Disney Princesses are Drama Queens

Garrett Reed quote of the day:

"I don't like Disney. All they do is create drama queens. Every Disney princess was just trying to runaway from their father."

Me: "That's not true. Only Jasmine was trying to escape her father."

Garrett: "Not true. What about Ariel."

Me: "Well, that's it. What about Cinderella."

Garrett: "Cinderella didn't have a father. And she was trying to run away from her step mom because she tried to make her do chores. Drama queen."

I guess Emerson will never have a Disney Princess party. And the poor girl will probably never be watching the Disney Channel. If Garrett thinks the princesses are drama queens, I wonder what he would think about Hannah Montana.

Second Garrett quote of the day:

"Allie I wanna be married to you for 75 years. Not 76. By then I think I'll be ready for another wife. How old will I be then?" You'll be 97 Garrett....good luck with your next wife.

Just a normal morning around the breakfast table.

Speaking of Emerson, I've had a few questions about this little outfit:

These little PJ's came from Emerson's world traveling uncle and aunt, Cullen and Amber. They brought these back for her from China and she loves them! This is her rocking them for the first time back in June. Of course she sported some shorts on her head with them. She wants to wear them all the time. In fact, she was rocking them when she barfed on me this past weekend. No worries, the cleaned right up.

Initiation

Well, it's official, we are parents. One would think this would have felt official 18 months ago when Emerson was born. Or if that wasn't enough to make it feel real, you would think that Evan being born 4 weeks ago would have sealed the deal. But the truth is, even as recently as Saturday morning, I don't think either of us really felt like there was any way we could be parents. I mean we are young and more than that we are cool....there is no way we could be parents right??? Honestly, on Saturday afternoon when some of our great friends (Nicky and Scott...who happen to be dating now...woohooo!), stopped by to bring us dinner and to meet to little Evan, I remember thinking to myself, "there is no way I am the mother of two." Fast forward and few hours to approximately 10:37pm (only a few minutes away from an unbelievable Gamecock victory), and all of that changes.

In the wee hours of Friday night/early Saturday morning when I was up with EVAN because he was super congested and had a bad cough, I decided I should take him to the doctor in the morning. So I did, I took EVAN to the doctor Saturday morning. They told me what I thought they would tell me, "he has a little cold. Keep an eye on it. If he has a fever of 110.4 or higher take him to the ER." Got it. So we stayed home all day Saturday and had a rest day.

Back to 10:37pm Saturday night. I was watching my Gamecocks win and I was loving it and I was pumped to watch them wrap up the victory. Then all of the sudden I hear EMERSON screaming over the baby monitor. Which I should note is not abnormal these days. Ever since we brought Evan home, she often has a hard time going to bed or wakes up crying. It's like she thinks we are up partying with out her. Which of course we are because are cool and not parent like at all. Anyway, Garrett went to go check on her (since he's a Clemson fan and not as invested as I am in watching the Gamecocks bring home the W). A few seconds later I hear him bringing her down stairs and I think to myself in an annoyed way, "Why is he bringing her down here?? He just needs to make her go back to bed." I'm a good wife like that.

Anyway, as he walks into the room with her he says "We need to take her temperature, she's on fire." As he says this he plops her down in my lap. He was right, she was blazing hot. Garrett had brought the thermometer down with him so we immediately take her temp, 102 degrees. Please note she is still sitting in my lap facing me. Within 3 seconds of confirming her fever, she looks at me and starts sobbing, and then projectile vomits in my lap. While everyone starts scrambling to get supplies to clean up (we are sitting on my parents nice sofa), she projectile vomits in my lap, again.

We get everyone cleaned up and then I decide to put out an air mattress in her room so she and I can sleep on it together so I can keep a close eye on her. Mistake. However, in the short time we were on the air mattress together I tried to snuggle her and she kept pushing my hands away from her. Finally as I was laying there, I started to feel like a parent. I found myself thinking things like, "I wish I was sick, not her." "I wish she would let me snuggle and comfort her...I'm sure there will be lots of other times in her life that I want to comfort her when she won't want me to." And as I began to go down the trail of very parental thoughts, she looked at me and projectile vomited in my face again. Yes, I have been initiated into parenthood.

Luckily, the vomiting only lasted a few hours and the fever only lasted about 24 hours. And luckily again, Garrett got his initiation in to parenthood yesterday when he was sitting on the couch holding Em and somehow her diaper sprung a leak and she peed all in his lap. Yes, I took a picture.

