expected it to happen so quickly. Three hard, painful pushes (I felt everything) and she was here! She arrived at 11:51. I had her so quickly that my doctor missed the delivery, and a resident had to deliver her instead.
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| 7 lbs 1 oz |
She calmed down as soon as they put her on my chest. She reminded me so much of Ella as a newborn. It was love at first sight. Child birth is one of the hardest, most special experiences. I have never felt closer to heaven. I wish I could bottle that moment up. There is no greater feeling than seeing your baby for the first time. She latched on perfectly, which was a huge relief since Ella had such a hard time nursing initially. All in all the delivery went really smoothly, and there were no complications. I'm so grateful our family got to be there for the birth this time.
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| First photo with our little Andi |
It was a rough pregnancy, but the end result made it 100% worth all the pain and misery.
We are so in love with our sweet Andi. :)
