2011 has been a year of some of our highest highs (birth of our daughter) and lowest of lows (miscarriage in March and difficult pregnancy/delivery of Reagan). We finished our quest to visit the 48 contiguous states in May and a long anniversary weekend in Chicago in July. We’ve grown closer than ever and are excited to start our newest adventure as parents!
Also check out our videos from previous years!
While the China Joneses were visiting, we asked Lawanda (James’ sister-in-law) to help with our first family photo shoot. I was still pretty swollen from all the IV fluids they had pumped me up with, but we really wanted some family pictures while Reagan was still a newborn.
The China Joneses didn’t get enough of Reagan on Wednesday when they visited in the hospital, so they decided to also come over on New Years Eve for a visit… and of course to see the baby!
Checking out the little baby!
Rachel really seemed to enjoy holding her new little cousin and Judah was interested, but seemed to enjoy running around and checking stuff out a little more (especially the fireplace!)!
Rachel holding Reagan
It was great to see the China Joneses again and we’re hoping to see them at least one more time before they head back to China!
Grandma and Reagan crashed on the floor in the nursery
Friday evening some of the K Jones family trekked down from Bloomington for dinner and to meet Reagan for the first time! My Mom was there helping me out and she made an excellent dinner and had everything perfect and ready by the time everyone showed up.
It was great to see everyone and to have everyone meet and hold Reagan. It was also really special because my Aunt Linda and Aunt Deb got Reagan an Add-A-Pearl necklace with a starter pearl on it. I have the same type of necklace and over the years family has added to it making it not only beautiful, but very meaningful (I also wore this necklace when James and I got married!).
Add-a-Pearl neclace for Reagan!
Grandpa and Grandma brought us some beautiful light pink roses that were not only pretty, but also had a very rich rose smell.
Beautiful light pink roses!
It was a great evening and it was wonderful to get to see so many family members and introduce them to our little girl!
Friday afternoon we had to take Reagan to her pediatrician, Dr. Brooks. It is hospital policy at Carle to not let a new baby leave without confirming that a pediatrician appointment has already been set up. In addition, because of her weight loss and risk of jaundice they especially wanted us to get her to the doctor sooner rather than later.
At the doctor’s office they started by weighing Reagan and we weren’t happy to hear that she’d lost more weight since we left the hospital. The doctor checked her out and other than her weight loss and risk of jaundice (she was looking slightly yellow), she was perfectly healthy. Just to be safe, the doctor sent us over to the hospital (Decatur Memorial Hospital; DMH) to have them check her bilirubin levels.
Checking her bilirubin levels wasn’t fun, they had to prick her heel and then squeeze it to get enough blood out, but Reagan handled it pretty well (and much better than her Mommy did!). It was also nice that our doctor called us within a hour or so to let us know her bilirubin level had increased from the hospital, but that it wasn’t at a critical level yet. He suggested we go back to the hospital on Monday to get her checked again just to make sure the level hadn’t increased too much. Yet, at least we had the weekend without needing anything extra done and to hopefully do everything we could to lower Reagan’s bilirubin levels (get her to eat more, go to the bathroom more, and get her exposed to some sunlight).
Thursday morning we got the all clear that I was doing well enough that we could go home! It was wonderful to be able to start packing things up (it’s amazing how much you can accumulate in such a short period of time) and getting things ready to go.
By late morning/early afternoon we were finally ready and they called a transporter to come and wheel Reagan and I down to the car!
Getting wheeled down to the car!
This is going to sound crazy, but after everything we went through during the labor, delivery, and even afterwards, I hadn’t cried at all. Yet, as soon as we started getting wheeled down the hall to the elevator I started bawling. All I could think about was the time I spent at the hospital worrying and wondering about whether I’d ever make it home with a healthy full term term baby. And even though Reagan was two days old, it just finally hit me that she really was ok and we really did make it! It was also very touching that the outfit Reagan wore home was the froggy outfit that I had hanging in my hospital room while I was on bedrest that was my “goal” outfit.
Standing outside "my" hospital bedrest room (46 days in that room!!)
The froggy outfit was Reagan’s first outfit (my Mom bought it for her) and my goal during bedrest was to incubate little Reagan until she was big enough to fit into the outfit. So yes, after all of this, I cried when we left the hospital because I was so happy and so relieved that everything worked out ok.
Reagan did great on the car ride home and Daddy did the honors of getting her out of the car and bringing her into the house for the first time!
Daddy bringing Reagan into the house for the first time!
It felt great to finally be home and even a little surreal after how quickly we left the house Monday night and with such little warning! I nursed Reagan and then crashed on the couch with her until we were awakened by visitors.
James’ Dad and Alice had come over to meet their new Granddaughter! We were happy to see them and to introduce them to our new little bundle of joy!
Grandpa Gene and Reagan
Grandpa Gene didn’t seem quite so sure about holding a baby quite so small and even joked about us bringing her over to his house after she was bigger and started moving around more. Grandma Alice didn’t have any problems like that and went straight for little Reagan!
