In case you hadn't heard, we had a baby!

It has been a crazy couple of months. Our son Reed was born unexpectedly 3.5 weeks early. I was due December 9th and he joined us on November 14th. We had originally thought I was due November 25th, so who knows. Maybe the first due date was more correct.

So here's a little bit about Reed's birth.

I had my 35-week check-up on November 8th. My doctor decided not to check to see if I was dilated yet since I wasn't quite 36 weeks. I was fine with that since I was still feeling pretty good. On Monday, November 12th, Addie got the stomach flu. It wasn't too much out of the ordinary since she's the type of kid who pukes a lot for no reason. On Wednesday the 14th around 2 a.m., I woke up with major stomach cramps. I texted Jimmy since he was working on an overnight shift up in Indianapolis (he was scheduled to be there for all of November. We really weren't planning on me going into labor with him gone, but in the off chance that it happened, I asked my sister to be with me in the delivery room). I just thought it was the flu, but he said to start writing down when I had the cramps in case they were contractions. I realized I hadn't packed my hospital bag yet, so I threw some things together just in case. I didn't sleep much the rest of the night because of the cramps. I started throwing up that morning and was MISERABLE. I laid on the couch all day and finally called my doctor's office around 11 a.m. I think at that point the pains were about 7-9 minutes apart, but they were coming and going. I was pretty sure at that point they were just Braxton Hicks and would go away. My doctor was out of the office, but her partner prescribed me some Zofran for the nausea and said to call back if I had pains closer together. During this time Jimmy was sleeping since he had worked overnight, so I decided not to worry him with any of this. I called my neighbor Josie to see if she could watch Addie if I needed to go to the doctor. She came by and checked on my a little later since she hadn't heard back from me.

Around 3 or 4 p.m. I dropped Addie off with Josie and went to get my prescription. The nurse called again to say that they notified the hospital that I may come since I hadn't had a chance to do my pre-registration stuff yet. I could barely walk in and out of the store without having a contraction. I was starting to worry a bit that this might be labor. When I got back, Addie had just thrown up all over Josie. I felt so bad! I guess she did still have the flu. Josie was really sweet and wasn't concerned about the puke at all. We went back home and I decided to give Jimmy's parents a call since I was in major pain and it wasn't going away. Neither of them answered (which added to my freaking out!), but Jimmy's dad called back right away. We decided that he would come watch Addie and Jimmy's mom would take me to the hospital to get checked out. (My sister's husband was still at work so I decided to call her later after we were sure what was going on.) I took the Zofran and it did help with the nausea, but by that point the contractions were pretty bad so I was still in a lot of pain. I finally called Jimmy to tell him what was going on. He looked up flights from Indianapolis, but there was only one more that day and it wouldn't arrive until late that night. We decided that if I was in labor he was probably going to miss it regardless of whether or not he made the flight.

Jimmy's parents soon arrived and Char drove me to the hospital. I remember my brother called on the way and asked how everything was going. I said something like, "Oh you know, I'm having contractions and might be in labor. We're just going to the hospital right now." He said good luck and he'd talk to me later. I had several more contractions in the car and as I was walking in. I started crying on the way in as I realized that Jimmy was probably not going to make it for the birth. We checked in and within an hour or so the nurse checked me and said I was dilated to a 5. I called Jimmy and told him it looked like I was in labor. He quickly grabbed some things and jumped in his car to drive to Kansas. I then called my sister, who called her husband to have him come watch their kids. Steph soon arrived and I got some liquids since I hadn't eaten anything all day. I kept asking when I could get the epidural since I was in much more pain than with Addie's delivery. They kept saying I needed more liquids. Char and Steph were great to sit by me and help me through the pain. And of course, we had some "Property Brothers" going on the TV to try and distract me (although I'm not sure if I saw any of it). My nurse was great and was really attentive. I was annoyed though that they kept telling me Dr. Boylan was about 15 minutes away for probably an hour or two. I finally got my epidural and was still in pain for awhile after. I was starting to doubt that it would even help, but it eventually kicked in after about 30 minutes. Dr. Boylan finally arrived as well and I started pushing around 9:15 I think. I hate how when you're having a baby they always say "one more push!" and it makes you think it will all be over in a second. But at least this was my second and I knew that wasn't true. It did take me awhile to remember how to push, but eventually I got it. After many pushes, Reed was finally out just before 10 p.m. Jimmy was on the phone with his mom and my parents were on the phone with Steph. It was so funny seeing Steph's reaction since she'd never witnessed a delivery before (and she always had C-Sections). She screamed and said, "Oh my gosh!" as Reed came out. We got him cleaned up and they said everything looked normal. I was relieved that he was healthy since he was born early. Jimmy arrived around 3:30 a.m. (making record time on the drive). It was so exciting to have him be there and he was so happy to meet his little boy. We were all exhausted and crashed as soon as they moved us to the postpartum room. It was a long day but we were so grateful that Reed had joined our family!