From "Labor Day" to Labor Day

We've had a whole month now to get used to the newest addition to our family, my baby brother Reid. I love him so much. I am constantly in his face, talking to him, hugging him, and kissing him. Mommy told me the other day to stop kissing him because he was trying to sleep, to which I replied, "But Mommy, I love him so much." How can you respond to that?

This happened before Reid was born, but I didn't get to tell you about it yet. Remember how Mommy and Daddy were doing cool stuff with me before he came like going to the beach? Well, because Daddy works at Beth Israel Hospital sometimes, he can get $5 Red Sox tickets. The catch is, that you show up early and stand in line, and whatever tickets are not picked up at will call or other season tickets not being used, you can use. They aren't for sale til the game starts, but usually Daddy has had luck getting in, and they're usually really awesome seats. On a Sunday afternoon, we decided to hit up Fenway Park for my first baseball game ever. Even Mommy has never been to a Red Sox game! We had fantastic seats on the first baseline.

The game was pretty cool and all, but the coolest thing was the blimp flying over head. I like to take pictures so I took a gazillion pictures of the blimp (except I called it a dimp sometimes).

Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks - or popcorn and a big pretzel - and I'm all set for a fantastic afternoon!

This was so cool!

The game was super exciting and I made it all the way through the whole nine innings. The Red Sox ended up coming from behind in the bottom of the 9th for a victory so it was well worth it. I cheered for my team and danced to the music. Fun had by all.

Since Reid was born, I've been trying to keep my life as normal as possible - well as normal as possible given that Gigi and Bubba were here for two weeks then Mimi and Papaw were here for two weeks and I had a new baby brother. I've still been going to Kaya's house 2-3 days per week and we do cool big kids only stuff like go to a zoo program on Thursdays. Isn't Kaya a scary lion?

Reid is doing great! He had a doctor's appointment the Monday after he was born (3 days old) and his weight was down to 7lbs 13oz. At 4 days old a visiting nurse came by the house to check Mommy and brother and he was already up to 8lbs again. Way to go buddy.

We sure do like to cuddle in this family. We sure do like to take naps too.

This was Reid's first bath. He did not like it one bit. He took his bath on the kitchen counter and turned as red as a tomato.

At about two weeks old and once his belly button cord fell off, he moved up to the infant bath tub. He still didn't like his bath one bit.

But now he's older (about one month in this picture) and bath time is much more enjoyable. I like to try to "help."

Sometimes Reid does funny stuff like stick his tongue out.

These pictures of my little snoozing brother are at 2 weeks of age. Reid went back to the doctor at two weeks and guess how much the little chunker weighed? He was all the way up to 9lbs and 2 oz. Way to go!

He hasn't started smiling at me on purpose yet, but sometimes when he's sleeping or when he has to poop or toot, he makes funny smiles.

More cuddle time!

As Reid has gotten older, he's started to play with some of my old toys now. Here he is on my play gym. Right now he just wiggles on it.

He also likes the swing sometimes, but he doesn't like it as much as I used to Mommy says. He's a funny baby. He doesn't really like the pacifier as much as I used to, but sometimes he'll take it. He only eats every 2-3 hours during the day, whereas I ate all the time and had trouble gaining weight. He sleeps for 3-6 hour stretches at night in the pack and play in Mommy and Daddy's room, whereas I slept in 2 hour stretches at the most and would never let anyone put me down. We may look alike, but we're pretty different kids, so far.

More funny faces at about 3 weeks.

Like I said, Gigi and Bubba were here for the first two weeks, then Mimi came for the next 2 weeks. While Mimi was here, Papaw came for just a few days to hang out with his boys.

There has been a lot of excitement in the house and I hate to miss any of it. I'm still sleeping in the twin bed in Reid's room at nighttime because the house is cooler downstairs and my own room is hot and upstairs. Since Reid came and before that sometimes too, I was pretty bad about wandering out of Reid's room and wanting to come into Mommy and Daddy's room to cuddle and sleep. To help fix this, they put a clock in Reid's room and told me I had to stay in there until 7 o'clock. If I did this five days in a row, I could have a special treat. I saw a commercial several months ago for these things called Pillow Pets. I don't ask for much, but I have been begging for one of these since that time. I decided a Pillow Pet would be my special treat if I stayed in my bed. It only took me about 7 or 8 days, but I stayed in there and got my own Pet. I call him Marshmellow. I don't think I've ever mentioned my "cuddle buddies." At nighttime, I sleep with my Bear Bear and two fleece blankies (a yellow one and a polka dotted one). Marshmellow fits nicely right into this mix.

One Daddy, two kids!

I like to play with Reid and with my old toys too!

Mimi got to have lots of cuddle time too with Reid. He's about 3 weeks in this picture.