Grandma Alice and Reagan!
Grandma Alice seemed to really enjoy Reagan and held her almost the entire time they were there visiting. It was great to see both of them and to have them meet Reagan for the first time!
Later in the afternoon after Grandpa Gene & Grandma Alice left, my Mom arrived to help out for a few days until I started feeling better and could move better from the cesarean.
James and my Mom decided that Tuesday night my Mom would spend the night at the hospital and Wednesday night James would spend the night at the hospital. This way James could get a decent night sleep after the long day Tuesday and my Mom would be able to go home Wednesday afternoon and then come back once we got home from the hospital.
Mom changing Reagan's diaper
Tuesday night was a LONG night. The nurses kept coming in to check on me and then come at completely different times to check on Reagan. It was also annoying because around 4AM they wanted to take Reagan to get checked by the pediatrician (all babies get checked by the pediatrician every morning). I had a firm rule about Reagan not being out of a family members sight while in the hospital, so my Mom went with the nurse and lurked outside the nursery until the pediatrician was done checking her and then made sure she got brought right back to my room.
One funny thing that happened during the night was that a nurse came in to check on me and she noticed that Reagan wasn’t in bed with me and wasn’t in her bassinet. She looked around all worried until she noticed Reagan was curled up asleep on my Mom who was also asleep on the couch in my room! It was pretty cute!
Late Wednesday morning James got to the hospital and I also got my catheter and IV out! It was good to have everything out of me and I was able to finally get out of bed and take a shower!!
Mommy and Reagan
The hot shower went a long ways towards making me feel slightly human, but I was in a LOT of pain now that I wasn’t getting the IV painkillers and it hurt really bad to move. My Mom hung out until early afternoon and then she headed home and James and I tried to relax a little bit.
Daddy and Reagan taking a nap
Around mid afternoon Jerry & Lawanda (James’ brother) and their kids stopped by the hospital to meet Reagan! Jerry & Lawanda live in China, but luckily have been back visiting the United States for part of December and January!
Later that afternoon/evening, James went to get something to eat and to pick up a few things from Walmart for me and came back with Oreos for me and a diaper wipe warmer for Reagan (we’d already noticed that she hated the cold wipes on her little tush!).
Wednesday night didn’t go much better than Tuesday night and the nurses were in and out pretty much the whole time. Also, James got to get up twice and go with Reagan to the nursery; Once to see the pediatrician and once for a vision/hearing screening. Reagan checked out ok on everything, but they were slightly worried about the amount of weight she had lost, she was down to under 7lbs, and her potential risk for jaundice. She was ok for now, but they wanted to make sure after we took her home that our pediatrician continued to monitor her.
After three long nights at the hospital, by Thursday morning we were quite happy when the doctor gave me the ok that we could go home! I could have stayed an extra day, but I was past ready to go home!
To start with, no, this is NOT the story of how Euro was conceived! This is the story of how James picked Euro as a nickname for our little girl!
Reagan (Euro) Kay Jones at 20 hours old!
Originally we were going to tell people the gender of the baby after our 21 week ultrasound and gender scan. While we got a definite “It’s a Girl” from the ultrasound tech, the telling people went off track when we also found out on this visit that I had a very short and funneling cervix, and that we might lose our little one. Because of our recent miscarriage back in March, both of us were extremely nervous about this pregnancy, so we decided (ok, James decided and I went along with it) that we wouldn’t tell anyone the gender of the baby.
Ok, that’s not completely true since we did tell our parents that we were having a girl, but swore them to absolute secrecy.
Yet, even though we weren’t sharing the gender of the baby, we still needed something to call the little one! I didn’t want to just call the little one a generic name like “the baby,” I wanted something a little more meaningful. James being James, decided to start trying out funny things that would go with the little ones middle name.
Even though we had a very difficult time picking a first name for our little girl, before James and I were even married I always said if we had a little girl her middle name would be Kay. My Mom’s middle name is Kay (Dianna Kay) and James’ Mom’s middle name was Kay (Paula Kay). Our Mothers played very important roles in our lives and making us who we are today, so I thought there was no better way to honor these two amazing ladies than to name their granddaughter after them. In addition, James’ sister’s middle name is also Kay (Joanna Kay), which makes the use of Kay even more special!
So with Kay as a middle name, James started coming up with funny things that would go with it, including Imo, Sheso, etc., but the one that stuck? Euro!
And why did it seem to work the best? Put the Euro together with Kay and say it –> Euro Kay. It sounds just like “you’re ok,” which is what you say to babies all the time when you’re trying to soothe and comfort them!! And, Euro was gender neutral enough that we could use it and no one would be able to guess our little one was a girl! 🙂
After that, Euro just stuck and became the name that we used for the baby. We even called her Euro the rest of the pregnancy because we had such a hard time coming up with a “real” first name for the little one. We finally got it narrowed to a few names we liked, but ultimately decided to wait until we saw the little one to decide for sure which name to go with.
And that is how the nickname Euro came to be! Yes cheesy, yes funny, and yes, very very James!