Sweet Baby James!

Well we welcomed baby James into our family last saturday! We had started to get a bit impatient for him to come and had decided to schedule to be induced on saturday morning. So we took all day friday preparing the house and packing and getting the kids ready to go to grandma and grandpa Stoker's. I guess all the activity got things going. By the time we made it to the Grandparent's I was having steady contractions. So we got the kids settled and headed off to the hospital. We think one of the nurses thought we were just trying to sneak in early for our induction (which was to be the next morning) but, they soon found out I was well into labor. I was at a 4 at that time.

Comparing to the other kids,the whole hospital experience of this birth was wonderful. (not that the other ones were so terrible either) But I wanted to go unmedicated again and had wonderful nurses and doctors that helped me through it all, and of course Jared was the perfect birth partner! The nurse that was with me most of the night kept telling me how wonderful it was going. Saying that this was the best 'natural' birth experience that she had seen in months. The first couple hours Jared and I just walked around the hospital and Jared would let me hang on and hug him through contractions. Then the nurse suggested I tried the 'birthing ball' which is just a large exercise ball. I was so content there that I stayed on it the next couple of hours. It helped relief me so much that although the contractions were about every 3 minutes, I found myself dozing to sleep between, one time almost rolling off the ball! Eventually though as I got close it wasn't quite so blissful and the last couple hours were pretty hard, but again, the nurses, doctors and Jared helped me through it. Fanning me with a clipboard and shoveling ice chips into my mouth. I ended up giving birth on all fours on the hospital bed. I am sure that is all way more information then anyone wanted, but you can't help but share the birth story.




Now onto the more important stuff! James Lee Reece was born at 7:47 am on April 17th. I kept thinking he was a bit larger baby, (Joey and Jeanie were both in the low 6lbs) and weighed in at 7 lbs 7 oz. They then moved us into recovery room 207! The nurse that brought us to the room also pointed out that he will turn 7 in the year 2017. So, he is already set with his lucky number!!James is Jared's middle name, so he is named after his daddy! Lee was the middle name to my Grandpa Madsen that passed away a few weeks ago. Not sure why we didn't take any pictures of my parents holding James when they came to visit! Guess we were to busy taking pictures and noticing how Joey and Jeanie took in thier new little brother. Here is Jared giving James his first bath. I was taking pictures from the hospital bed so I couldn't really get any good angles of it! But Jared had a fun time bathing him.Joey and Jeanie love love thier little brother! When they came to the hospital to see him Joey just came marching into the room with confidence and took over like he knew what was happening. Jeanie looked a bit confused but was very entralled with the tiny baby. Joey has been adjusting pretty well, and Jeanie has for the most part. She does not act so much jealous of the baby, but is very concerned about our care of him. She was so upset with us for putting him in the crib in the dark. She kept screaming that it was scary.