Can you say A.W.E.S.O.M.E. I still can't stop laughing about it. Anyway, the point of this whole story is this: #1. Having sick kids really made me feel like a parent #2. Beware: If you take your 4 week old to the doctor for a cold, your 18 month may start puking shortly thereafter....the irony. Maybe the real lesson is that I'm not that great of parent b/c I took the wrong kid to the doctor.

Here is a pic of Em with a serious stomach virus and fever of 102 degrees and she still knows how to cheese it. I wish I was this cute.

Like a Ninja

Good news....Emerson loves her brother. We were a little nervous there for a minute but that minute has passed. Emerson has been so sweet and loving towards her brother and for that we are extremely thankful. Evan seems to not mind her so much either. Here are a few pics from the past few days.

Emerson helping feed her brother.....and loving it.

Em showing off the giant bruise right between her eyes. Still not 100% sure how that happened.

Emmy carrying on a conversation with her brother.

Not sure what she is doing here but it made me laugh. Still rocking the bruise though.

In other good news, Garrett took the day off today. So, we and the McCall's took our kiddos to the Greenville Zoo. So much fun! The weather was perfect. I loved every minute of it. Apparently, Emerson and Bryson loved it too because they decided to share a spontaneous smooch.

I still can't believe my husband allowed this to happen. I guess you can't stop young love.

After smooching, they decided to ride some lions. (yes Emerson wore her head band like a ninja all day)

Emerson also tried to smooch the pig. I guess she's not too picky about who she smooches. We clearly need to work on this.

Fun times. That's it. A little snap shot of our life. Not pictured in this post, how little sleep we are getting these days. It's ok Evan, we love you despite your desire to eat every 3 hours around the clock.

An Overdue Update

Ok so I stink at updating my blog. This should not come as a shock to anyone. But who cares because EVAN IS HOME! And to make things even better our entire little family is living in the same town and in the same house (which is so exciting that I am willing to overlook that we are living with my parents).

Let me go back a week and a few days in order to provide a complete update. The Wednesday before Halloween (also known as the day Garrett was originally scheduled to go back to Northern, VA), we walked into the NICU and little Evan was wearing real clothes. Not a standard issued hospital t-shirt and blanket, but a little orange onsie. I may not have jumped to any conclusions had the nurse at the front desk not said to us when walked in "how would y'all feel about maybe taking Evan home today?", but she had said it. So, when we saw him in real clothes, we both assumed he was coming home. Our excitement was immediately squashed when one of the other nurses said, "he's still breathing fast and not maintaining his saturation levels when he sleeps. The doctor wants to keep him for a few more days." A FEW MORE DAYS???...Garrett had just booked his flight back to Northern, VA for Friday morning hoping Evan would be home before then. A few more days would mean some time over the weekend while Garrett was gone.

So, when the doctor came in to talk to us I really tried to hold it together, I did. But, I was unsuccessful. I didn't sob uncontrollably or anything but I couldn't keep the tears from coming. The poor neonatologist is such a wiry and awkward man and I could tell I was making him extremely uncomfortable (which I personally find odd, you would think he deals with crying moms on a regular basis). Anyway, while I cried, he explained to us what we had already heard from the nurse and said Evan probably wouldn't come until sometime over Halloween weekend, after Garrett had left.

I was so excited to know Evan was going to be coming home at some point but I wanted more than anything for Garrett to be there when it happened. Well, the Lord heard my prayers and had compassion on me because the next morning the doctor called me and said he felt good about Evan coming home and that we could pick him up at lunch time. Garrett still had to leave the next day but at least we would have 24 hours together as a family. And to add to my joy, we found out that Garrett's company worked it out for him to take an assignment closer to home for a little while. So, Garrett was able to fly back on Halloween and we have all been living together again for a week now......wooohooo!!!!

I'll say, I don't know what I would do without Garrett here. I'm pretty sure I have 2 of the easier kids on the planet but juggling them both is time consuming. So, having their dad around is a blessing on lots of levels. Evan is doing great and is officially a healthy little boy. Emerson is still adjusting to having someone else to share the attention with, but she genuinely seems to love her little brother.

Since Evan made it home in time for Halloween, we all went trick-or-treating (which means we went to 3 houses). Much to Garrett's disappointment, I dressed Em up in a USC cheerleading outfit. In fact, he almost refused to to take her trick-or-treating if she was wearing it. I'm sure he will be going costume shopping for her next year. Regardless, we had fun.