Go Big Blue! Mommy likes Kentucky and Daddy likes Louisville and when they played each other in football, Mommy dressed us up in our blue gear. Daddy didn't like this one bit! She may be the only girl in the house, but all three of us like the blue team. Daddy couldn't dress us up in Cardinal bird stuff because we don't have any.

This past Labor Day we had gorgeous weather and it was the perfect day to go to the park for playing time. My next soccer season is coming up, so I had to get some practice time in with Daddy. My kicking skills have really gotten better.

We had a picnic and played on the playground.

Silly Cooper.

The Charles River is really near the playground so we went down to stick our feet in it and take some cute pictures.

Watch out Daddy!

I'm gonna splash you!

I love playing in the water!

I wasn't really into taking pictures after splashing.

Labor Day was Reid's one month birthday. What a big boy relaxing in the park!

Mommy and Daddy tried to be all cute and do a photo session with Reid since it was his one month birthday, but he wasn't really into it.

They got a few cute ones.

But most of them went from sad...

To mad...

We've enjoyed the first month as a family of four. Reid's one month check up went well and the chunky monkey is up to 11lbs 8oz. Stay tuned for the next month's adventures.

Introducing "Chocolate"

We welcome the newest addition to our family:

Reid McGuire Bolton

Born August 6th, 2010 at 430am

Weighing 8lbs 2oz, Length 20.5in, Head Circumference 36cm

38 weeks and 4 days

Mommy butting in to Cooper's regular postings...

Things had been going well at the new job, hanging in there as well as could be expected given my ever growing belly and lack of sleep at night. To top it all off, I came down with a little summer cold. I can handle a cold and I can handle being pregnant, but the two together were not so much fun. I was at work on August 4th, which was a Wednesday, like usual, but by lunch time I was feeling pretty crummy. In addition to my cold, I had a headache, was shaky, light-headed, and a little dizzy. I mentioned it to a few people at work, and soon my regularly scheduled afternoon patients started disappearing off of my schedule. By 230, I was officially kicked out of work to go home and put my feet up. I called the doctor on the way home and was scheduled for a visit at 445. I arrived to the doctor, still feeling pretty crummy, and lo and behold, my blood pressure was 150/100. Off to the hospital I was ushered for further blood pressure monitoring and potential induction, at just 38 weeks and 2 days. We headed home, quickly packed our bags and a bag for Cooper, and stopped by Johanna's house to give him a quick kiss.

We arrived at the labor and delivery triage area, where it was confirmed that my blood pressure was still 150/100's, and they decided to induce labor. Here's where the fun begins...

I had been having regular Braxton Hicks, nonpainful, contractions for several weeks now, and when I was hooked up to the monitor, they were coming every 2-4 minutes regularly. A check of my cervix upon arrival showed no dilation, so they thought they would start the induction with cytotec (an medicine they put on your cervix to ripen it for induction). This is how Cooper's labor started too. Just before the doctor was going to put the cytotec in, she checked me again and thought I had already dilated to 2cm on my own. No need for cytotec she thought. Let's just skip ahead to pitocin, so up to the labor and delivery unit I went.

Around 845pm I get settled into Labor and Delivery Room 10 and the pitocin gets started. Again, contractions are coming every 2-4 minutes and while uncomfortable, definitely not painful.

My hose of an IV. When you're used to working with kids, this thing looks huge. I will be grateful for this IV later.

You're not supposed to be smiling while on pitocin. You're especially not supposed to be smiling after you've been on pitocin from 845pm until 6am. While the contractions are still quite regular and uncomfortable, they are not painful. The doctors' shifts are 12 hours, and so just before change of shift at 6am, the second doctor checks my cervix - and guess what. I'm not dilated at all. Not at all. So I endured (aka wasted) nearly 12 hours on pitocin for nothing. She decides to stop the pitocin, let me relax for a few hours, and then start this induction process all over again, this time starting with cytotec - our original plan.

So, cytotec is inserted around 845am. You have to lie completely still for one hour so that it doesn't come out, then you are monitored for 3 hours. After the total of 4 hours, you can either have another cytotec if you're not contracting too much, you can start pitocin if you're making some progress, or you can just wait it out until the contractions die down enough to do another cytotec. Lovely.

So, the cytotec brings back contractions every 1-3 minutes that are moderate in intensity, but still not painful. My four hours of monitoring is up, and yep, my contractions are too frequent for more cytotec, but I'm not in enough pain to be making any progress with my cervix yet. Lovely, more waiting. Six o'clock comes around, time for change of shift, and my second doctor checks my cervix and thinks I'm finally at 3cm but the baby is still high, and high enough that these cervical checks are way more painful than the contractions themselves. Time to start pitocin. I start my pitocin around 7pm and the contractions don't get stronger; they get weaker and more spaced out.

Third doctor arrives with a new plan. She checks my cervix and thinks I'm at 4cm around 9pm. Her plan: get my epidural now since my cervical checks are painful (not the contractions), break my water, and have a baby before her shift is up at 7am. Sounds good to me. So, my epidural is placed while I'm trying to watch Boston Med at 10pm. Shortly thereafter I am 6-7cm.

