Reed's Birth Story- Part One: Is it time to go yet?

Thursday January 20th was my due date. I was still feeling quite good, sleeping well and my only real "complaint" was that I had been having regular contractions off and on for several days. At times they were as close as 4 minutes apart for a few hours at a time, but I knew that third babies are notorious for false labor and made the decision to ignore them. I knew that the real thing would demand my attention.

I went to work on my due date and had contractions off and on at work. Mostly, I kept up with my policy of ignoring them, which wasn't difficult. I did notice that a few of them were starting to feel just the tiniest bit more “serious” than the contractions that I had been having. When I got home that evening I noted that the contractions were 10-15 minutes apart, not super regular and still just “uncomfortable.” Nothing notable. In previous evenings I had had contractions that were closer than that for a longer period of time that didn't yield a baby. Yet, something about them was just a bit different and I went ahead and told Jonathan that maybe this would be the night.

I went to bed at 10pm and slept well until 1am when I had a few contractions I just couldn’t sleep through. I got up and took a long hot shower, which felt great. It seemed that the contractions were still about 10-15 minutes apart, but more intense than they had been earlier. They all but melted away in the shower and I still wasn't convinced I was really in labor. After my shower Jonathan started to get nervous. He kept asking when we should call labor and delivery. I wanted to do most of my laboring at home and was feeling quite comfortable and in no rush at all. I told him that they would probably want my contractions to be a little closer together and more consistent. We decided to distract ourselves by watching "Modern Family" on Hulu. I sat on my yoga ball and occasionally got up to walk through the contractions.

At a little after 3am things picked up enough to sufficiently convince me I was in fact in labor and we would probably need to leave soon-ish. We called the friend that would be watching our girls and then we woke the girls up and told them that baby brother was on his way. They were so sweet and excited. We pulled coats on over jammies and I gave them kisses and hugs on their way out the door. I remember sitting and hugging Juliana at the bottom of the stairs for an extra long moment, knowing that this was my last time kissing her as my "baby". I knew how big she would seem after welcoming a tiny one. While Jonathan was gone with the girls I called our doula and then called L&D. The nurse asked me how far the contractions were apart and I told her they were still a little irregular, but for the most part they were about 2-6 minutes apart. She asked what number baby this was and I told her it was number three.

“Oh, so you know what you’re talking about then,” she said.

I laughed and replied, "Well, I hope I do!" The nurse must’ve thought I sounded like I was in pretty good spirits and she casually asked when I thought I would come in. I told her we would leave in maybe 20 minutes or so and it would take another 20 to 30 to get there. She said “Sure, we’ll be ready for you whenever you arrive.” Jonathan returned from dropping the girls off and drank coppius amounts of coffee in an effort to stay awake. I decided to lay down and try to rest for a few minutes before we left.

This lovely mugshot (and final belly photo) was taken at 4:01am. Baby Reed was born 1 hour and 20 minutes later...

Conversations in this Whisler Household

Juliana: I want to go to outer space!

Gabriella: You can't.

Juliana: Why not?

Gabriella: Because then I would have to go with you and I don't want to go to outer space.

Juliana: Alright. I won't go without you.

I love my compression hose... and other tidbits from the final month of pregnancy

I thought it might be time to do a little "Baby Boy Whisler" update. What? I hadn't actually even posted that the baby is a boy on the blog? Oh dear, I really am behind.

I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow. That means I am officially "full term" and the final countdown has begun. I have to admit though, I'm still having a hard time really imagining that very, very soon we will have three children! I'm trying to envision myself taking Gabriella to school wearing my pajamas and not brushing my teeth for a couple days at a time. I think its good to try to be mentally prepared for such things.

This is probably the easiest pregnancy I have had. Zofran helped me survive the first 18 weeks and although it wasn't super fun, I barely even lost weight this time. Since then, it has been pretty much smooth sailing. I move a little slower and I get tired a whole lot quicker, but for the most part I feel pretty good. I'm even sleeping great... which is a huge blessing for an extremely pregnant mama.

I do have one lovely little gift that this pregnancy has given me... varicose veins. I noticed my first little varicose vein at 23 weeks and since then, things on my right calf have just not been pretty. I finally broke down and bought some knee high compression socks a couple weeks ago. I was amazed at how much better my legs feel since I started wearing the compression socks. They pretty much eliminate all the achey, burning pain that I was having in my legs. It has also greatly improved how they look, giving me hope that I might still actually be able to wear shorts again someday.

The girls are both still extremely excited. They love to feel the baby bump and roll in my tummy. They ask questions about him all the time and are just so in awe of the whole process. Juliana often crawls in bed with us at about 6am for some morning snuggles. One morning she sleepily curled up around my tummy. The baby shifted positions and I wondered if Juliana would even notice it. Without opening her eyes she laid her hand right on the spot on my tummy where the baby had moved and patted it gently. Moments like that are amazing and priceless.

