Our Newest Addition!

Reagan Olivia Aston-Reese

July 11, 2010
11:12am
7 pounds 14 ounces
20 inches

On July 11, 2010 we were blessed once again with a beautiful daughter. Three days after her due date, Reagan Olivia finally made her appearance!

I guess it all began with me telling my parents that I was nervous about going into labor after a long day of doing things. I thought I would never be able to make it through if I had just spent an entire day awake doing things and didn't get any sleep before things started. I should have never mentioned it...does speaking your fears out loud make them come true?

I woke up Saturday morning and being 2 days past my due date, I decided that I wasn't just going to sit around and wait for baby to be born. I was going to keep busy. I cleaned the bathroom, did the laundry, vacuumed the house, dusted the blinds, and then had an impromptu cook-out with Todd's family at our house. My dad and Todd put up a railing in the front of our house. My mom was looking out for Jocelyn. It was a long day and I was tired at the end, and ready for bed. I went to bed a bit late that night, around 11:30. Todd and I were laying in bed talking for a little while when he fell asleep. It takes me a bit longer to fall asleep with a giant belly, so I was trying to get comfortable when all of the sudden I got a contraction. It wasn't unusual for me to have a contraction, so I let it pass and tried again to get comfortable when I had another contraction. After a few more I started timing them. For about an hour they were 4-5 minutes apart. I woke Todd up and told him I was going to take a shower just in case. He wasn't really coherent and thought I was crazy. I took a shower and the contractions continued. I went back to the bedroom where I turned on the light, which didn't bother Todd in the least--he continued snoring--sat on the side of the bed with a note pad, pen and my "What to Expect When You Are Expecting Book" open to the page with the symptoms of false labor. Every time a contraction started I would write down the time. For the next hour the contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart. I woke Todd up, kind of. It's hard to wake him when he hasn't been sleeping for more than a couple of hours. I believe I told him I was having contractions and his response was, "I'm just trying to close my eyes!" Eventually he became a bit more coherent, but he still didn't believe that I was in labor. I asked him to time my contractions, which he did and they were then 2 minutes apart. He believed me after that. We called the doctor and headed to St. Clair Hospital. Thank goodness my parents were here, so we could leave Jocelyn soundly sleeping in her bed!

We arrived at the hospital around 3:15am on Sunday, July 11th. We remembered being told to park in the Emergency lot when we were pregnant with Jocelyn, but we figured that I was fine enough to park in the regular lot and enter the hospital through a main entrance. Being the middle of the night, the main entrance ended up being locked and we were stuck in the parking lot because a token had to be purchased to leave. The only place to buy a token was inside the hospital. We had to walk completely around the outside of the hospital to the Emergency room. When we got to the door, there were two valet drivers sitting there saying we should have just pulled up and they would have parked for us! HA! Oh well, the walking probably did the baby good...

We finally made it to Labor and Delivery. The nurses seemed excited to see us. It was a slow night. They didn't have any other patients in labor. We got set up in a room and they began the admission process. I kept asking if they were going to keep me and they seemed to think I was silly. Once we knew for sure we were staying, we made a couple phone calls and let things begin. I was hooked up to the monitors, you could see that I was contracting regularly. I was about 6-7cm dilated and the nurses couldn't believe I was as pleasant as I was. The contractions hurt, but they weren't anything overly horrible. I must have a high tolerance of pain or something. The nurses asked me if I was open to receiving an epidural and I said yes. They called right away, and about an hour later the anesthesiologist was there, but I probably could have lasted a bit longer without it. I was worried, though, that it would become too late, and I would rather not feel the pain of actually pushing the baby out, so I got it. The doctor came in and told us to rest for a couple of hours and that she would be back at 7am. I tried to go to sleep. Todd had no problem. I was about to have a baby--I couldn't sleep, so that meant I hadn't slept in about 21 hours. I did dose off a couple of times, and during one of those doses, my water broke. I had no idea until I saw the sheets getting wet. My epidural worked very well! After a little while, my epidural wore off enough that I could feel a little of what was going on, but not enough that anything was painful. The doctor broke a second bag of waters and soon after I was feeling the pressure to push. I told the nurses, who felt that the baby was right there and ready. There was a flurry of activity preparing for delivery. I pushed for 5-10 minutes and Reagan arrived!!!

I feel so lucky to have had two really easy deliveries with my girls. It almost makes me think I could do it once more. Almost...

So Reagan was here! At 11:12am they put her down on my chest and I instantly fell in love with her. There she was. The little baby that was pushing around inside of me for the past couple of months. I was so happy to finally meet her. They took her away to clean her up and make sure she was ok. She scored 9s on both of her APGARs and was a healthy 7lbs 14 ounces, 20 inches long. A full pound heavier than Jocelyn, but the exact same length. She is beautiful, just like her sister and we are so excited to add her to our family!