Days in the life of the Hays: January 2018

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

The Race...

Sing to the tune of the chorus of The Race is On by George Jones/Sawyer Brown; our new after school routine...

🎶"And the race is on
and here comes Ava through the garage door;
Carli skidding in behind her;
Backpacks flying off their shoulders;
Hands washed in record time.

Poor Drew is out of the running;
Sweet Maggie snoozing on her lounger;
The race is on and looks like Ava might win it
But then Maggie spits up and everyone disappears..."

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Maggie had her follow up Dr. visit this morning to check her weight and get another once over. She was absolutely thrilled. Ha! Big brother stayed home with Naggy & Pappy b/c the flu and strep are still very rampant and it'd be our luck he'd lick the examination table or something! :)

We kept Maggie in her seat covered until we got called back which was pretty quickly. Then she stayed on her blanket and never got the chance to touch anything in the examination room.

At four days old, Maggie was 6 lbs 15 oz. She had only lost 5 oz from birth weight! We don't have to come back for another ten days. Whoop!

Her doc visit wore her out pretty good, but she did wake up to nurse a bit before we headed home back to big brother Drew.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

The Story of Maggie Reese

The Thursday before we went in to be induced, I had one last OB visit. All was well and Dr. Luzietti told me we’d have a baby before noon the next day. Right, she was still so high up that I was afraid he may put me off over the weekend. But he did not seem concerned at all and promised he’d make sure I had my epidural before he broke my water. Deal. After our OB appt, Keith and I stopped at T-Mobile to switch our phone service over. You know how they accuse women of nesting before the baby comes, I’m convinced men nest too and this was Keith’s form of nesting! Ha! Naggy and Pappy drove in and met us at the house around noon. Drew was at Mawmaw’s and the girls were at school. So I plugged away finishing up the last bit of work that needed doing before the big day. Naggy, Pappy and Keith went and got the girls from school, then he, Pappy and Carli headed off to pitching lessons. Ava soaked up her one on one Naggy time before I went to get Drew at 5. He was so excited to get back to the house and find Naggy waiting on him! J

I did not take hardly any baby bump pictures with this pregnancy. I carried Maggie so differently than all my other babies! Those jeans...are still my regular jeans, buttoned. That's how high I still carried her on the day I went into the hospital to deliver!

Friday morning we had to be at the hospital by 5 am. Keith and I woke up at 3:30 to get dressed and leave only to have Ava waiting outside our bedroom door in tears. L She didn’t want me to go into the hospital, bless her. She was so nervous and upset for me to leave her. It took me a good 30 minutes to calm her and promised I’d keep in touch via her teacher all day long. I was tempted to let the girls skip school but that’d be harder on the grandparents and Ava had benchmarks. So I got her snuggled in with Naggy and Pappy before we headed out a wee bit late!

We got to the hospital and checked in by 5:30. They had me hooked up and going on pitocin by 6:30. I was at a 3 and about 50% effaced. The contractions kicked in almost immediately. I made sure the nurses knew about the epidural because the Dr. usually came by between 8 and 9 and I wanted to make sure we were ready. I was pleasantly surprised that the anesthesiologist showed up by 8:15. Keith left the room. No hesitation! Ha! I guess by the fourth, it didn’t bother me but I’m not gonna lie I was relieved with my Momma walked in 5 minutes later! The first attempt at the epi wasn’t bad but apparently he hit a vein and it wouldn’t stop bleeding so he had to try again. No big deal b/c I couldn’t feel a thing. All was well and we were set to go by 8:30.

Dr. stopped by around 9:30. I went from a 3 to a 6 in 3 hrs. He decided he’d just wait to break my water because he had appts all morning and he was convinced I’d have the baby within 30 minutes of my water breaking. I still was skeptical but okay. Time to nap and relax a bit. Drew, Naggy and Pappy came by. Drew was not so sure about me being in the bed attached to monitors, etc. It took him 30 minutes before he was okay watching his big truck videos with me but only for a little bit. He did have fun with Naggy and Pappy walking the halls of the hospital and crosswalk over road. At noon, Dr. Luzietti came back and told me I was at an 8 so he broke my water. He left and came back less than 5 minutes later with his gown, etc and told me he’d be back in 30 minutes to deliver a baby…yeah okay. I was still not sure about that!

True to his word, he came back. Declared me at a 10, told me I wasn’t quite 100% effaced but he thought we could push through it so lets have a baby. :/ I seriously thought…great, my 4^th baby and this will be the one I have to push for over an hour to get her here. I had been blessed to not have to push longer than 10 or 15 minutes with the others. So our nurse came and got everything all set up. At about 12:45ish they asked me if I could feel the contractions and urge to push. I could. So halfway through one they had me “practice” a push. So I pushed twice through a ten count and then once through 5 count before they told me to stop. And at 12:53, Maggie Reese was born…just like that. I guess Dr. Luzietti knew what he was talking about!

As soon as they cut her cord, they laid her on my chest for skin to skin. And after cleaning the room up, they left. I guess with the fourth, they assume you know what to do! Maggie latched on good and peed on me! J Apparently they like to leave her for 2 hours before they weigh and measure, etc. But Dr. McRae happen to be in the hospital so she stopped by a little after one to check on us. Maggie was perfect in every way!

Naggy, Pappy and Drew had left about 1:30 to go get some lunch and the girls since they couldn’t come in until the 2 hour window was up. So I did request a nurse to come help dress Maggie and let me shower before they got back so the kids could meet their sister and not have to wait. That’ll be a post all it’s own.

I was blessed to have such a great delivery, especially for being induced. I still think I was more or less in denial about having another baby until she got here and she was 100% perfect. Given how our pregnancy started out, I was secretly still nervous. God blessed our family and the struggles we went through at the beginning sure make us all so grateful for the blessing we received on January 19^th at 12:53. Maggie Reese is the perfect addition to our family.