Reece Tovrea Evans

REECE TOVREA EVANS

 Monday August 31, 2015

9:42 pm

7 lbs 9 oz 21 inches

THANKING GOD FOR A HEALTHY BABY BOY AND A SAFE DELIVERY!

Monday morning rolled around and there were no obvious signs of labor progressing. Up until that point I had had contractions after changing elevation, spin classes, weight training sessions, and long walks but they would always stop later the same day they began. 

On Monday, I went on a short walk around the complex during Ember's nap (around 3 p.m.). I felt nothing right after - not even the normal Braxton Hicks (BH) contractions. We always have dinner with our good friends on Monday nights so Ember, Maci, and I headed off around 6 pm to pick up Chipotle and meet them and Dustin at their house after they were all done with work. On the drive over, I started feeling a few contractions but they felt about the same as the BH contractions had been feeling.

We sit down to eat dinner and the contractions started to become a little stronger and I barely ate my dinner because it just didn't sound great and I wasn't feeling normal. After dinner, we were hanging out and chatting and the contractions were progressing to the point where Dustin looked at me and asked if I was ok because of the look on my face at one point. We decided we should go since I had to drive my car home and was becoming more and more uncomfortable. I was beginning to have to breathe through the contractions because of the pain and had between 3-4 on the 10-12 minute drive home. We got home around 7:30.

Dustin told me to start timing the contractions just to know where we were at. I was beginning to have to sit or lay down during the contractions. In between them, I was trying to finish packing my hospital bag, print out Ember's schedule cheat sheet I had made, and help get Ember down for bed. Meanwhile, one of our homemade Kombucha batches had leaked about 16 oz all over the floor and we were trying to clean that up, call my parents to let them know it seemed like it was "go time", and asking our neighbors if they could watch Ember till my parents got up here that night while realizing that my contractions were coming between 2-4 minutes apart. 

Once we got everything in order, we headed for the hospital, The contractions at this point were definitely painful and I was unable to talk or walk through them, My body was starting to shake during some of them because of pain. We got to the hospital at 8:45 pm and Dustin runs in to get a wheelchair since I am having trouble walking during the actual contractions. He runs in an open door and "steals" a wheelchair to bring back down ... shocking the nurses in the labor and delivery ward. 

We get up to the labor and delivery floor and they immediately have Dustin start on some of the checking in paper work and they have me get on a hospital gown and try to do a urine sample in a sort of  holding room for women who are not quite ready to deliver. I get these tasks done in between contractions and as soon as I get back in to the room, my water breaks (sounding just like a water balloon in Dustin's opinion) all over my socks and the floor. They immediately move us to a delivery room.

They strap on monitors to my tummy to make sure the baby is doing ok and he is doing just great. After a few tries and a little mess they get an IV in my arm in case of an emergency or to easily give medicine if needed. At this point, I have still not been checked for dilation but the contractions are becoming extremely painful to the point of me starting to think about some type of pain relief. (You must remember that once arriving at the hospital when in labor with Ember - it was still 12 more hours before she was born! I knew I couldn't do 12 more hours of this pain!)

Suddenly, after still not being checked, I feel a small urge to push. This is something that never naturally happened with Ember. I told the nurse and she said that that was a sign that it was probably almost time to push! She finally checked to see progress and said that the cervix was almost completely dilated. After hearing how close I was, God helped me find the will power to relax through the contractions and keep as calm as you can be during labor. The doctor came in to check on us (and meet us!) and instructed the nurse to push the call button when it was time. 

In a matter of minutes, I was really feeling a strong desire to push and the nurse checked again and said the cervix was out of the way and it was time to go. She pushed the call button and said "Come on back, the party is starting!" Everyone came back in and after three contractions worth of pushing - Reece Tovrea Evans was born at 9:42 pm.

I was thankful to get immediate skin to skin contact this time around for at least an hour and Reece started suckling and latched on during this hour. Praise God! I wouldn't trade those first moments for anything! 

Then they took care of him - got him weighed and cleaned up a little better.

Then Daddy got to hold him for the first time.

They got me cleaned up and stitched up (thankfully only one small tear) and we were up in a recovery room by about midnight. The nurses were really good about not bothering us too much during the night to check our vitals. Reece slept some, cried some, and struggled eating for the first little bit of the night. Around 4:30 a.m., he latched on and ate some more and then slept for a longer period. Dustin and I both didn't sleep because of the excitement and newness of everything.

In the morning, Reece got his first bath. He was not a huge fan of it,

Then Big Sister Ember and Grandma and Grandpa Flin started the flood of family and friends that visited our new addition at the hospital that day.

Ember got to open her Big Sister present from her baby brother

And we got our first picture as a family of 4

Mima stopped by shortly after to meet her newest grandson (unfortunately Pappy couldn't make it because he broke his leg a few weeks earlier and getting around is difficult) 

Reece doing what newborns do best :) 

Thankfully, I was feeling great and I was having no trouble moving around and walking. So, since we knew we would sleep better in our own bed - we requested they let us go home Tuesday night. They agreed but there were some tests that had to be done on Reece when he was 24 hours old. Since he wasn't born till 9:42 at night, they couldn't begin these tests until that time. Thankfully, he passed them all and Reece's pediatrician gave us the go ahead to go home. 

We arrived home with our newborn son around 10:45 p.m. We were exceedingly thankful to God to be home with our healthy baby boy to begin life as a family of four! We had hoped and prayed for this baby for over a year and God granted us what we had prayed for! And we never want to take his goodness to us for granted in giving us our little Reece!