2 Weeks Old

Tatum is 2wks old now... my how the time is zooming by. She is doing really well... her cord fell off on Saturday so we gave her her 1st full bath today. She absolutely HATED every minute of it - cried the whole time! It also took her a long time to calm down afterward, I finally had to nurse her a little so that she could take a nap, bless her little heart. Speaking of - breastfeeding is still going great and I've calculated that we've already saved $50 from not having to buy formula - what a blessing! I'm aiming to breastfeed for 6 more months, but we'll just have to see how it goes when I go back to work next month. She is up to 3 - 3 1/2 hrs between feedings and is sleeping well at night, she wakes up to nurse and goes right back to sleep. We had Tatum's first photo session on Saturday and the pics turned out great... she's pretty photogenic to be 2wks old :). I'll post some of these when I buy them - or you can see them at http://www.lovingtouchportrait.com/ under Little Ones or on my Facebook pg. I've really enjoyed being at home with Dave, Cadence and Tatum these past 2wks... I think I'm really going to miss them when I go back to work :( - I plan on enjoying the next 4wks as much as possible because I know that they are going to fly by. I'll keep updating - you keep reading!

By the way - Cadence is still doing well and loving her sister like crazy ♥♥♥

Peachy Keen

Just wanted to update... Tatum's 1wk docs appt was Monday and it went really well. She is up to 7lbs 3oz already! Dr. J was really surprised that she had already gained 8oz in just a week, especially with me being in the hospital an extra day. And she is up to 20inches - I had no idea that a baby could grow that fast! I am really going to contribute it to the breastfeeding - it is going SO well this time... Tatum won't even take a bottle! Cadence never wanted to latch on well and after I got really engorged I gave up on breastfeeding with her - I think it took about a month for her to start gaining any amount of weight... Anyway, I try to keep Tatum awake for a few hours during the day so that she sleeps better at night and it seems to be working. She is sleeping for 3hrs at a time between feedings, which doesn't sound great, but it is. I'm hoping that we can get a few pics with the girls and me and Dave this weekend, and we'll probably have a photographer take a family pic before too long, I just want to get a little more time going in between feedings before going out a lot - you can't really get anywhere and do anything when you are breastfeeding a baby every 2 1/2hrs!

Cadence is doing well also - she loves her baby sister so much... I am SO glad that she is going this way with Tatum instead of not wanting anything to do with her. We are having trouble keeping her out of Tatum's face, and she wants to hold her every minute of the day, but I'd rather her be too interested than not interested at all. I'm still supposed to be not picking up anything heavier than Tatum, but I have been holding Cadence every chance I get when nobody else is around - but don't worry, I've only carried her twice :). Cadence is such a little boss these days... she'll say "Momma do it" or "Daddy do it" when she wants us to get her something or do something she is supposed to be doing... and she says "Cadence do it" when she wants to be grown and do something she is too little to be doing!

Dave is doing GREAT in school... he has a lot of assignments to keep up with since he has 5 classes, but so far he has been doing really well with juggling them all. He is making all As and Bs and I just couldn't be more proud of him.

I guess that's all for now - I'll post updates and pics as I get them! Hope everyone is doing well.

Week 1

This blog will be short as I am writing it from my hospital bed... Needless to say, it's been a crazy 1st week! Tatum is doing well - eating a lot, sleeping a lot, being just as sweet as ever. Cadence is going well - FULL of sass and energy, loving her little sister, and giving her parents lots of 2yr old attitude. Me... well I'm not doing so well. Started having a headache Thursday morning when I woke up. I was sleeping in the recliner at the time and had a crick in my neck so I just blew it off as tension.... Well the headache never went away and by Friday afternoon it was completely unbarable and I finally consented to let Dave take me to the ER. Turns out that my blood pressure was so high that I was very close to seizing... I was admitted to the hospital and that is where I am now. I've been on Magnesium Sulfate for 24hrs and hopefully, if my blood pressure stays down for the rest of the afternoon, I'll be able to go home tonight. Doc thinks I may have post-partum pre-eclampsia, which is kinda rare but not unheard of. Whatever the case - I am SO READY to go home! As if the 1st week home with a baby isn't stressful enough! Here are just a couple of pics that I had on my phone of Tatum - hopefully I can get out of here, get to feeling better, and get some good pics of her and Cadence soon. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