Jeff's handling all this waiting pretty well.

Around 1am, people start scurrying about and I can hear slowing down of the baby's heart rate on the fetal monitor that corresponds to when I am having contractions. He is no longer tolerating labor. Who could blame him? It was now 1am on August 6th, and he had been here in the hospital getting squeezed through artificial labor since 9pm on August 4th. The pitocin was shut off, allowing him time to recover. I mentally prepared myself for a C-section after all this time, as I was only about 8cm dilated at this point. I called my parents and told them of this possibility. He started to feel a little better after an hour or so of the pitocin being completely off, and another check at around 3am showed that I was now 9cm. Everyone grew a bit more hopeful, and the pitocin was restarted. Around 4am, I really started to feel a lot of pressure and told one of the nurses. She told me to just let the baby move down on his own and when I felt the urge to push, just to let them know. I could feel him moving down low, super low, so when the doctor came in to check me at 4am, I let her know too. One look at me and she could already see the top of the baby's head. Time to push! One contraction and three pushes later, my baby was born at 430am! Finally!

The doctor put him on my chest immediately. She seemed quite surprised to find out the reason why he was not tolerating labor. Not only did he have the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck once, but he also had a true knot in his umbilical cord as well! Having trained in pediatrics and working in a NICU, I know just how dangerous a true knot could be. We were extremely lucky!!!

As I'm cuddling and getting to know my new little one, I noticed lots of scurrying about the room again. They take the baby from me to get him weighed and checked out, and I start to get a little woozy and light-headed. Just to complicate an already complicated labor, I then had a post-partum hemorrhage, losing about 800ml of blood in a very short period of time. Everyone was quick acting and got that settled down, got me some fluid, and I felt better within the hour.

Reid McGuire Bolton didn't seem to mind all the excitement surrounding his birth. He was just perfect at 8lbs and 2oz, 20.5 inches, born at 38 weeks and 4 days on August 6th. Imagine if he'd made it to his due date!

Another blonde addition to the Bolton family - this one with a little more hair, chubbier cheeks, less eyebrows, and a bigger chin.

See, I'm feeling better already.

Daddy has to get his cuddle time in too. Reid is just perfection.

We made it upstairs to the post-partum floor before 7am (before we actually had to meet our fourth set of doctors and nurses on the labor and delivery floor). They took Baby Reid away to the nursery to get him bathed. After three days in the hospital with no sleep, the nurses wouldn't give him back to us until we took naps. Reid came back to our room about 930am.

Shortly after 10am on August 6th, big brother Cooper arrived with Gigi and Bubba to meet his new little brother. Gigi and Bubba were in Richmond house hunting, and jumped in the car after hearing we were going to be induced. Because the process took so long, they were here in plenty of time to take care of Cooper. Cooper arrived ready to hold baby Reid in an outfit he picked out himself - a t-shirt inside out and swimming trunks.

He instantly wanted to hold his new brother and showered him with lots of love and kisses.

The three Bolton boys.

With Gigi and Bubba here, we could finally get some family photos.

Me and my boys. Notice Cooper's thumb pressed oh-so-gently (not) into Reid's cheek.

Me and Reid.

Lots of kisses.

Putting his hat back on.

More kisses.

More cuddles.

And more cuddles from the grandparents Gigi and Bubba.

We noticed right away all the similarities between Cooper and Reid. Let the comparisons begin-- Cooper @ 2 days old. They definitely look alike but have their differences too.

Reid @ 1 day old

Cuddle time with Mommy.

Love my little guy, who is all checks and chins.

After being in the hospital since August 4th and not delivering until August 6th, we sure were anxious to get out of there. Our OB's and pediatricians agreed to discharge us just after 24 hours on August 7th. Reid, unlike his brother, was breastfeeding like an old pro, and had only lost 3 oz, with a discharge weigh of 7lbs and 15oz.

In the car seat and ready to go home by 1pm on August 7th. Hooray!

At home, we were greeted by big brother Cooper who was again eager to do more holding.

What a great big brother. Notice Reid is keeping one eye open. Smart kid.

I'm watching you.

So now here we are, settling into our new family of four. We have the help of Gigi for a couple weeks and then the Evans Grandparents are reporting for duty. Cooper is adjusting to life as a big brother. He is in love with his brother, always kissing, hugging, and asking to hold him, helping change his diaper, and yelling Super Cooper to the Rescue when Reid cries. He doesn't appear to like the decrease in attention for him and is doing a little more yelling and rebelling. Reid is a model baby so far - breast feeding like a rock star, only fussing when he is hungry or having his diaper changed, and sleeping in 2-3 hour stretches at night in his pack and play (as opposed to his brother Cooper who stunk at feeding, fussed a lot, and would only sleep when he was held). Let's all hope this lasts.