What you've all been waiting for!

Reed TBD Jarrett arrived at 7:10pm at Northside Hospital in Atlanta on August 29, 2009. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 22 inches long. Below are some pics of our new bundle of joy. I promise that we will post more about the labor and delivery process tomorrow but right now we must get rest. It was one long day for mom and dad!

First Family Photo

Getting weighed

Being checked by a nurse

Another family potrait....so excited to finally have him here with us!

Getting his first taste of formula...he was hungry immediately following delivery.

Right before his bath under the warming lights.

Mr. Reed Jarrett!

Induction Story....

The following updates are courtesy of Chris:

4:30pm - So, Brooke is now at 8 cm dilated and Baby J is in a 0 stage position. The doctor just finished checking Brooke and Baby J, and everything looks great with both. The expectation is that Brooke will be fully dilated to 10 cm by 5:30pm and we should have new baby boy by 6:30pm. I can't even explain the nervous excitement that we are both feeling right now, but, trust me, it is amazing!! Sorry, but this will have to be the last update before the arrival of Baby J. We will blog later tonight with pictures of the little guy and, hopefully, we will have named him by then. Continue to send your prayers up that everything goes smoothly from here on out.

I had to be given oxygen because Baby J's heart rate was declining slightly. Apparently, there was pressue on the umbilical cord. They also gave me fluids inside my uterus in order to reduce the pressure. Baby J's heart rate recovered nicely.

Not very happy at this point. The epidural stopped working!

12:30pm - Great news, there has been progress! The doctor came in around 11:45am to check on Brooke and Baby J and Brooke is now dilated to 4cm. The contractions are coming more regular and are definitely going up in intensity. With that, Brooke decided there was no need to wait on the epidural, so they just finished giving it to her and she is already starting to feel better. The nurses will continue to monitor Brooke and Baby J, and Brooke is going to attempt to take a nap in order to get rested up for the work left to do this afternoon. They said no promises, but the nurses believe we will finally see Baby J by 6pm or 7pm this evening. We will do the next update in a couple of hours once the doctor comes in and checks Brooke again. We appreciate any prayers you guys can give us that Brooke and Baby J continue to do well.

Starting to feel better...

10am - We are definitely having a baby today!! The doctor finally came in to check on Brooke and Baby J around 9:30am this morning. She is still around 2 cm dilated, so he decided to break her water to help move the process along. So, Brooke's water has been broken and now the contractions are starting to intensify a little bit. The doctor said that he hopes to have the baby delivered by dinner time tonight. The doctor is going to come back in around noon to check Brooke to see how things are progressing. The nurses are also monitoring the amniotic fluid for any debris that might indicate that Baby J has already had his first bathroom break. We will update again once the doctor comes back in.

Brooke, after her water was broken...still looking beautiful!

6:30am - Well, the sleeping juice lasted until about 3am. Brooke said she slept great until that point, then she spent the rest of the night watching the clock. The nurse came in right at 5am (they are very punctual here, which is not a good thing at 5 in the morning) to get the process started. Brooke was able to take a shower, get her makeup on and eat half of a granola bar (she wasn't supposed to be eating, but she needed some energy) before they gave her an IV and started Pitocin around 6am. So, I guess we are definitely having a baby today!!

Brooke, with her IV and ice, getting ready for the day ahead

11pm - Brooke was given 2 Ambien and a shot of morphine around 10:30pm to help her get some good rest. They monitored Baby J's heart rate before and after to make sure he was doing okay afterward. He's doing great, and so is Brooke (see the picture below for the evidence). Hopefully Brooke will gets some good rest for the big day tomorrow!

Brooke, feeling good after getting some sleeping juice

8 pm - We've checked into the hospital and have been checked. No cervidil needed, woohoo! I am currently 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. As the nurse said, I am in the hospital for a therapeutic evening. If only it was a spa instead of a hospital. I will try to make the best of it though.

Chris and I in the hospital bed...he just wishes he could sleep here.

My Mom and I hanging out as we wait.

Oh, the hospital bed...in my stylish gown!

Me getting ready to go get my baby boy!

Chris getting ready to drive us to the hospital.

6 pm - We are scheduled to be at the hospital at 6. Here we go!

So, here's the deal....

It looks like Baby J is going to need some coercing to make his appearance into the world and meet his mommy and daddy. Since labor doesn't seem to be starting on its own, Chris and I will be checking into the hospital tonight in preparation for being induced tomorrow morning. Once we arrive, they will give me a drug called cervidil that will help in preparing my cervix for labor. After giving me the drug, I will have to lay still for about 2 hours without eating or drinking anything. After that, I will have until midnight to move around and eat. They plan to give me sleeping medicine tonight so that I will be good and rested for labor tomorrow. Oh, how I am looking forward to getting a good night's rest. The last few nights have been pretty painful!

