At Long Last: Pictures of baby James!!!

I firstly just want to apologize for the lack of post since we had our baby.  It's been very time consuming to fawn over the cutest baby boy in the entire freakin' universe!  So I'll just give you a run down of how it happened, and then post some pics of our boy, James!

Sunday, October 30th, 2011 at 1:30 PM - Candy and I are in the chapel for our ward's 5th sunday lesson.  Candy began to complain that she felt "queasy."  About 5 minutes later she asked to go home early.  If you know Candy, then you know that's just weird.  She does NOT leave church early!  Anyhow, we left early.

4:00 PM - Candy made Kurt go run our ward choir rehearsal (we're the directors), and Kurt was very mad that he had to leave!  But he went, and when he got to rehearsal he informed the members that Candy, who had stayed home, was having contractions every 10 minutes or so.  To that they nearly all replied in unison "WHY ARE YOU HERE?!?!?!?!"  To which I replied "Candy made me!"

5:15 PM - Candy and I start keeping a log of her contractions.  By 6:00 they average a minute long, and about 6 minutes apart.  It's at that point that a few phone calls are made, and we think it's about to happen for real.

From this point, that particular evening is a little foggy, but we packed our stuff for the hospital, and prepared ourselves.  Then about 1:00 AM, Kurt got a little sleep (like, an hour and a half)

Monday, October 31st, 2011, 3:00 AM - Candy wakes up Kurt and says she thinks she's ready to go.  I then called the admitting desk at the maternity center to ask if they thought it would be good to come in.  To them, everything sounded right, so we got ready and drove to Fountain Valley.

The drive down was dark, with empty roads, and VERY dense fog!  It was no fun wanting to be in a hurry without being able to.

4:15 AM - Candy is officially admitted into the hospital.  Her contractions are very strong, a bit painful, and happening about every 3 minutes, lasting a minute each.  Shortly thereafter, the midwife, DeAnne, came in a checked how things were going.  Candy was, at that point, 4 centimeters dilated.  They figured that it usually takes an average of one centimeter per hour from that point, with most of the dilation happening in the last hour.  It was also at this point that we asked who the attending midwife would be for the day, and we were informed that Pat Evans, Candy and I's FAVORITE midwife would be there that day... BLESSINGS FROM HEAVEN!!!!!!!

3:00 PM (Yeah... not six hours) - By this point, Candy was 8 cm dilated and had been progressing decently, but her water refused to break!  So, Candy did the only un-natural thing that day: she had her water broken for her, Because she wanted that baby OUT!!!

3:40-ish PM - Candy was finally ready to push, and the midwife gave her the thumbs up.  So Myself, two nurses and Pat all began helping her push.  I held her head and one of her legs, the nurses held the legs as well, and Pat did the "pulling."  The midwife and nurses were amazed at how well Candy was doing.  She was pushing very well, and the baby was crowning nicely.  I just want to emphasize (because I'm SUPER proud of my wife) how amazed the nurses were.  They thought she'd done this before, and all of them couldn't believe she stuck it out with no pain killers!

4:17 PM - James Elliott Reeder was welcomed into the world!  He was immediately put on Candy's chest, and I just BAWLED like you wouldn't believe!  I was heaving and crying so hard!  And we thought Candy would be the one to cry like that.  So after half an hour pushing, Candy finally "got 'er done," and out came James.  He was given a '9' on the APGAR scale (in other words... really freakin' good looking and healthy), and the nurses couldn't get enough of James and Candy.  Here are his stats:

Weight: 7 lbs 7 oz

Length: 20 inches

And just so you know... Halloween WAS James' due date!  Way to be punctual, James!!!!

Candy really was amazing throughout the process, and my respect for women has increased 200 fold.  I feel that birth truly is a woman's "Gethsemane," and that the travail of birth is a parallel to the atonement of Christ.  Where would men be without women?  Well... not here on earth, that's for sure!  The human female body is incredible, and the birth experience just confirms for me the reality of a God who gave us these bodies as part of a testing mortal experience.  Thank you Candy, and Mom, and Grandma, and Great-Grandma, and etc...  I wouldn't be here without you.

Here's James at birth on Candy's chest, and on the scale:

Candy stayed in the hospital for two nights following the birth.  She nursed James, and once again, elicited a reaction of "wow! you're a pro!" from the nurses.  James did very well in the hospital. He ate well, and was circumcised, and all that fun stuff.  Now... my family might not know, but Candy's sure does, that the week before James' birth, Candy's uncle Randy (Liz's brother) was admitted to the hospital in very serious condition.  He passed away from liver cancer on Friday, the 29th of October, and his funeral was on Monday afternoon, and James was born two hours later.  It was a great blessing to have the timing of these two events so in line, and Liz was able to come down and spend time with Candy and I, and feel very blessed to have had her help.  But we seriously feel that James and Randy were able to "tag out" as they passed each other.  Heavenly Father has been very mindful of us, and our families.

My mom is down here right now helping out, and she too has been a great blessing to us.  I would now like to post a few pics that were taken by Candy's aunt Suzy.  She's a great photographer who also photographed our wedding.  ENJOY!

Mommy and Baby... I know... awwwww!!! 

 Our little pumpkin!!!!

 Fresh from Heaven!

We think he looks a lot like cousin Jude in this picture.