She has arrived!

Hi friends! It’s been a crazy past 4 days but yesterday Reagan Marie Liberty made her arrival and has made everything 100000% worth it! We checked into the hospital for an induction on Thursday night and I just now (Sunday night) feel human again – I actually just got free from any IV for the first time since we checked in also. I know I haven’t responded to hardly any texts or calls since Thursday so I wanted to just share her birth story here along with some amazing pictures that my best friend was able to take.

If you read the first post you know that on Monday we were sent to the hospital after my doctor saw my blood pressure spike at my 40 week checkup, and then the hospital sent me home because it seemed to be lowering. On Wednesday, we went back to my doctor and my blood pressure was still high enough for her to order an induction for the next night. So on Thursday night, the induction was started with cytotec, and I got 2 more doses throughout the night. It caused me to have regular contractions and my water broke on its own around 11am, but after I got my epidural (which was TERRIBLE), Reagan’s heart rate dropped and my blood pressure went back up, so I was given something to slow down the contractions basically. The rest of the day and night I was obviously in bed and Reagan was being monitored closely. It took until Saturday morning for her to decide she was ready to come on out, and I started pushing around 10:30. Somehow it only took about an hour and a half of pushing, and then she was here! She’s the cutest and most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen (obviously) and I was instantly in LOVE.

Once she was born for some reason my blood pressure shot up again, but this time it was way higher than it had been at all this week (or ever). I also had a fever and my back felt like it was on fire – I actually thought someone had put a heating pad behind me and I just didn’t realize it so I didn’t say anything about my back being hot until a little later. They think I got an infection because of my water being broken essentially a full 24 hours before the baby was born, so they gave me lots of medicine and a fun magnesium IV that I needed to keep in for the next 24 hours at a minimum. Because of all that, it took a while to even get us moved into the recovery room where we are now. I was really looking forward to a night of being able to move freely and without lugging around an IV pole or a monitor, but no such luck. Throughout today my blood pressure has gone back down to a more normal level, and we *should* be going home at some point tomorrow afternoon. I also finally got a chance to take Reagan’s “first photo” (which I thought I would be able to take a couple hours after she was born lol):

I also got to see another one of my best friends and ask her to be Reagan’s Godmother:

Our hopes/prayers right now are that my blood pressure stays in a normal range, that Reagan gets the breastfeeding thing down because she’s in a danger zone for jaundice, and that we’ll be discharged tomorrow so we can get home to our fur children and start enjoying Reagan all to ourselves!

Again I know I haven’t been very responsive and I’m sorry about that! I’m so thankful Reagan is here and healthy, and that we have such amazing friends and family rooting us on and here to help us if we need it. You guys are all the best!