We are still figuring out the whole having 2 kids thing but it has been fun to be able to do it together. We still feel like we are getting to know Evan but here's what we know so far....the little guy loves to eat. He loves to eat more than anything. He loves to eat so much that he gained a little over a pound in less than a week. Other than being passionate about eating he is super laid back...which is a good thing since he sister is not. Unfortunately his passion for eating trumps his desire to sleep. Oh well, we will sleep again some day.

Evan we love you and we are so glad you are home. Emerson, we are thankful you love your brother and we love you so much! Thanks to everyone for all of the support and prayers. We are so thankful for our friends and our amazing family! Enjoy some pics from our week together as a family!

Nana (Mary Jane Ramseur, from whom Ev got his name) holding Evan for the first time.

Garrett always finds the most interesting ways to use the boppy. And he really likes to zip his kids up into his jacket. He tried to zip Em up the other day...it didn't work.

Evan on his first Halloween.

Em trick-or-treating for the first time. She tried to give the candy back a few times. Clearly she didn't get it.

Emerson's new favorite thing to do is to where her bloomers on her head. She walks around showing everyone her "hat." Garrett let her wear them to school one day.

Em celebrating her brother being home. Ok, I actually have no idea what she was doing in this picture.

Emerson and Evan with Nana. Nana moved to an assisted living facility this weekend (at the age of 94!).....we miss her already.

Weekend Update

This "weekend update" may not be as funny as SNL's version but it will update you on our life. Exciting.

Well, we left the hospital late Friday afternoon but not before I had a good old fashioned emotional meltdown. Yes, that's right, I totally lost it around 10am and I cried until 11:30am. And when I say cry, I mean I sobbed. I feel like I remember this happening after I had Emerson too...maybe it's just a post having a baby thing or maybe I'm just weird. Either way, it happened. I sobbed to Garrett and I sobbed to our lactation consultant. I was in pain and I wanted to get to know my baby.

It all started when the day before they had finally let us hold Evan and the night nurse told us that she thought I would get a chance to try and nurse him on Friday night. So, while I had been bummed to leave him at the hospital I was excited to get to come back that night and get some good snuggle time with him (trust me, this is a baby you want to snuggle). So, you can imagine how disappointed I was when Garrett came back from running some breast milk to the nursery on Friday morning and told me, "Evan had a rough night. They think we pushed him too hard yesterday. You aren't going to be able to try and nurse him tonight or handle him much today." I finished drying my hair and then I layed down on the bed and cried.

All I wanted was to get to know the little person I had carried around for 9 months, and then had cut out of my body a few days earlier, and I couldn't even hold him. Enter the lactation consultant. I was already sobbing when she walked in so I just let it flow (keep in mind we kind of know her from Clemson and really love her...she wasn't a total stranger). Well maybe it was a divine appointment because after my sob session, our lactation consultant marched herself down to the NCU and convinced them to let us hold him again before we left that afternoon.

And hold him we did. And his numbers stayed great the whole time (heart rate, oxygen saturation levels, respiratory rate, etc). It was definitely the encouragement and time we needed with our little guy before we left him at the hospital.

On Saturday, Garrett's sister Courtney flew in from Colorado. We spent most of the day at the hospital with Garrett's family. When we walked into the NCU that morning, I walked over to Evan's bed and when I looked at him I noticed he looked really different....it took me a minute to realize NO OXYGEN! They had taken him off the oxygen! And he was breathing. And his saturation levels were at the target and his respiratory rate were where they should be! They let us know that they had just taken him off and that we would wait and see how he did. As we were leaving they asked if we wanted to come back at 3 and try to nurse him....um yes. Clearly we came back, and it went great! He latched on immediately....I'm not gonna lie, having something go smoothly was such a huge blessing. And holding that baby skin to skin might have been the greatest gift I could have ever been given.

To top it all, little Emerson might have done the sweetest thing I've ever seen her do (and she does a lot of sweet things). Em isn't allowed in the NCU but there is a window she can look through. So, before we left I held Evan up for her to see him. Well, she definitely did not enjoy seeing me hold a baby. But, as we were leaving Garrett was holding her up to the window and he said, "tell your baby brother bye bye." And Emerson said, "Bye bye baby," and then she leaned over and kissed the window. As soon as I think I couldn't love that little girl anymore she goes and does something like that. Luckily, we got it on video so I can relive it over and over again.

Whew. All that to say, it was a long but good weekend. Evan stayed off of his oxygen all weekend and we were able to spend most of the day with him today. We held him lots and got to nurse again twice. I am so thankful that he is doing well. I am so thankful for our amazing family and friends. And I am so thankful that Courtney got to spend time with both of our kiddos and us this weekend.

