Introducing...

Reese Elizabeth Arnoldy

July 13, 2010 at 5:35am

5lbs 5.2 oz, 18.75” long

Shall we start from the beginning?

Monday night, July 12th, shortly after 9pm after I’d just gotten in the bed, we got a phone call from my sister. A phone call we hadn’t been expecting for at least another five weeks. Her water had broken and they were headed to the hospital. I jumped out of bed and bounced around my room not really knowing what to do first. Clothes, hair, makeup, camera, camera isn’t charged, computer, brush teeth, look for charger, what do I wear, shoes, grab a book, computer, where is my charger, time to go.

We ran out the door and headed into Atlanta. In the middle of a storm, naturally. We weren’t shocked at the fact that Reese had decided to come into the world on a stormy night because Jessica, she’s a weather freak, always has been, and is a meteorologist at the Weather Channel. The day her and Joe got married, there was a tropical storm and the wedding was outside. It only makes sense that they’d welcome their first child in the middle of a storm as well. We got to the hospital to a very calm and collected daddy and mommy-to-be. I think it was between 12:30 and 1am when Jessica asked for an epidural. At that point the two sets of grandparents-to-be and I headed out to the waiting room for the duration of the night. Mommy needed to rest up for the big delivery and Joe kept us updated on her condition via text. Between 1am and 4am she became fully dilated and they began the pushing. At 5:35, Reese was born. Mom did and was doing great. But being five weeks early, Reese was having a little difficulty breathing. They described her breathing as a grunt and said they wanted to monitor her. After she didn't improve, they decided to move her to the NICU. It was a long night and an even longer day, but our little girl kept pushing through.

In six hours Reese will be two days old. She's improving with each hour. When I saw her last night there was no longer any grunting, but you could still tell her breathing was labored. She had a pretty good night even though her oxygen dropped a few times. And today she drank a little from a bottle, daddy got to change his first dirty diaper and they were finally able to hold her late tonight.

Tomorrow Jessica will be discharged from the hospital. Reese will have to stay a little longer. It'll be tough leaving her there but they know she's in good hands.

I can't wait to hold her. I can't wait for her to come home. I can't wait to feed her. I can't wait to talk to her. I can't wait to watch her grow and teach her things. I can't wait to see who she'll become.

Baby Reese, you are so loved by so many people already. Get well soon so you can come home, baby girl!

xoxo