Enjoying the Journey

It’s all over and baby Reese is here! I know my husband gave the barest of facts in the previous post, but I could not just leave it at that, especially since everyone who was not here is hounding me for the story of how it all went down. So here it is, the whole story. That’s right-I’m about to talk about things like contractions, epidurals, and other birth-related topics. If that is too much for you please don’t read on… Read more »

I promise I am working on two drafts currently telling about Reese’s long journey to our arms and her first week of life. But I had to post quickly to tell about my night last night. It was a doozy. Reese decided that after a week of being an angel and so easy to take care of, that she should give us an eye-opening rough night. It started with her fussing and making “feed me” faces every hour from 8 pm on. When I say every hour I mean that it would take 45 minutes to feed and burp her and then 15 minutes later she was hungry again! I didn’t know what to do. Feeding her was the only thing that made her happy, and when I did feed her she ate ravenously like she was starving. Then she would take forever to burp, and squirmed around like she had burps she couldn’t get out. I thought she would get her fill eventually and crash for a good 3 or 4 hours of sleep. It never happened. This routine continued the entire night! You would think she would get tired at some point, but no.

In addition to Reese’s amazing appetite, I heard a strange noise at 2 am and upon further investigation found my husband vomiting uncontrollably in the bathroom. (Now for those of you who know Mark, this isn’t entirely unusual. He has some kind of stomach problem that causes frequent vomiting. But I had NEVER seen him like this before.) So between a fussing baby, and trying to comfort Mark who by now was writhing in agony, I had my hands quite full. Mark was convinced he had something contagious and wanted to go stay at his parent’s for the evening. I began to cry because the thought of handling the baby alone was terrifying and I was afraid that something was terribly wrong with Mark. I was convinced he should go to the hospital. We finally called his Mom and asked her to come pick Mark up and take him to the ER. At this point he was barely able to speak between moaning and groaning with pain.

I spent the rest of the night in the same endless pattern with Reese, only managing to snag an hour of sleep before Mark got back with his Mom. The hospital ran all kinds of tests and hooked him up to an IV with pain medication and anti-nausea medication. They had even done a CT scan to check for appendicitis. But they couldn’t figure out what was wrong and in the end they sent him home with some medication and a theory about it being some kind of intestinal infection, non-contagious of course.

So here I am running on less sleep than I thought possible. Reese is FINALLY asleep. Grandma Mac stayed and let me get a little more sleep before I had to take Reese to her first doctor’s appointment. She managed to get Reese to take a pacifier and that helped her stay calm. Mark is drugged up and feeling all kinds of yucky. Did I mention that today is his birthday? Bummer.

So that was my night last night. For you Moms who read this, any insight into whether this non-stop feeding thing is normal?

P.S. On the bright side, at Reese’s appointment I found that she has gained 7 oz. since leaving the hospital! The doctor couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t at all surprised.

62 hours of labor + 3 excruciating hours of pushing = 1 very tired mommy and one very healthy baby!

Reese Rae MacAskill was born on May 22, 2007 at 5:39 PM. She is 7 lbs, 12 oz. and 21.5 inches long. I’m sure Meghan will make a post soon detailing the whole experience, so I’ll leave that to her.

Pics here.

2 weeks! It’s all I can think about. Only 2 more weeks (maybe a little more if I’m overdue), and then I will be done being pregnant and living in this limbo of not working but not yet being a mommy. I can’t wait to see her.

All of the things I had planned on doing to get ready have been put on hold this last week as I have been sick with the worst cold I’ve ever had. Over a week and counting now, and I’m not talking about some minor sore throat or cough. I’m talking headache, sore throat, total congestion, coughing, and complete inability to function normally. Mark started it and he’s still sick 2 weeks later. I don’t know if I can take another week and more of this. Combined with my first experiences with Braxton-hicks contractions; I have been pretty miserable this last week. Last night when I started having minor Braxton-hicks contractions I panicked because I was thinking about all the things I haven’t accomplished yet that I need to do before the baby comes. She’s going to come when it’s time, not when I’m ready. So this week is when I need to do it all. Hopefully I’ll feel up to it.

My fabulous friend Jackie took some cute pics of me. For the record, I feel so unattractive and huge these days, but she convinced me to let her take some pics anyways, and thanks to her wonderful skills with a camera, I don’t look like I feel:) I will probably want to look back someday and remember what I looked like at this point, but that’s hard to imagine right now.