Eva's Birth Story

So this baby girl decided that when she was going to make her entrance into this world she was going to make it one nobody would forget!  This pregnancy was Totally different than my pregnancy with Landon. I was exhausted all the time, I felt ginormous at like 4 months, and she was CONSTANTLY on the move! Other than the gestational diabetes that I could control with my diet, I was still blessed with a pretty uneventful pregnancy.

As it got closer to my due date, I kept asking my Dr..(Dr Swisher at Physicians to Women who I absolutely Love) if he was going to induce me early since Landon was such a big baby and 2 weeks early. He kept telling me "we'll see, we'll see"..Well, 38 weeks came and went, and he told me that he wouldn't induce until 39 weeks "IF i made it that far".. So thursday, Sept 1st I went back for my 39 week check up. I had been 4 cm dilated for about 2 weeks, and he said my cervix was 'rip roarin ready to go' (that explains alot about her birth), and he decided to strip my membranes to speed things up. He then told me that if I didn't go into labor on my own, to come back to him in 24 hours, and he would send me on tot he hospital since he was on call. That made me feel a TON better knowing that he would be the one to deliver our girl.  On the ride home from Roanoke (an hour and 15 mins) I was feeling pretty uncomfortable, but no major contractions. After talking about it I convinced Jonathan that I would feel MUCH better if we spent the night in Roanoke just in case I was to go into labor over night.  So we got home, and got everything together, and Landon packed for the weekend with grandparents, and headed back to stay at the Hotel Roanoke. We got back to roanoke around dinner time so we decided to eat at Olive Garden which is Jonathans favorite. As we sat down at the table the waitress came and said "Hello, my name is Eva, I'll be taking care of you tonight. OH my you look like you are due very soon!" and I told her that we were hoping to be induced on friday. She asked if we had a name picked out, and I said "Actually, it's going to be Eva!" It was crazy that we had her as our waitress that night, and of course she made us promise we would bring our Eva in once she got here. From there we went on to the Hotel, and it was super nice. They put us on the first floor after Jonathan explained the situation we were in, and the valet even kept our van parked right in the front circle of the hotel in case we needed it in the middle of the night.  I hope we can go back there again sometime for sure.

The night was uneventful, except for all the pressure I had been feeling for the past couple of weeks. My Dr. appt wasn't until 130 that afternoon, so we checked out and went to Chik fi La for lunch, and went to Dicks to browse around for a while. (Jonathan in the golf section of course) After that we headed on to the dr. apt.  Once we got in to see Dr Swisher, he checked me again and said head on over to the hospital, I'll see you when I go on call this evenin! By then my emotions were going crazy because I knew we would get to meet our baby girl sometime today. We had to go in through the ER, but since Christy (his nurse) had already called over they had my room ready.  We were taken right on up to labor and delivery and got me settled and all hooked up.  The Dr. on call came in, and she was super nice, but said since Dr. Swisher was coming in that she wasn't going to do much along the lines of progressing things. I had a super nice nurse and things were going smoothly.  Ashleigh and Kathy were in roanoke so they stopped by to visit, and Carrie is a PA in the hospital so she came up while she was working to visit too. They stayed for a while and then when everyone left Dr Muskgrove came in and said she had texted Dr. Swisher and he said to go ahead and break my water. That was about 5:30pm. She broke my water and I immediately started feeling contractions, nothing too major, but my nurse gave me some IV narcotics to take the edge off. I told her I didn't feel like I really needed my epidural yet.  Jonathan went down to get some coffee and I was just watching tv, and could tell my contractions were def getting alot stronger. By 10 till 5 I told him to go find my nurse I needed my epidural. Now keep in mind I'm the one that joked to all my friends that I was ready for my epidural as soon as the pregnancy test showed postive. Jonathan went out in the hall to find my nurse but apparently there was a csection going on in the OR and my nurse had scrubbed in for that since last she checked me I was at 5cm and fine.  By the time he came back in I def knew that I couldn't wait and I hit the nurse call button, one came in and I told her I was feelin pretty rough and even felt like I needed to push. She said "let me just check you and we'll get your epidural on its way". When she proceeded to check me her eyes got about as big around as 50 cent peices and she said "honey, your gonna have this baby in about 3 more contractions!" All I remember is being like WHAAAAT, and Jonathan saying "its ok you can do it"...whoa..what..a baby with No epidural?!?! ahhhh.... That nurse yelled out the door and about 3 other nurses came running as well as Dr Muskgrove, they were trying to gown up and get ready and they didn't even have time to get the bed broken down and the stirrups up, because by the time the Dr sat down one nurse said "Look down honey her head is already out!" I was stil in shock this whole time, and I have no clue how I did what I did, but at 6:07 pm, 37 minutes after my water was broken, Eva made her debut into the world.  Me=still in shock. I had some tearing and another lady came in to do the sewing becuase the Dr had to run to another delivery. Poor thing had quite the eventful evening. They took Eva to weigh her and do her apgars, which were 9 both times(thats my girl), and she weighed 7lbs 6oz. She was tiny compared to Landon! I remember the nurses kept telling me how awesome of a job I had done, but I stll couldn't beleive it. I think it hurt worse when they were pushing on my stomach after I delivered the placenta than it did actually giving birth. Who knew.  She also started saying she had never seen a knot like that before, and when I asked what she was talking about, there was a "true knot" in her umbilical cord. When they showed me, it looked like a boy scout knot that she had tied to get a badge. The nurse siad she must have done it early on when she could still flip around and it amazes me that with that she still was able to get everything she needed!

