Baby Reed! Warning..birth details included.

Ok, so i know it has been a while but things went from cramped and uncomfortable to full fledged amazing since we welcomed Reed Haskell Howse on October 26th, 2011. He decided to grace us with his presence the day before i was to be induced. How Perfect!!

I went in for a pre-induction visit to my wonderful OBGYN and was saddened by the fact that i had not made much progress , but still had been having contractions. I was sure i was at least a 6 (just kidding), but my contractions had been pretty strong so i was shocked that i was only a 2. The weekend before my visit to Dr. Martin, i had spent in Heber Springs, Arkansas at a beautiful wedding for our dear friend Casie's wedding. I was fully ready to hatch our little chicken any time and decided the best way to speed up the process was to spend the evening dancing in high heels and on feet at the wedding. I was prepared to shimmy him out to the tune of celebrate good times on the dance floor. No such luck. The only thing i achieved were huge feet, cramps, and a bad mood. It was a great wedding, though. Nathan and I spent the next couple of days going and doing, prepared at any moment to drop what we were doing and head to the hospital, but still nothing was happening. I was continually getting more and more anxious about the delivery and pain of the whole event, but even more anxious just waiting around not knowing when or if anything was going to happen before our scheduled induction. I also was being watched like a bag of popcorn popping by everyone around me....i was over it!!! Nathan knew he needed to get all of his sub plans and parent teacher conferences done before everything happened, so he did some double duty in the classroom as i did double duty around our house getting things ready. I figured i had till Wednesday night ...and all night at that since the induction was on Thursday and i figured i would be pretty nervous. I went to the Dr. on Tuesday to hear all about the induction and get checked one last time. I was still a 2 and still bummed, but i figured at least i knew that Thursday was the day and that Nathan could get his parent teacher conferences done and be ready to become a daddy. Well lucky me, not so lucky him...after feeling pretty lousy all day after the Dr's, we ate dinner with our friends at Zsa Zsa's and decided to go to bed pretty early. Nathan had been asleep about an hour when i noticed my first really intense contraction. I laid there for another hour or so and felt like my insides were being ripped apart. It felt NOTHING like my braxton hicks contractions. Whoever Braxton Hicks is should be sued since real contractions aren't even close to what Braxton Hicks contractions are....those were easy compared to the real thing....REAL EASY!! I laid down and tried to take my mind off of things, but within about 5 minutes i felt like i had peed the bed...but just a little bit. I was so confused, since in the movies, a women's water breaks and everyone knows it. I wasn't sure if mine had or not. That's what i get for thinking anything would be like the movies. I am really not that stupid..I blame the hormones. I continued to lay down until i couldn't take it any longer and woke Nathan and told him what was going on. After some pacing the kitchen, a dog who knew something was going on, a call to Labor and Delivery, we decided to go in and get checked. I full-heartily felt like they would laugh and send me home, but we went anyway.

Howse was born into the world. He was absolutely the most beautiful thing in the entire world. He became our world the very second we heard that first cry. Nathan was able to follow him over to the warmer and count all the fingers and toes....absolutely perfect. My Doctor told me that I would never have a harder delivery since Reed accidental came out face up. She said that most of face-up deliveries end up in emergency c-section. I was so relieved that i was able to push him out without the need for a surgery. Throughout my pregnancy I knew i loved Reed, but it was nothing compared to the immediate overwhelming love i felt once I saw him. I must say, I loved the immediate feeling of weight loss as well...but that's another blog for another time. Our Doctor had to run to her child's halloween party, so the other Doctor i booted out had to come back and finish all that needed to be done to me. She was very understanding...whoops.

All our family and close friends were in the waiting room and got to come in to see him, before i nursed. The looks on their faces said everything as they all filed in one after the other. We so overjoyed and exhausted all at one time. It was such an amazing experience. A couple hours later we met with Reed's pediatrician and he delivered some news that had me scared to death. He warned us that Reed might have a condition called Cranial Stinousis and might need a cranial operation in the next couple of weeks. Basically, they thought Reed's scull had already fused together in one spot that goes lateral across the front of his head. He said that most babies sculls are flexible to allow passage through the birth canal and that Reed's did not seem to be flexible. Nathan and I were dumb founded. They said that time would be a better indicator, but that they would do x-rays the next day. He said that my delivery was so difficult because of this condition. Here is the example they gave me..."It was like you had a 14cm steel ball coming through a 10cm opening." Isn't that a pretty example?!! I was able to feel the full effects of that example once my epidural wore off later that afternoon. They had turned it back on for me due to all the damage i had going on. We stayed in the hospital for another 30 hours or so, but decided to go home the next evening so that we could get some rest.

As of right now and after a doctor's visit, the are hopeful that Reed's head might just have overlapping plates and not fused ones. They have not ruled out surgery, but they have given us the green light to put the thoughts and stress behind us for now and to just enjoy are little miracle. We are doing just that!!! Nathan and I sit and stare at him from basically sun up to sun down. We fall more in love with him everyday, as well as with each other. We are celebrating out 1 year anniversary tomorrow and we both think that our beautiful boy is the perfect present we could ever give each other. We are getting back to normal life, but still we pray everyday for the health of our baby boy and the progress of his little head. I don't know how i would deal with anything other then a good clean bill of health. We definitely would appreciate any prayers that anyone would be willing to say on Reed's behalf.

I can't believe he is here!!! Those long 9 months with all the ups and downs and everything in between was so unbelievable worth it....hands down!!!!

p.s....ignore any grammer errors...im sleep deprived!!!!!