So much of the last month has been about preparing for Christmas. Now we need to get ready for this little guy. We've crossed off a few of our big to do list items in getting a mini van and in moving the girls into the same room. The move actually went much better than I thought it would. I thought Juliana would pester Gabriella to death because she tends to be a little bit harder to get to sleep, but most nights they do pretty well (although I won't say there is never any pestering.) Now we need to do all those little things... house cleaning, baby clothes washing, hospital bag packing, getting some final baby items, etc...

I'm trying to slow down and remember to enjoy these final weeks with this little guy on the inside. This will be my last pregnancy and I want to be sure to record little details as I can and savor little baby rolls and kicks... and maybe savor a little bit of that sleeping thing that I mentioned earlier.

Pumpkin Patch

Just a few favorite photos from our October trip to the pumpkin patch...

Three skeletons, a doctor and a peacock.

Where have I been? Oh you know, making kindergarten lunches, helping with classroom parties, working, making a small human being from scratch, reading "Mama Rex and T" over and over and over to a toddler, negotiating toy disputes, going to work, running a photography business... the usual.

This year Gabriella decided to dress as a doctor for Halloween. I tried to suggest she dress as a doctor last year (knowing that she would get hours and hours of play time out of the doctor costume as she loves to play doctor.) However, if I remember correctly, I was shot down and told something along the lines of, "Thats not my cutest." This year I threw out several cutesy girly suggestions and Gabriella bounced around several of those ideas, but when we came across some cheap scrubs at Target she finally decided that it would indeed be very fun to go as "Doctor Gabriella." Add a white lab coat from the dress up box (a second hand find Aunt Amy made last year) and a photoshopped doctor ID badge and she made a pretty convincing MD. I have to admit, I was a little annoyed that we heard several, "Oh what a cute nurse!" comments while we were out and about. Nurses don't wear lab coats and I'm pretty sure that if she was a little boy in the same costume not one person would've assumed she was a nurse.

This face cracks me up. Clearly she is still not into having her picture taken... yet I have to admit that it is a very "Gabriella" expression.

At least she is smiling on her badge.

Juliana had a bit less say in her costume. Fortunately, her only real desire was to dress up as something... anything really and that made her pretty easy to please. She doesn't remember Gabriella's stint as a peacock two years ago and she was delighted with her costume. A good thing, because I really love the peacock costume. Do you think I can get away with putting their little brother in it? (Just kidding!)

I could just eat those blonde spiral pony tails for breakfast. Deliciously cute.

My costume was truly pulled together at the last minute. I needed something appropriate to wear for the kids at work on Friday so I googled for maternity costume ideas. Thursday night I took a black shirt and some cheap felt I had on hand and pulled together a darn cute "Pregnant Skeleton" in about an hour and a half. I used fabric glue to secure the tiny pieces of the baby skeleton to a piece of black felt and then very loosely basted the adult skeleton parts and the black felt square containing the baby skeleton to the black maternity tee shirt. Unfortunately, I ran out of felt and didn't get a chance to make arm bones and the adult rib cage was done very hastily (and the very loose basting started to fail me before long). Nonetheless, it was a really fun "costume" to wear.

(Yep, thats my belly in the vanity mirror of the van. You should always be sure to properly restrain your children in the car.)

And now... a whole ton more pictures...

16 weeks

Really its more like 16.5 weeks... but who is counting? (Other than me. I am totally counting.)

I finally drug Jonathan outside this evening to take a couple baby bump pictures. They are the first we've taken for this baby and I was starting to feel guilty that this poor third child was already suffering from a lack of pictures/ general documentation. Jonathan hates to be forced to take pictures and to be honest, I'm MUCH more comfortable on the other side of that lens. We both managed to make it through a few frames and I'm at least willing to post these two on the internet....

After Jonathan was finished with his official documentation he turned around and snapped this picture of the girls. They had followed us out of the house. Gabriella was brandishing a stick, and Juliana was clothed in a shirt, undies and a play silk. I love this picture. It is such a "partners in crime" picture. I'm so jealous that when Daddy is holding the camera they are evidently willing to ham it up. I guess I'll have to hand it over more often.

Summer Visits

My dad and Barb came and visited us two weeks ago. We hadn't seen them since we were last in Iowa. Miss. Juliana was just taking her first step then... the girls have changed so much. It was a good visit and the girls basked in all of the grandparental attention. Gabriella ate her body weight in spaghetti and Juliana gave away lots of free hugs. Also, Gabriella got a wedding dress, but that thing deserves its own post.


This is my favorite picture of my Dad with Juliana.