Introducing Tatum Harper Reynolds

FINALLY! She is here... my sweet baby is a beautiful little girl! On Saturday morning (around 1am) I had a few really nasty contractions. They went away after just a little while, but when I got out of bed later that morning I started passing my mucus plug... disgusting you say? I AGREE! I won't even say anything else about it because it totally grossed me out. Anyway, had lower back pain and pressure for the rest of the day. I was supossed to go have dinner with my mom and Mumsie, but I ended up calling them around 6 and telling them I didn't want to come because my back was really hurting and I just wasn't feeling up to it. They both hassled me to death to call my doctor because they were convinced that I was having back labor and needed to go to the hospital. I told them no about 5 times, but I finally gave in and called the doc on call. First thing out of her mouth was "I think you need to go ahead and head to the hospital to let us check you out"... you should have seen Dave jump into action - you'd have thought that my water broke right there in the living room! Anyway, we gathered a few things just in case we would be staying and headed out. Got to the hospital at 8 o'clock and got checked in but didn't bring any bags in because I told Dave that they were going to send me back home. The nurse checked me and said that I was still 3cm and 80% effaced - the same as I was on Wednesday when Dr. J checked me. She also hooked me up to the baby monitors to measure my contractions and check the baby's heartrate. I was having contractions every 2-4mins, but wasn't really feeling a lot of pain, except in my back - guess the old ladies were right. :) Since we live a little ways from the hospital the nurse asked me if I would get up and walk the halls for a while to see if I could change my cervix... I said sure, why not. I walked the halls for an hour and then went back to the room to be monitored for 20mins. When the nurse checked me again my cervix had changed just a little bit, but not enough to be signifigant, so we tried it again... I ended up doing this for the rest of the night - walking for an hour at a time and being monitored for 20-30. I gradually changed each time until the nurse checked me again at 6am and my water broke! By this time I was really feeling the steady contractions, but still didn't want an epidural, so I had some stadol and kept on laboring. I had a fantastic nurse that let me take an hour long shower during my labor which really really helped. Diane was very positive about me trying to deliver naturally and kept encouraging me throughout the morning. She told me that there would be a point when I said "I can't do this" but that the end would be soon there and I could push through... Well - that point came at about 10:30 Sunday morning. I was dilated to 7 1/2 cms and I thought that I was going to die!!! I finally sat up in bed during one of my (constant) contractions and screamed "I WANT AN EPIDURAL!" I want to mention that my husband was absolutely wonderful during those long hours of labor - he told me with every hard contraction that I could do it and just to focus on my breathing. He labored right along with me, until I was totally spazzing because of the pain - then he was ready for the epidural too! I don't know how other women have babies without making a peep and no medication - but I wasn't strong enough to do it... kudos to them! Anywho - got the epidural and after a few short pushes Tatum Harper Reynolds arrived at 12:23pm. She came out face up just like Cadence did - which was another reason for the 16hrs of labor... silly girls! Tatum weighed 6lbs 11oz and measured 19 1/2 inches long. (Cadence was 6lb 9oz, 19in long - so very similar.) She has dark, wavy hair and bright blue eyes - like Dave, and her fingers and toes are LONG like mine, but other than that - you wouldn't know whose child she is! She is the polar opposite of Cadence, but still beautiful :). Cadence met her baby sister last night and fell in love just as quickly as Dave and I did. Once she held Tatum (with lots of assistance I might add) she wouldn't let anyone else hold her! She threw a fit when my mom tried to take Tatum to hold before going back to Atlanta. I felt really overwhelmed watching one daughter hold the other - I don't know what I did to deserve 2 beautiful little blessings like them! Here are just a few pics we have taken so far... there will be many more to come.

A Little Bit of Progress

My doctors appt didn't go exactly as I planned today... but it was OK. I am now 3cms dilated and 80% effaced. Dr. J says that this is really good progress for a week but I'm kinda skeptical :). I was really wanting to be like 5cms dilated, but maybe that was unrealistic. I'll have one more appointment next Wednesday and then will go to the hospital to be induced on the 21st if the baby hasn't come by then. I'm deadset on getting this baby out on my own because I DO NOT want to be induced again, so I am still walking on the treadmill and bouncing around on my pilates ball :D. Dr. J also did some more cervix stretching at this appt, so maybe that will prove effective also. As far as numbers go~ I gained 2lbs, still measured 38cms, and the baby's heartrate was 147 beats per minute... So there's a little update for ya - hopefully I won't be posting about an appt next Wednesday, I'll be posting about the baby!

Long Hunter State Park

This Saturday I was anxious to get out of the house and do some walking... the plan was to instigate labor but of course it didn't work. We had a great time anyway, I've never been to this park but it was absolutely beautiful. Me, Dave, Cadence, and my mother-in-law Barbara walked the 2mile trail around the lake. We saw 12 deer and 5 wild turkeys - they were all right up on the trail and didn't get spooked at all! One of the things I really liked about the trail was that it was completely shaded by all the trees... oh, and it was paved- a major plus for me. All in all it was a great day! Also, if you have never seen pics of Barbara you wouldn't know this, but she has lost about 70lbs in the last 6 months - so she is looking great! Gotta give her kudos - I know that I am going to try my best to be as dedicated as her when I start dieting after the baby comes. Enjoy.

Cadence was ready to ride!

Me & Barbara

My Fat self & Dave


This is the first baby deer that we saw on the trail - he acted like he didn't even care that we were there making a bunch of racket and taking his picture!

Our 1st rest (we only took 2) - Cadence walked after this... you know she wasn't going back in that stroller after she tasted a little freedom and realized I would let her play in the dirt!

In case you are worried - I have a death grip on my bunkin - wild monkeys couldn't have torn her away from me :)

Sweet little family photo... soon the 3 will become 4!

Just a few pics

Of Course - this is the beginning of the pics - I hate that when you post pics to this blog they are always backwards! But here is Cadence enjoying some chili... can't you tell she's a "Big Girl"? I just love my baby girl to death! Meant to mention that she also had 3 shots at the doc today and didn't cry for even 2 minutes... and she didn't cry at all to have her finger pricked for her iron test - she is a brave little sweetheart!