And Then There Were Two...

...Two kids that is. Life with two kids. I find myself wanting to just relish all the details of the first days home, these first days of Reese's life. I want to remember everything because when I try to think back to all the transitions involved with bringing Cade home, becoming a parent the first time...it's all a blur.
First bath

Not painful at all

We've actually had several outings, with and without Reese.
Her first trip to the doctor

This time, being the experienced parent that I am, I knew that the whole appointment takes place without any outfit on at all so we dressed in one that is cute, but easy to remove.

Reese was already back up to birth weight (plus two ounces actually!) so I was a very, very proud breast-feeding mama. Success!!

Other recent outings include taking Cade to Shear Madness for a much-needed hair cut. I thought if we went there it would be more like a "treat" than a hair cut. They have fun chairs to sit in and movies to watch. And of course when you're that close to Chick-fil-a then we had to make a stop there too.

The other outing of the week included a date night to Garazzo's to use our Groupon. Heck, gotta take advantage of having G-Mom around! I can count the times that I've left Cade with a sitter in the evenings on ONE hand. And it's usually for things like Parent/Teacher conferences rather than for Matt and I to go somewhere. We have rarely left Cade to go on dates and I think that kinda stinks. So, we're turning over a new leaf and finally realizing that leaving the kids for 2 hours on an evening will probably do more good than harm. Also, I will be positioning myself behind Matt for pics until my stomach doesn't look like I'm still at least 4 months pregnant.

Showing our KSU pride.

Having a little tutu time while Cade checks his calendar.

Cade enjoys teaching Reese about things...like how to use Grandpa's cell phone


Now the true test comes, all of our family has come and gone. Can we make it on our own?! I'm so thankful that I have until August (August 16th to be exact) to just hang out with the kids. So far it's felt very natural to just add Reese to our brood. She has been easy-going and I'm just thankful to have one child that stays where you put them! I've enjoyed getting to see so many of our friends and family members as people come to meet Miss Reese. Come visit us and you'll receive some Reese's candy in honor of Reese's arrival!

The Story of Reese

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 at 6:15pm. The last picture of us as a family of 3. Reese is on her way.

I wasn't 100% sure at this point...but I had a feeling she probably wasn't going to be waiting for that scheduled c-section that was to occur the next Tuesday, March 27th. I had many feelings. Called contractions. I'd been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for several weeks. Just feelings of tightening in my abdomen. But on Thursday afternoon they started to feel different. Painful. Much more painful.

I was induced with Cade and labored for 2 days before having a c-section due to "failure to progress" (which was actually due to a baseball-sized fibroid blocking the birth canal). You can brush up on your recollection of Cade's arrival here. I was quickly reminded of the pains I felt during those 2 days of contractions...because it felt just like that. Only this time, instead of being hooked up to machines in a bed at Olathe Med like I was with Cade, I was in my classroom busily trying to serge the tops and bottoms of the 8th graders pajama pants projects. I kept an eye on the clock and noted that contractions were about every 10 minutes and lasting about 20-30 seconds and were somewhat inconsistent. Is this labor, I wondered...and kept working to make "just in case" arrangements in case I didn't make it back to school tomorrow (for my last scheduled day). I left school at 5pm, stopped by the dry cleaners to drop off the clothes that had been sitting in my backseat for a few days, and called my doctor to find out what to do if these did just happen to be contractions. The answering service answered and my doctor quickly called me back. She said the only way to know if it was labor was to come to the hospital and get checked. I declined. I just didn't want to get sent back home if this was nothing. I could handle it for awhile longer.

When I got home it became obvious to Matt (and then to me) that this was for real. We quickly packed our bags and made arrangements for Coach and Jo to come sit with Cade until our family could get here. We did the worst packing job ever during these 20-minutes. I had a bag mostly ready, but still needed to add the things that I use daily. It was very hard to concentrate on anything with contractions interrupting me and Cade freaking out about Mommy being in pain. "Mommy, hold you!" Once we got to the hospital they checked us in at the ER and sent us up to the 5th floor, The Birthplace. The nurse said I was 2cm dilated and definitely having contractions. (Sidenote: I had at times wondered "what if" and possibly wanted to take a stab at a vaginal birth just to see what I was missing out on...I no longer feel this way. This brush with contractions was enough for me to be very thankful that I get to go in and get drugged and NOT have to wait to progress from a 2 to a 10). Dr. Bavishi came in and said very non-chalantly that we'd be having the c-section right now instead of on Tuesday. Wow, ok. Great! In highsight, I see that I should have headed to the hospital sooner instead of feeling like I had to prove myself with those contractions! Matt made a few calls to my substitute, the school secretary, and our parents to let everyone know it was "GO" time. They prepped me for surgery (which felt like it took forever but it was really less than 30 minutes) and off we went! Last time I had an epidural and this time I had a duramorph (I think) spinal block. (Insert infomercial here.) This was the best thing ever. Last time I was crazy-person groggy in the operating room and could not walk for DAYS after the surgery. This time I was very coherent and was able to get up and around and even take a shower 12 hours later. Amazing. I made special note that I would like to have this next time...unless they've created some other miracle drug/method by then as "next time" will be taking place at least 3-4 years from now! Oh and other exciting news, to me anyway, is that Dr. Bavishi said she cut out my old scar. She just cut it off and pulled my skin tighter before sewing me up this time. Excellent! I didn't even know that was an option! Mini-tummy tuck?

