our sweet baby boy

reece william came into this world on april 16th, 2012. we had planned it that way. after all, two previous c-section buys you a free pass to the operating room. I knew it would be the safest way and I wasn't about to roll the dice and try it any other way.

however, reece decided that our original 7am report time was far too late. I had chocked up two hours of tossing and turning and multiple bathroom trips to a final "pregnancy makes sleeping impossible" hurrah. not so. my water broke at 1:15am. really?  my first official "scheduled c-section" and now my body decides to go into spontaneous labor?  um...you're about four years late my friend. I called labor and delivery and they advised me to head on in, but that it probably wasn't a huge rush...in other words, go ahead and shower.
I called my mom and dad and then I proceeded to wake up kyle.  the conversation went something like this:
me: uh, honey?
kyle [asleep]: mmm
me: we need to go to the hospital
kyle: why?
me: my water broke
kyle: are you kidding me?
me: nope
kyle: don't you think you could tough it out for about 5 1/2 more hours?
me:  riiiiiight.
I showered, called my sister (of course), got ready, and then we woke up the boys. luckily I had made sure our bags were all ready to go before I went to sleep mere hours earlier. phew. by this time the contractions were about six minutes apart.
we dropped the boys off at my parents house and then my mom hopped in the van (in her pjs) and drove us to the hospital. the nurses at the desk were expecting us. they led us to our room and handed me my very fashionable outfit. they certainly know how to make a preggo feel beautiful. yikes. by now it's 3 am and my contractions are four minutes apart.

by 4 am I'm officially in active labor and (half) jokingly complaining that I did not sign up for this double whammy.  read: let's get this show on the road. apparently I had just beat the rush and there were quite a few ladies in very active labor who were requesting the services of the anesthesiologist. great. the residents decided that they were going to verify that my water had indeed broken.  in their words, this would determine if I was near the top of the to-do list or dead last.

lo and behold I do know what it feels like when one's water breaks and contractions start coming like a mack truck. I now edged my way almost to the top.  key word: almost. I am ever so grateful to my nurse for requesting that they give me something for the pain. contractions every three minutes can start to smart just a bit. a quick shot in the arm, dimmed room lights, and a reclined bed and I dare say that I nearly napped. around 6 am they wheeled me into the OR.

thirty-one minutes later we heard "IT'S A BOY!" for the third time.

it never gets old.

the rest of our time in the hospital was smooth sailing. I now know to take full advantage of the night nurses in the nursery, so I was able to get some actual rest. miles and henry were in daycare monday through wednesday which made it possible for kyle to spend some quality time snuggling with reece.

the big brothers came to visit little reece on monday afternoon. they were so proud to wear their new t-shirts and I was so proud to see their sweet faces light up when they laid eyes on the tiny baby they had been waiting for and talking about for months.  miles was mildly disappointed when he found out it wasn't a girl, but he was more devasted to discover that we had not named the baby "marker" - tragedy.

we quickly distracted him with a mini spelling lesson for r-e-e-c-e and then he was happy as a clam...and eager to inform anyone who stepped into the room how to spell his baby brother's name. nana and papa bought the big brothers new cameras. thank goodness professional photog nana was there to provide a crash course.


we were grateful for our visitors. it's comforting to know how many people are there to support our little family.

we were also grateful for the quiet moments spent taking in every detail of our sweet little man. if you had asked me ten years ago what I would do if I didn't have a baby girl, I would have probably told you that I would cry. oh how I was wrong. I am so incredibly in love with the three beautiful baby boys that God has blessed kyle and me with. what a privilege to become parents to such perfect little ones.

we are in love.

enjoy this little video montage:

The arrival of our third

Everyone, our third baby has arrived, making us a family of five. Robin and I would like to introduce Reece William Kroening. He was born at 6:31am and is 21 3/4", 8lb 0oz. Mom and baby are both doing well. Reece has even had breakfast. Anyone trying our cell phones please note we don't have cell service in the room. I'll post more later about phone/visitor info.

9pm, about 15 hours old:

The baby is... coming

We were scheduled to arrive at the hospital for the baby's c-section at 7am this morning. However, this conversation happened at 1:50 am:

Robin: "Kyle, wake up."
Kyle: "Huh... Wha?"
Robin: "We have to go to the hospital. My water broke."

It took until our third child was set to be delivered for us to have this happen. So, since I've never been in that situation before and being really tired I asked, "So I hate to be a jerk but are you sure we can't sleep for another 5 hours?" Robin responded with a hearty laugh. So I knew she was still feeling alright but the laugh also told me that this was really happening. We both had time to shower, and then I found out Robin had already called her mom and sister, so we followed through with our plan to drop the boys off and have Nancy drop us off at the hospital, only it was 5 hours earlier than scheduled. It is 4:30am and we are waiting for everything to get set up so we can start the c-section. Stay tuned.

the final countdown

our family of four is just about five.  before the big day arrives, daddy has a race to run.  the Fetzer 20K has become an annual event for kyle and this year was no different.  except for maybe the weather.

what a gorgeous day for a run.  not that I would know.  I admire all of you who can get out the and pound the pavement. I'm fully convinced that you're either bitten by the running bug or you're not. I clearly have a great race bug repellant. kyle, on the other hand, has got this running thing down. his motto is "go fast or go home." clearly evidenced by this year's race results.  two years ago I tried hard to make it to the park before the time that kyle estimated he would run by...we didn't make it. last year we walked there with jen and baby callan in the crispy, cold weather.  this year, we drove.  I figured that at 39 weeks pregnant, I deserved it.

kyle came cruising by just a shade past his "scheduled" time. not his fastest race, but we still thought he did great!

lucky for the little guys, the race is just across the river from one of our favorite parks. so naturally we stopped to play. man I love these two.

there are just mere hours until our two sweet boys...

...become big brothers.