About that time Dr Swisher came in and was like "WHAT happened?!?! You were supposed to wait on me!" They told him that even if they paged him he wouldn't have made it up the elevator in time for her to get here. Crazy. My poor nurse came running in still in here stuff from the OR and couldn't beleive that she missed her being born! I told her I had no clue it was gonna happen like ;)

When they did shift change my nurse coming on was Kerrie who is from Covington and I'm friends with. She was hoping she would get to be my delivery nurse, instead she was going to be discharging me down to the mother baby floor! I texted Carrie to tell her to come see Eva before she got off work and she couldn't beleive that she was already here. Don't worry, none of us could!  By 8pm we were down on the 12th floor and settled in a room. I could not and still can't beleive how Good I felt after all of that ordeal. I could get up on my own, and walk around, and even Jonathan kept saying how much better I looked than I did when Landon was born. I guess you don't realize how much of a toll the drugs do take on your body, but now that it's over I'm proud to say I had a baby minus the epidural. Now would I do it again? Haha I'll get back to you on that.....

So obviously it's been quite a while since I've updated my blog, and alot of things have happened! We had a good summer, and basically just spent it preparing for the arrival of the new addition! On Sept. 2nd, we welcomed our baby girl, Eva Brooks to the world. I will have to dedicate a whole blog post to how she got here because it was a doozy! She is of course beautiful and we are very blessed to have two healthy babies.  Landon started Nursery school the following week and so far is loving it. I will try to be better and update more often because I find myself wishing I could remember things that I didn't write down. For now, here is a picture of Miss Eva Brooks

Marriage Questions

Marriage Questions I found this on a blog I read and thought it was cute. Have fun and try to remember :) How long have you been together? We have been married for 6 years this past March, and together for about 6 and a 1/2 years ;) We got engaged after about 5 months of dating.. How long did you know each other before you started dating? We had known each other Forever..literally..thats what made it so easy, we didn't have to go through that "getting to know each other phase" haha Did you go to the same school? yepp..he was a year behind me in school, but we were always good friends. I even sat with him on the baseball bus almost every away game since I did the books for baseball. Who is the most sensitive? oh definately me. Im a crybaby. What about pets? We live in a zoo. We have 2 dogs, and 3 cats, and we would have even more if our house could hold them. Jonathan can't say no to an animal in need..haha Where do you eat out most as a couple? When we go out together, we go to Cat & Owl for date night. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Lincoln, Nebraska for a VT/Nebraska football game. It was a super fun trip Who has the craziest exes? since I don't really have any. Him. Haha one in particular comes to mind who hated me when they dated in high school, and I wouldn't have even known her if she was standin beside me. Who has the worst temper? Jonathan wins that one for sure..haha Who does the cooking? Jonathan. I'm not a fan of cooking what so ever, altho I make a mean hamburger helper..haha Who is more social? Definitely me..Jonathan says I think I'm still in high school and try to do as many clubs and activities as possible..haha Who is the neat freak? me. I am VERY OCD..its bad... Who is the most stubborn? ehhh that could go either way. We both have a TON of stubborness in us, and Landon isn't too far behind.. Who hogs the bed? I get blamed for that. I can't help it that I think I should be able to sleep in the middle. Who wakes up earlier? on the weekdays I do since I have to get ready for work. But on the weekends I try to stay in bed as long as possible.. Where was your first date? I feel like our first "official" date we went to Roanoke and ate at TGIFridays How long did it take to get serious? haha not long. Like I said we knew each other, so after we got over the feelings of "do we really like each other like that?" it didn't take long.. Who eats more? We both enjoy eating :) Who does the laundry? Me. All the time. Boo. Who drives when you are together? Him, unless I want to go through a drive-through and he is the worst drive through orderer because he gets mad that I yell across him asking for extra ketchup and condiments..haha Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong? neither one of us. lol. Who wears the pants in the relationship? he wears them..but I give my share of lip..haha Who eats more sweets? Me..He rarely eats sweets unless somebody bakes him a cake or we go out to dinner he'll get dessert sometimes..

Surprise!

