a page is turned: Reed is here!

Wow...sorry I have not updated the blog since Reed joined us in this world. My life has been a little crazy and I just can't seem to find the time to sit at the computer to get pictures uploaded and write. But I am doing it now!

Reed was born April 19th at 5:21am. He weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces (almost a pound bigger than Will!) and was 19 inches.

I was scheduled to be induced on April 20th, but I was really hoping that he would come on his own like Will did. On Sunday night, I thought I would make one last effort to see if I could encourage him to come on his own...so at about 8:30 that night, we went for a family walk. I wasn't having contractions or anything...but I thought maybe it would help. I'm not sure if that was what did the trick, but at about 11:30 that night I started having contractions, but I didn't think too much of it at first since I had been having contractions for several weeks.

I did catch Chris just before he fell asleep and told him that I was having contractions and we might be making a trip to the hospital that night. I don't think he thought much of it because he said okay and went to sleep. I stayed up and cleaned, got a few things together, and then took a shower. I finally laid down for a few minutes around 2am after I took a shower and the contractions were coming about every 3-4 minutes...so I woke up Chris, called my mom to come stay with Will, and we left for the hospital.

We got to the hospital about 3:15am and Reed was born at 5:21am! It went SUPER fast and I was kind of regretting wishing that he would come on his own. With Will, I labored all night (10pm until 7:23am) and it was easy. By the time it was time to push, I only had push a few times and Will was here. But since I progressed so fast with Reed, I was already dilated to a 9 by the time I got the epidural. Believe me, I was BEGGING for it long before I got it, but apparently it was a busy night and there were 4 people in line ahead of me to get an epidural. So I basically went through the worst part of labor naturally and the epidural did kick in a little by the time I was pushing, but I could still feel a lot. It never fully took effect...so that was kind of a bummer for me! So all that to say, that it was a totally different labor experience than what I had with Will and I was not expecting it to be that way at all! But we all survived!

Throughout my pregnancy I prayed and prayed that Reed would be a good eater because Will was not and that was really stressful for us for the first few weeks after he was born. Well, God answered my prayers and Reed has been a great eater and he is growing fast...again, unlike Will! Reed was already 8 pounds at 11 days old and seems to be getting bigger and bigger!

Reed is a really good baby. He sleeps a lot and really only cries when he is getting his diaper changed or getting a bath. He hates both of these things! He is also not a huge fan of being in the carseat. Once again, all of these things are different than Will. It is so funny how different they are already! Will loved the swing and the bouncer and while Reed will tolerate the bouncer, he isn't a fan of the swing at all. However, he will sleep in his cradle all day long...which is probably better anyway. We haven't moved him to the crib in his room yet because his room is right next to Will's room and I am terrified that Reed would wake Will up in the middle of the night. In my mind, there would be nothing worse than having both of them awake in the middle of the night and so far, it hasn't happened! :)

Most nights, Reed eats at 10 or 11 and goes right to sleep...then wakes up at 3am and goes right back to sleep and then he's up again at 6 or 7. Not too bad! I think Will only woke up once during the night when he was this age, but a lot of times it was hard to get him to go back to sleep. Reed pretty much goes right back to sleep very easily which is nice!

Will is really sweet to Reed and seems to really like being a big brother! However, it has definitely been an adjustment for him. Actually, we are all still adjusting to Will's new behavior. He seems to do a lot of things for attention now that he never did before. I'm sure it is normal...but it has been hard dealing with these new issues. I am just praying that we will all settle in soon and get adjusted to our new normal.

Well I guess I will stop rambling and post some pictures! We haven't decided if he looks like Will or not. At first, I didn't think he looked like Will much at all but then after we looked at Will's baby pictures, I started to think they do look alike. It will be interesting to see how Reed changes as he gets older.

First picture with mom and dad - only a few hours old!

Will meets Reed for the first time! Will was a little intimidated for a few minutes, but nothing a few donuts and pieces of chocolate couldn't fix! :)