Baby Reed's arrival.

This is the story of Reed's birth - may it be joyfully recounted every April 29th around the birthday dinner table! Reed entered the world in a much less uncertain and dramatic way than Quinn; due to a number of considerations, my ob-gyn and I decided that scheduling a repeat Cesarean for this baby was the safest and best option, so we had April 29th circled on the calendar for a month or so beforehand. We had a growth ultrasound at 39 weeks that showed the baby measuring large again, so I felt good about our plan. We got up that morning and took Quinn over to my mom's house, where Whitney and Sam would be taking care of her for the duration of our hospital stay (thanks guys!!). Then it was off to the hospital.

We got checked in at 10:00 a.m. and the nurse inserted my IV and chatted with us for a bit. Then the nurse anesthetist came in and gave us the run down on how everything would proceed in the OR. Around noon, it was time to head down! We walked to the OR, me pushing my IV and the nurse holding a second gown over my back so I didn't moon everyone on the way down. Spenser joined us after he got dressed. They got right to work inserting my spinal. They gave me some sort of numbing agent first, which was probably the worst part of the whole process - it felt like I got shot in the back with a staple gun, then painful burning up and down my back. But shortly thereafter I was numb from the waist down and things got going. My obstetrician, Dr. Dion, did the delivery, with Dr. Hoffman assisting.

It is really interesting to listen to the surgeons and nurses and anesthesiologists do their thing (I guess a Cesarean is probably one of the few surgeries where the patient is conscious enough to witness that sort of interaction). Eventually I heard my doctor say "delivering the baby," felt an enormous pressure, and heard her first little wails. That is the most incredible and humbling feeling, EVER, to know that another little life has just entered the world...and you're accountable for it...wow. With both my babies, I really felt the weight of that when I heard their first cries. Reed DeLong was officially born at 12:29 p.m., weighing 9 pounds 1 oz and measuring 22 inches long!They held her level with my uterus for a few minutes before cutting the cord, then brought her around to give us a look before she got wrapped up and had her assessments. Spenser was able to be with her at that point while they finished up with me.

Reed got an 8 on her first Apgar and an 8 on her second as well. She didn't get a 9 the second time as a result of some respiratory issues (her oxygen saturation levels were a little low). I was told that these issues are pretty common with Cesarean births, because when a baby is born vaginally, the act of passing through the birth canal compresses her lungs and that pressure expels fluid, whereas during Cesarean birth no such squeezing of the lungs really occurs. So this wasn't really too serious of an issue, but they erred on the side of caution and took her to the NICU for a few hours to monitor her oxygen. I was sooooo anxious to snuggle and feed her - but it had to wait. Thankfully, I was pretty out of it due to the lovely intravenous narcotics I was receiving, otherwise it would have been true torture, haha. Also, I had a bad reaction to the spinal and was really sick and throwing up for a few hours, so I was probably pretty useless anyway. Spenser got to be with her the whole time and eventually the three of us got settled in our room.

Things went pretty smoothly for the rest of our hospital stay and we were thrilled and ready to leave by the end of it. People always want to know how Quinn is handling this transition to being one of two, rather than the center of everyone's universe. I would say she is handling it pretty well. She hasn't done anything aggressive toward the baby (or "mei mei," as we have coached her to call her), nor has she done anything particularly sweet and affectionate. For the most part she seems pretty indifferent. :)

I'm biased, but Reed is such a sweet little baby. She hardly every gets really cranked up - she's so mild! - and although she wakes up frequently to eat during the night, she generally goes back to sleep. Ok! Now that you have survived this novella, here are some pictures: