Parker Jameson Reed

 Parker Jameson Reed was born Tuesday, April 16, 2013! He arrived at 5:58pm and weighed 7 pounds and 12 ounces and he was 21 inches long. Our punctual little pipsqueak arrived on his due date!

So last Tuesday I woke up at 5 am to go to the bathroom for the third time that night. I noticed that I had some cramps but nothing too bad. Clint's alarm wasn't set to go off for another half hour so I decided to lay back down. As I was laying there I started thinking that I was having contractions but I still didn't really think anything about it because they were so small and I had been having very minor ones for a few days. 

Clint finally got out of bed so I decided to get up and eat breakfast with him before he went to work. I finally told him that it felt like I was still having contractions but nothing too serious. I told him I would keep him updated while he was at work. About 7 I decided that I would try to go back to sleep for a while. As I was laying there I realized that these were contractions and that there were definite starting and stopping points. They were a few minutes long and about 5 minutes apart. I ended up only laying there for about a half an hour because I wasn't really that comfortable. I took a nice long hot shower to see if that would help...it felt good but didn't change up the contractions at all. I texted Clint that I was definitely having them and that I would call if they got worse. 

I texted my sister about 8:15 to see if she would come over soon to help me start working on my to-do list. I finally realized that the baby would be coming soon and there were several things I wanted done first. She said she would be over whenever she rolled out of bed...apparently I should have been more direct! I started working on some laundry, some light cleaning, and packing our bags. I had set out most of our things a couple weeks ago but we never finished packing the bags to take to the hospital. About 9:00 my contractions started getting a little stronger so I texted Lindsay again telling her that I was having them and if she could come over soon. She got the hint this time and came right over!

I texted with Clint around this time and he told me to call the doctor. I called them and told them how I was  and they decided that I should get to the hospital. I was supposed to have my 40 week appointment that afternoon but she decided that I needed to be checked for leaking amniotic fluid, which I though I'd had. I called Clint and told him that he needed to come home so we could go to the hospital...luckily his boss had let him park on his jobsite at IUPUI so he was able to get going soon.

Clint got home a little before 10:30 and got the car all loaded up and then we were off. Traffic was pretty good and we got all checked in about 11am. By then my contractions were strong enough that I had to focus on breathing a little more and not tensing up so much...which was clearly a little hard! She checked my cervix after I got settled in and was only dilated to 1.5 cm and 75% effaced. I thought I would be further along so I figured I was in for a long haul.

I spent a couple hours working through contractions that were about 3-4 minutes apart. After two hours I had dilated to 4 cm. Another two hours went by and I was to 6 cm and my contractions were one right after another and really strong. I took a dose of pain medicine through my IV, seeing if I could hold off on getting an epidural. About 20 minutes after the pain medicine the contractions were back and much stronger. I set myself a time limit before asking for one and I made it; I definitely realized I wanted an epidural. I got the epidural at 2:45ish. In 20 minutes I progressed from 6cm to 8cm...it was definitely getting close! The called my doctor shortly after that so she could get to the hospital to deliver our baby!!

Once the doctor got there we had to wait a little longer but a little before 5pm I was ready to start pushing!! By then my contractions slowed down to about 3-4 minutes apart which slowed the process down just a bit. After about an hour of pushing our little guy was ready to make his entrance into the world!!

Here are a few pictures of his first few hours:

Today Parker is already one week old!! Our hearts are so full and we love him so much!!