We don't know yet what time we will be heading to the hospital, as we have to wait for the hospital to call us and let us know that there is a bed available for me. Fun times! Let's hope everything goes as planned and we don't end up having to call them to tell them that we need to come in.

I will do my best to post updates this evening as to how things are going as well as posting throughout the day tomorrow as labor begins.

Chris and I will be parents tomorrow! Craziness!

Baby J's (almost) Completed Nursery

We are getting so very close to Baby J making his arrival. I have yet to have the first real contraction, so I am thinking that we probably won't meet our baby boy until Saturday. Until then, enjoy the pics of Baby J's nursery. We still need to hang a few things on the wall, such as his name, but it is complete for the most part. I think Baby J is going to be very comfortable in his room!

Prepare to be shocked.....40 Weeks Slideshow!

My body has come a long way since I became pregnant. I hardly even recognize my former self. I can only hope that I am able to get back to some semblance of how I was November of last year. I know it is going to be a long hard road, but I look forward to working hard!

40 weeks and......no baby yet!

As of today, I am 40 weeks pregnant! Yes, I am still pregnant! I was hoping that we would have cute pics of our baby boy to post today, but he doesn't seem ready to come out just yet.

We had an appointment with our doctor today to complete the nonstress test to check on Baby J. Chris and I basically sat in a room for around 2 hours while Baby J's movements and heartbeat along with my contractions were monitored. Baby J performed excellently and the doctor even said "your baby's perfect". We, of course, knew that but it's always good to hear it from a professional. Along with the baby doing perfectly, the doctor also said that the amniotic fluid also seemed good. There is no reason for concern at this point with continuing the pregnancy past our due date. The doctor did say that if I notice any decrease in Baby J's movements we should just go straight to the hospital.

If I don't go into labor on my own or there is nothing to be concerned about, then we will be inducing labor on Saturday. At that point, I will be 40 weeks 5 days pregnant or 41 weeks 2 days pregnant per the doctor. Chris and I are very comfortable allowing them to induce labor at that point in time, but we are holding out hope that he will come on his own before then. Either way, we will most definitely have a new member of our family by Saturday, August 29th.

On average, newborns weigh approximately 7 1/2 pounds and are approximately 20 inches long. His skull bones are not yet fused, which allows them to overlap a bit if it's a snug fit through the birth canal during labor.

Well, that's all I have to report right now. Let's hope I have extremely good news in the very near future!

Baby J's Stats

You guessed and now we are reporting. Feel free to continue to submit your guesses, you obviously have a better chance of getting it right since Baby J has yet to make his appearance.

Call us crazy......

We could've met our little boy yesterday! I know what you must be thinking....are they crazy?

At our 39 week appointment, our doctor brought up the possibility of inducing labor on our "actual" due date, August 20th, which was a week or so away. We had another appointment with him this week and he was still encouraging us to induce labor on Thursday, August 20th, which was the one day of the week that he would be on call. Before we even went into the appointment, Chris and I decided that inducing was not what we wanted to do at this point in the pregnancy. After the appointment, we somewhat waffled on what the right thing to do was. Our doctor gave us a pretty convincing argument as to why would should induce but no part of the argument seemed to give any medical reason as to why it was necessary to induce on our due date. The baby is fine and I am fine, no problem with high blood pressure or anything else.

That was the kicker for us. There seemed to be no medical reason for us to go ahead and induce labor. The kind of inducing that would require an overnight stay in the hospital to prepare my cervix for labor and then be given the labor inducing drugs the following morning. It just felt like a little too much to put that much stress on the baby and me for no particular reason.

As I mentioned before, the doctor wanted to induce on our "actual" due date. This is the due date that the doctors have on file. Our ultrasound due date, which we trust more, is August 24th, so technically inducing labor on August 20th would have been 4 days before we were even full term. I really didn't want to have our baby out of convenience for us or the doctor. I know that our baby boy will make his appearance when he is good and ready. If he doesn't get good and ready, then we will induce labor next Saturday, August 29th, when our doctor is on call again. We have a non stress test scheduled for Monday where they will check the baby to make sure everything is good with him. If not, then we would be scheduled for an induction that night. Wish us luck! Hopefully Baby J will make his appearance before Monday on his own!