We found out in late December that we would be adding a new member to our family! A few days after Christmas I decided to take a test, and it was early in the morning before I went to work and much to my surprise there were 2 pink lines! I ran in to ask Jonathan what he saw, and he basically woke up out of a sound sleep, in the dark, and said "What?! I can't see anything its dark and I dont have my glasses on!" Haha. After getting him up we both decided there were two lines. Of course I felt waves of emotions because we definately wanted Landon to be a big brother, but we decided we would wait to tell anyone until after a dr. appt. Unfortunately the next day we had to take a moment from celebrating a new life, to celebrate a different one, for his Grandaddy Keith. He passed away on December 29th after being in the hospital for a few short days. We were there with him, and although I know it was hard for Jonathan to watch, he was in a much better place, and reunited with Granny Jane. We all laughed through the tears betting that she was waiting on him at the gates of heaven saying "Well Keith where have you been?!"

We decided to tell our parents before the Dr. appt because it was going to be hard to convince everyone that Jonathan was just going to happen to go with me to the dr. When we went in for the ultrasound the tech was doing all her measuring, but I could tell she wasn't seeing what she thought she was going to see. I had estimated that I was already 8 weeks along, according to my last period and all the "charts", but she said all she could see was an empty sac and she was sure I was just not as far along as I thought and that we needed to come back in two weeks to re-check things. Of course I freaked out, and worried the whole two weeks. It's just what I do, but Jonathan kept reassuring me everything was going to be fine. We went back on Jan 24th for another ultrasound, and luckily had the same tech. As soon as she started the ultrasound she said- "Yepp, I knew it, theres that baby just like I thought it would be", and I think both me and Jonathan had a sigh of relief(even though he probably wouldn't admit it ;) We heard the heartbeat and she said everything looked good and measured great and put my due date at Sept. 9th. Please join us in praising the Lord for this miracle and praying that it will be a healthy baby!

Boo on the 24 hour bug.

This fella has been my new Bff for the past 48 hours. About 2am Sunday morning I woke up with a little queezy feeling in my stomach so I ran to the bathroom..needless to say, I spent the next 4 and 1/2 hours in there. Ugh. Sleeping in the bathroom floor with towels as pillows and a sheet covering me up was not the most pleasent, but I didn't even have the energy to get up and go back to our bedroom. Sunday my WHOLE body ached and I couldn't even get out of bed. I just wanted to drink but I knew I could just sip on ice cold ginger ale and try to rest. Landon was SOO good for me and Jonathan went out and got me the ginger ale and gatorade I asked for. He kept Landon entertained and for the most part he played in his room by himself all day watching dvd's and playing his Mobigo. I was SO thankful for that because there was no way I could chase around an active 3 year old! I finally was able to nap for a couple hours then went right back to sleep around 10 and slept all night. I woke up feeling 100% better Monday morning. My stomach is still on edge and I'm not eating, but at least I can move and have a little bit of energy! We have seen so much of this bug at our office and I feel SO sorry for the kids that get it. I hope it stays outta my house for a longgg time!

Merry Christmas

Christmas was so fun this year! Landon was VERY into all things Christmas-including our new best friend around the holidays-Elf on Shelf. We spent every morning going around the house to see where he landed, and telling him that we had been good (or not so good) at night before we went to bed. He was so fun to buy for this year because everything that came on tv Landon would yell "Mom can santa bring me that?!" Christmas is one of my favorite times of year, not only because we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but because its always a wonderful time to be with family and friends. This post has a ton of pictures so I'll appologize now ;)
This was after Santa came! Landon and Kittle were very excited to see what Santa brought!

"You mean I got a guitar like Stans?!"

Let me play you a little tune. This was the present that he took to all of our other stops on Christmas day, where he put on quite a few concerts for everyone that would listen!

Thanks to PawPaw & Grammy Landon was able to give his dad a special gift he had been wanting! He marched over to him and said "Here's the gun I got for ya dad!"

Our 3rd annual Christmas PJ picture

The kids at Grammy & PawPaws

The last stop was at MaMaw & PawPaw's house where he found his Thomas the Train set he had been "wanting forever!"

Everyone's goods when we got home

I absolutely Love Love Love getting Christmas cards, but usually have them piled in a basket. This year I made my own card holder and I was in love with it! I hope to try to make a few for next year and maybe sell some to get a little extra Christmas cash!

Holidays Part 1

This holiday season came and went in a flash, and I was a horrible blogger throughout the whole thing. The season started off with the annual Covington Christmas parade where we ride with Santa Clause on the last float in the parade. This year it was snowing and made for a perfect backdrop to a small town parade!
Hunter & Abbie showing some sibling love. Finally excited about the parade

Can't you tell he is thrilled to be sitting in the parking lot?

The Reynolds crew.

Landon and his newest baby cousin Jack. We were so excited to have them come up from North Carolina to stay with us for a few days!