I still feel pretty awful physically but as my sweet mother-in-law reminded me, "today may not be a good day, but tomorrow will be better." I'm clinging to that. Family and friends, we love you so much. Thank you for everything. Sorry we have been so out of touch but please know how much we appreciate all of the sweet phone calls and messages. I promise to be better at keeping in touch very the near future.

Hopefully we will be reporting on Evan coming home soon! In the meantime, enjoy this little pic of my sweet husband that I found in the photo archives. Hopefully, Evan will be as cool as his daddy.

Garrett Reed, circa Summer of 2005 (pre-marriage), and yes, he took this picture of himself.

Holding Babies is My Favorite!

Today is the day that we both got to hold our son for the first time.....wooohoo!!!! We walked into the NCU for our routine morning visit and the nurse said, "Oh, go grab a gown, it's time for you to hold this baby." I cried. And then I held my baby. And loved every second of it. I loved it so much that I didn't even care that I was freakishly nauseated from the pain medication/coffee combo I had just consumed.

Anyway, I won't bore you with banter, I'll just let you enjoy the pics from our wonderful morning. Thank goodness we happened to bring the camera!

Evan Ramseur Reed

Evan

(Hebrew origin means: God is Gracious; Celtic origin means: Young Warrior)

Born October 19, 2010 9:42am

7lbs 7oz and 19.5 inches long

Well, if you haven't heard already, our little man was born yesterday morning at 9:42am. After delivering Emerson wreaked permanent havoc on my body, every doctor I have seen over the past year said a C-Section for this delivery was necessary. So, a C-Section it was.

Typically, I think I tend to believe I am more hard core than I actually am. My thoughts on having a c-section were no exception. So, I was genuinely surprised to discover that I was kind of a wimp when it came to the c-section. I started to panic after they made me drink this nasty stuff that is supposed to neutralize the acid in your stomach. Then when they began to pump me full of drugs after not eating for a while, I really started to come unglued. More than likely most of the people around me didn't notice that I was freaking out, but on the inside I definitely was. Most of my thoughts went something like, "I can't do this." "We can never have more children." "There has to be another way to get this kid out." "Why do I feel like I am dying?" Keep in mind these were my thoughts BEFORE I ever even got the epidural.

I pretty much stayed in quasi-panic mode throughout the surgery. Especially when I asked the nurse anesthetist why I was having sharp pains in my chest and she responded, "Oh it's probably just because your uterus is outside of your body right now. Once they put it back in you'll feel better." Very comforting. Anyway, she eventually gave me some drugs that helped me relax which turned out to be a good thing because from the second little Evan was born it was obvious everything was not ok.

There was a brief moment of joy when the doctor first saw Evan's head and said "He has a ton of black hair," and everyone cheered. A few seconds later when they pulled him out of my body there was silence, no baby crying, no cheering, just nurses and doctors whispering. Every now and then Evan would try to get a little cry out and the nurses would whisper more. There was no shouting of stats or cheers of "He looks great." All that was said was, "It seems he has some fluid in his lungs." Then they whisked him by my face, let me kiss his soft perfect cheeks, and then he was gone...off to the Neonatal Care Unit.

And he has not left the NCU since. Because I had a c-section, I was not able to get out of bed for 12 hours after surgery, so it was late last night before I was able to get to the NCU and really get good look at my baby. He is absolutely precious. He looks JUST like his daddy (which is good since Garrett is freakishly handsome). He has so much jet black hair, it's amazing. His hair and coloring make him look like a little baby Latino Garrett...I love it.

Apparently it is common for c-section babies to have a lot of fluid in their lungs since most babies have the chance to expel that fluid while they are in the birth canal. Most of the babies that experience this problem are able to get rid of the fluid within the first 4 hours of life. Evan had such a substantial amount of fluid in his lungs, that this has not been the case with him. The neonatologist says that Evan has made tremendous progress since yesterday but still has a ways to go. So, when we leave the hospital on Friday our little man will not be coming with us. Of course this makes us sad but at the end of the day, we just want him to breathe with ease. We are both dying to hold him and kiss him....if they can wean him off the oxygen we will get our chance. I'm also dying for Emerson to be able to meet him. I feel blessed to know that I will get to experience all of these things in due time.

Thanks so much for all of the prayers and support. I wish I could get in touch with everyone personally to say thank you. Hopefully once we get everyone home and healthy, I will be able to do just that.