Meet Reese! She arrived at 8:06pm Thursday, March 22, 2012.

She was a tiny little thing weighing less than seven pounds!

My mom and MaKenzie were the first to meet her as they arrived at around midnight that night and stopped by before heading to our house to relieve Coach and Jo from Cade-duty. While they were there, the hospital was experiencing a power outage and I was intermittently throwing up from lack of eating before taking all the drugs, I guess. It all seems kinda like a blur but there were no lights, no monitors working, I couldn't adjust my bed, and we couldn't watch the NCAA tournament games without power. Also the fire alarms would go off at random. This lasted for a couple hours. I was content just to hold Reese (and occasionally throw up in the little punch-out barf bag things).


Like I said the next day was great. I got to have the catheter removed, could take a shower, and even wear my own clothes! Despite the power outage chaos, my nurses were great all throughout my stay and I was, again, very pleased with Olathe Med. In my mind it's like a mini-vacation the way they wait on me, bring me good food, give me happy pills, etc. The recovery this time was much, much better than after the 2 days of labor, epidural and c-section last time.

Finally Cade got to come up and meet "Sister" as he called her. We had a little moment first with the 3 of us where we gave him a Mr. Potato Head that he'd been wanting.


Then we introduced him to Reese.

He has been so sweet with her.

He really is a great big brother and loves having her around, playing with her, teaching her things and holding her.

G-Mom and Papa. Proud grandparents with their first grand-daughter!

Grandma Jan and Grandpa Mike

I'm having a lot of fun dressing her up in girly things and especially big, huge bows! Too bad that with her tiny head only a few of our millions of bows fit her right now.

It was a little chaotic during Cade's visits to the hospital but we found ways to keep him entertained.


Juggling two kids...whoa. I'm sure it will be better once I'm all healed up and can lift Cade again.

We headed home on Sunday afternoon. We actually felt pretty rested leaving the hospital.

Ready to roll! I kept telling Reese about how great her room at home is and how much she will love it.

It was a beautiful day and we were greeted by Matt's parents, my parents and my sister Gentry.




Cade was napping when we arrived home but he was thrilled to greet "Sister" when he woke up.

Reese loves her pretty room...but she'd prefer to be held while she sleeps rather than mess up her beautiful bed.


I don't know if it's that I'm more rested this time, more confident, more sane, more experienced...probably a combination. I just find myself being so full of joy and so thankful. Thankful for our family and friends helping us out. Thankful for my beautiful, healthy kids and my thoughtful husband. Thankful that my mom has been with us this week to help us get back on our feet around here. She is amazing. I'm not near as scared as I was with Cade. With Cade I felt like everything I knew in life had been so quickly replaced with things I wasn't sure about. Things I didn't know how to care for. And that was a very difficult transition for me. I know we're only a week in with Reese but I am thanking God for the strength, wisdom and pure joy He's given me for this new phase of life! We are so blessed!

Reese's Room Revealed!

It has been so fun putting Reese's room together! Now that it's finished I find myself just standing in her room wondering what else I should be doing to get ready for her arrival.

It took many hands to help get the room ready! Matt's mom, Jan, painted.

Gentry and my dad put shelves together.

A lot of people helped hang things on the walls actually!

Even Cade tried to help out!

I had a hard time finding letters in a font and size that I liked...until I turned to Etsy. Amazingly better than Pinterest (to me) because I can get ideas or I can just buy the items. I ordered just the plain letters so we could decorate them ourselves. They are HUGE but they turned out exactly as I'd hoped.

First I painted them the pink wall color and then made some embellishments.

I was proud of these as I'm not usually patient enough for little projects like this.

They still needed a little something though so my friend Jamie offered to use her scanner to scan the fabric and help me modge podge the paper onto the letters. She's great!! I worked on the letter "R" while she did all the other letters. She makes these type of projects look easy!


Ta da!

I also ordered these paper flowers from Etsy (although after seeing how it's done I would definitely recommend just making them from tissue paper). If any of these ever fall down I might just burst into tears as it took me FOREVER to get it to look this way!

I couldn't find a valance or bed skirt that I particularly liked so I decided to refashion some pillow cases into a valance and add some ribbon. Don't look too close as I did resort to some "ghetto" sewing tactics but they turned out fine!

I just added ribbon to a plain bed skirt. It lays a little funny but works.


We dug out all the glass figurines that Matt got me when we were dating in high school, Jamie made the "R", Holly got us the elephant piggy bank and MaKenzie made Reese the hanging canvas for Christmas.

Clock and wall hangings were shower gifts

We used some of the leftover embellishments and jewels on the wall canvas' and I think they look really cute above the closet.

The shelf and baskets came from Target while the lamp and picture came from Hobby Lobby. I went to Hobby Lobby every week for months waiting for that picture to go 1/2 price!

We're set in the bow department! Matt's sisters made this cute bow hanger that I hung over the bulletin board in her room for overflow of head bands and bows since it's already full and she's not even here yet!

We're just a little over a week away from welcoming our little girl! Thanks to everyone who helped us get the room all set to go. One more week of school and some special outings with Cade and then...we'll be a family of 4. Crazy to think about. I'm scared...but excited. But also scared!