39 Weeks!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! These are the exact thoughts running through my head at basically any given time each day. Baby J could be here anytime now, and I have to be honest and admit that I am ready. I am ready to meet him and to also not be pregnant anymore. I guess this is your body's way of getting you prepared for childbirth. I am still not extremely uncomfortable, but I am most definitely ready. As I write this blog, it is 8:45pm which means that Chris and I will not be getting a free dinner at Scalini's. Hey, at least we tried. We have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, so keep your fingers crossed that the eggplant parmigiana at least caused me to dilate a few more centimeters. I was 1 cm dilated at our appointment last week.

As of 39 weeks, Baby J is continuing to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely that he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds. Babycenter.com equates this to a mini watermelon, yikes! They also mention that boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls, so he just might make it to the 8 pound mark. The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath. Pretty cool!

And, that's it for the 39 week developments for Baby J. Let's hope that in place of the 40 week post next Monday we have a post announcing the birth of our baby boy. That would be so much cooler than seeing another pic of my belly, lol!

Love you all!

Eggplant Parmigiana...Will it work for me?

After our doctor's appointment on Friday Chris and I decided that it might be time to try out the eggplant parmigiana served at Scalini's Restaurant in Smyrna to see if we can't coax our baby boy into making his appearance sooner rather than later. So, Saturday night we went to Scalini's and I, of course, had the eggplant parmigiana. I am personally not a fan of eggplant, but I figured I would make a sacrifice for meeting our baby boy in the near future. To be honest, it was actually pretty good. I could only manage to eat half of the serving, but I finished the remainder of the entree today for lunch.

Now, we wait....

And the waiting is not fun. So far it has included me waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about having contractions. Unfortunately, just thinking about them did not make them happen last night. They say that the babies born after the mothers eat eggplant parmigiana usually are born within 48 hours. We had dinner around 7:30 on Saturday night, so Baby J has until 7:30 tomorrow night to get us a free dinner at Scalini's and himself a Scalini's t-shirt.

Below is a link to Scalini's Restaurant's website that describes the association of the eggplant parmigiana with births. It has been featured in People Magazine as well as on Good Morning America. The wall of baby pictures in their restaurant is unreal. We will definitely have to go back and take pictures of the place if it ends up working.

Scalini's Eggplant Parmigiana

Everyone should be thinking contractions with us now, which was the exact advice our doctor gave me on Friday! Let's hope we all get to meet Baby J very soon!

Happy Birthday Marc!

Today, my little brother turned 25 years old! Wow, he's really getting old, lol! Just kidding Marc! We love you and hope you had a great day! I know you were holding out hope for Baby J to come on your birthday but unfortunately I think he is going to let you keep your birthday to yourself, sorry!

Happy Anniversary Jo and Paw Paw!

Well, this post is better late than never......

My family recently hosted an anniversary party for my mom's parents, Gerald and Jo Ann Dempsey, to celebrate 50 years of marriage! The party was held at the Reynolds' Barn in Summerville where guests dined on a yummy barbecue dinner with wedding cake for dessert. My grandparents didn't have a wedding cake at their wedding, so my grandmother made the special request for one. A DJ provided music for the event, which had my grandmother up and dancing the entire night. Most people commented on the fact that I get my dancing spirit from her. Check out the pictures below to see the fun that was had by all.

50 years together, wow!!! It's so amazing!

The anniversary couple with their daughter, my mom!

The cake

Cutting the cake for the first time.....

And shoving it in each other's mouths for the first time, lol!

Brandi and I (Her and her husband Tony came down for my baby shower and the anniversary party. You might have noticed that she wasn't in any of the baby shower pics, because she graciously took all the pictures for me. Love you Brandi!)

Tony, Brandi's husband, and Chris

First Dance

My grandmother managed to pull my brother out on the dance floor too! They were joined by my dad's parents.

The beginning of a long night of dancing for Jo. It was just perfect for her!

Paw Paw enjoyed watching her dance!

All of the grandchildren on my grandmother's side of the family. It was pretty cool to have everyone together at once.

A good many of the great-grandchildren. Just a few were missing.

My brother and I

My family! My dad is even semi-smiling!

Chris and I

Marc, Chris, and I

And, she kept going and going and going.....

My mom and Terri Lynn (they were having a good laugh about the fact that Terri Lynn stood in a fire ant bed prior to the grandchildren picture being taken, it wasn't too funny at the time though!)

Chris and I demonstrating our electric slide skills. The baby allowed me to do a little dancing.

Paw Paw and I

Jo and Paw Paw at the end of the night. So tired, but they had such a great time!

Happy Anniversary Jo and Paw Paw! We love you very, very much!