Oh my. Where to begin. Miss Reese Olivia Mayo has finally arrived! The journey was rocky, but she was worth it. Every nauseous, itchy, achy, sleepless and tired moment.
As I believe I mentioned before, I was diagnosed with Cholestasis around 20ish weeks. It is horrible. Basically my liver wasn't properly working, so bile acids leaked into my bloodstream which caused extreme itchiness/nausea/overall exhaustion - on top of being preggo. For Miss Reese it meant that we had to have her early, as the effect on her could be devastating past 38 weeks. So I was also very stressed and worried.
My symptoms kept getting worse until the very end of my pregnancy where I literally have never felt so awful in my life. The night before we went to the hospital I slept maybe 30 minutes. The majority of the evening was spent hovered around the toilet. By the time we checked in I was so weak and nauseous that I could hardly even talk.
Somehow I still made it a priority to take some pics though, ha!
I was so very nervous. When I had Beckett is was an emergency c-section, so there wasn't time to think about the surgery or what was happening. But I had plenty of time to think about it with Reese! Thankfully though the nurses at Baylor are amazing. Truly the kindest people and they are so good at their jobs. Encouraging, comforting, funny, and calm - not to mention life savers. Truly.
During the c-section they told me the usual things - "you are going to feel some pressure," "any minute now," etc. Dr. Robert said I was all baby (I believe I told her that was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me, ha!) and it was very hard to get her out (she even quickly got the vacuum). I remember thinking that it was taking a very long time.
When I knew I should be hearing newborn cries, it was silent. I heard the nurse order Guy to put away the camera. I watched Guy's face as it lost all color and absolute fear replaced his smile. Time just seemed to stand still.
What I didn't know was that basically Reese had drowned in the fluids and wasn't breathing. They called NICU and began working her to bring her back. And, thankfully, they did just as NICU arrived. What a horrible, horrible scare.
But our sweet girl is a strong one! She scored a 9 out of 10 on her Apgar test, so there is no need for worry about her delivery.
Born at 10:34 am, she weighed exactly the same as her big brother - 6.4 ounces, and just 1/4 of an inch shorter at 19".
The first thing Guy said when he saw her was "she looks NOTHING like Beckett." And it's true!
Those first few hours with her are a blur. In fact for the next 36 hours I was still horribly nauseous and got sick every chance I got. It took 48 hours before I could walk 3 feet. According to Dr. Robert we delivered just in time, not a day too soon.
Despite that I still took pics from my bed :).
I was nervous about Beckett coming to the hospital to meet Reese. I knew he would be a wonderful big brother, but I assumed he would be scared of me in the hospital bed and then not really be too impressed with his little sister.
I had no need to worry - he was just fine in the hospital and immediately showed love to Reese. He was very concerned that she have the baby giraffe with her for nigh noh's. :)
These pictures just melt me. He wanted to snuggle up to her toes and give them kisses. Such a sweet boy.
We are all in love with her! Over the next few days we had many guests come and visit.
Reese was an all star newborn - immediately took to nursing, slept constantly, and NEVER cried. (she still doesn't unless she is very hungry)
Oh, and she is beautiful! 6.4 ounces of perfection.
Look at all of her hair! Beckett also had lots of hair, but I think she has a bit more. And despite being the same weight she is definitely more filled out and less scrawny than he was.
I wasn't the only one who was tired. Poor Guy said the sleeper sofa left a lot to be desired. Ha!
After a few days I finally started to feel better and was up and walking around a bit. Guy and I joked about how the hospital is the "time suck." It just seems like you loose all sense of time and what is going on in the world. But we actually really loved our time in the hospital with both Beckett and Reese.
We checked in to Baylor on Friday and left on Monday. Those days went by so fast!
Mr. Beckett came up to help bring Baby Reese home. He tested out her car seat for her, helped get her giraffe, and even helped Dada carry her out to the car. Such a good helper and big brother.
Oh Missy, she is just beautiful and such a blessing. I had no idea what an ordeal you went through. Goodness, so glad everything turned out ok. Looks like Beckett is doing a great job at being a big brother! Congrats!
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