The Birth of River Jared Reese!

He's arrived! Almost two weeks early from his due date and six days from his scheduled inductions. He weighed 5 pounds, 15 oz, and was 20 inches long. Here is the crazy and unexpected story of River's birth!

We had a very hectic few days last weekend. We celebrated Christmas with my family and both sets of grandparents in two days. We also had all of Jada's family over Friday to make Christmas cookies, and hosted my aunt and cousin a couple of nights during all the festivities. So Sunday night we had Christmas with the huge Hayes family and had gotten in bed pretty late. Asher decided to act like a new born that night and kept me up until 2 am crying about something or other. Then around 3 am I started having contractions, and I knew from the get go they were the real thing. I was so tired and remember being kind of asleep, but praying (in my dreams perhaps) that they would go away! I was NOT planning on a Christmas baby! 

I never timed the contractions, but they lasted all night, and around 7 AM I woke Daniel up and told him I thought the baby was coming today. We still had company at our house and had presents sitting around everywhere. I had not packed a bag or made any plans for the kids, but Daniel and I both couldn't think straight enough to make a logical decision. Daniel was flitting around the house like a chicken with his head off and accomplishing nothing! We kept laughing at ourselves and our ridiculousness. Finally we took the kids to my mom's house where my sister was still trying to pack up to leave. She stopped long enough to give me a pedicure because Lord knows my toes have to look pretty up in stirrups! We finally left for Lubbock after lunch. On the way, my contractions slowed down and I started to doubt whether we should have come. Daniel ran a couple of errands, and we went to Baby's R Us. This is the first place in Lubbock I can say I labored- several more ahead! 

We got to the hospital around 2:30 and they said I was at a three. They monitored me for a couple of hours and I only progressed a tiny bit. I was so confused as to what I wanted! I didn't want a Christmas Eve baby so part of me wanted to lay still and try to get the contractions to go away. On the other hand, if he was coming, I wanted to get up and walk around to make it go faster. I asked the nurse if I could stay in Lubbock, but leave the hospital because I thought it would be a lot longer before he was born. They agreed, so Daniel, my mom, and me took off. Even as I got the elevators, the contractions got harder. We ordered some dinner, and then went to Target where I bought a rug for the nursery. I kept ducking behind racks of clothes to labor. We also went to CVS three different times! We then went to a random neighborhood to walk around and look at Christmas lights. I was so emotional by this point that I just kept bawling! I just had a plan for Christmas and for this baby and nothing was how I wanted it! And I really just wanted to go home and have Christmas Eve with my kids! Mom just kept laughing because my emotions were really ridiculous. I kept walking really fast and stopping every two minutes to have a contraction and then I would start crying all over again. We stopped at CVS one more time where I made a fool out of myself having contractions in the diaper and nail polish isles.  the time we started back to the hospital, it was 8 Pm. We couldn't even get across the parking lot because my contractions were coming so fast. But we kept laughing because we just wanted to get to the door! Then I stopped to go to the bathroom and got stuck in there for a while. We couldn't make it to the front desk! 

After triage they said I was between a six and seven. As soon as they wheeled me into a room, my water broke (more like exploded). The nurse could barely get me into bed before I started yelling that I needed to push. They had nothing ready and I had to hold that child in when I needed to push so bad! She checked me and told the other nurse to get my doctor, then said there was no time for my doctor, just get another one that was available. Well guess who was available on Christmas Eve? A man who looked like Santa Claus! He was even wearing red scrubs! He got there just in time. I pushed one time, and River was here! From the time I made it through the doors of the hospital to when he was born was about thirty five minutes! was happy because I didn't have to have monitors or an IV or anything.  I hate those things. The whole day was confusing and emotional and funny and crazy, but I'm glad he made it safe and sound. And I'm glad I made it to the hospital in time! 

Here are a few pics. I uploaded them in the wrong order- sorry.