Joseph Reese Bonner

We are so happy (and thrilled, excited, thankful, amazed, the list could go on and on...) to annouce the birth of our sweet baby boy, Joseph Reese Bonner!

Here are some pictures we took over the weekend:

 Hi, Reese!

Happy baby! 

I love you so much!!!

Here is the story of his wonderful birthday...

Wade and I arrived at Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital at 6 am.  We checked in and got settled into our labor and delivery room.  There was some craziness that morning (emergency C-sections and things), so Wade and I just relaxed in our room and watched television for about an hour before things started.

Around 7:30 am, my nurse started all of the preliminary work (my IV, medical background info, fetal monitor, etc.).  I was already having some good contractions without the induction medicine!

At 8:30 am, my doctor, Dr. Laffitte, arrived. He ordered the pitocin (the drug that induces labor) to begin and he broke my water.  My contractions started to pick up and began coming at regular intervals.

At 10 am, I called my nurse and asked for the epidural. She called the doctor, Dr. Long, and he had it in by 10:30 am. Yay!!!

Around 11:30 am, my contractions were picking up even more. Reese's heart rate started to drop some with each contraction, but it went right back up and returned to normal after the peak of each contraction.  To help steady his heart rate throughout my contractions, the nurse had me lay on my left side and wear an oxygen mask. This did the trick!

At 12 noon, Dr. Laffitte checked me and I was dilated about 6 cm...then, at 2 pm, I was 10 cm and ready to go! Wow! We were so excited!!!

There were several other patients from my doctor's office in the hospital on Wednesday, so we had to kind of "stagger" our deliveries. Around 2:15 pm, the nurses started setting up the room for delivery. As we waited on the doctor to return, my nurse told me to push to see how things would go.  I pushed 3 times and was told to stop. He was ready to arrive!

Dr. Laffitte arrived a few minutes later.  He got dressed in his delivery clothes, told me to push 1 time, told me to stop pushing, and then Reese was born! I was amazed. It was so quick and easy! After the doctor suctioned out his mouth, he laid him on my stomach.  I was in awe!!!:) Wade cut the umbilical cord and then he immediately began to pee everywhere (Reese, not Wade, ha!).  He is such a beautiful baby!!!

This time, I got to watch the whole clean-up-the-baby process because they did it right in the room (not in the nursery, like with Avery). I really appreciated this. They gave him a little bath, did his foot prints, and then returned him to me for some good snuggle time. I am in love!!:)

Big Sister!