Happy New Years!

happy new years, y'all!

love, sarah

Birthday Wish List

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

i always am so jealous of how little children get so excited about birthdays. with each passing year, i feel like my birthday just another day among many.  to muster up a little jazz about turning 27, i'm going to share with you some things that have caught my eye these past few weeks. 

love, sarah

Month 2 Check Up & Shots

you guys, hanky weighs 10 lbs 7.5 oz. this little guy is growing like a weed. if you read my post here, you will know just relieved we are that he is progressing. he's still in about the 5% for weight and height, but he is catching up at "lightening speed," says our pediatrician. and his fat rolls are the cutest things i have ever seen.

let's take a moment and talk about the two month shots. i always heard how hard it was for mothers to watch their babies be vaccinated... but to be honest, it didn't really bother me. but now i feel guilty, like i am a bad mom because i didn't mind. to me, vaccinating your children is a huge, resounding, YES. when hanky got his shots, i felt that i was ultimately protecting him from many preventable disease. do your part and keeps all of our kids safe. educate yourself-- more info at the immunization partnership.


love, sarah

Happy Two Months, Hanky!

love, sarah

Happy Hanukkah!

happy hanukkah, y'all! 

love, sarah

hanky's NEWBORN session

so excited to be able to share some of my favorite images from hanky's newborn shoot. a huge thank you to the crazy talented amanda liberto of momma's gonna snap photography

now if only i can decide which ones to frame. any help?

love, sarah

Hanky's Hanukkah List

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12

hanky has a lot of people in his life who like to spoil him, including his own mommy and daddy.  here is a list of what he is hoping to get this year for hanukkah. a few toys for now, a few for later, but all guaranteed to provide a ton of fun! excited to share our hanukkah traditions with our new little guy. 

love, sarah

Weight Gain, pt 2.

hanky officially weighs 8 lbs 4 oz and i'm thinking it was from all the turkey + fajitas i ate this weekend. our doctor is confident that he has 'turned the corner' with his weight issues. this means that we no longer have to go for biweekly or even weekly weight checks at the pediatrician!

thanks for the positive thoughts!


love, sarah

HAPPY HANKSGIVING EVERYONE

before henry was born, josh made himself laugh (as he often does) by referring to thanksgiving as 'hanksgiving.' he went so far as to make this bib for him online and surprised me with it yesterday. i am definitely thankful for that mans sense of humor.

my family had a small little pre-hanksgiving celebration this afternoon, but we will be celebrating again tomorrow because josh is on shift today. oh the joys of being married to a firefighter. 

so until tomorrow, i will leave you with a photo of what i am most thankful for: my healthy, happy, incredibly sweet, little hanky panky. 

oh and y'all, be careful frying your turkeys... wouldn't wanna make the hubs work too hard today.

love, sarah

Happy One Month, Hanky!

love, sarah

Weight Issues

despite our smiling faces in josh's birthday post, the truth is that yesterday was the most stressful days of our brief acquaintance with parenthood.

hanky has struggled to gain weight this past month, but up until yesterday, i was never worried about my baby. he seemed to be breastfeeding well and was so so happy! but two days ago, henry started to spit up out of the blue. and when i say spit up, i mean projectile exorcist-style vomiting that shot across the room. this was not normal, but he also didn't seem to be in distress or even unhappy. despite being his cheerful self, we called the pediatrician and they wanted to see him right away.

when we got to the doctor, they examined henry and asked me a lot of questions about his symptoms. he was forcefully spitting up while breastfeeding or immediately after. he did not appear to be in distress. after an episode of vomiting, he ravenously tried to feed again. he was the perfect age for these symptoms to begin (between 3-4 weeks). his stomach appeared distended.

we were sent to the ER for an abdominal ultrasound to rule out pyloric stenosis, which is a condition where the muscles that allows food to pass from the stomach to small intestine becomes too thick. it usually requires a small surgery that provides immediate relief from symptoms.

turns out hanky does not have pyloric stenosis. so why all the spitting up? and why isn't he gaining weight? these answers weren't readily available and we were shocked when the ER physicians wanted to admit henry for failure to thrive.

after a long day in the ER and bargaining with the attending physician to let us follow up with out pediatrician on an outpatient basis, we were exhausted.  this was not the 30th birthday that i wanted for josh. and can i just say how much i love him? because throughout the entire day, he was happy to be with his baby- nothing else mattered.

over the past few days i have felt so many different emotions. i felt like i was letting my baby down. i felt defensive and sensitive because for some reason I couldn't adequately feed my baby.

i still feel very confused, frustrated, and sad. i just want him to get better and i'm willing to do anything to get us there. we've come up with a plan with our pediatrician, which includes pumping my breast milk (to quantify his feeds) and supplementing with an ounce of formula at each feeding. and unfortunately, i feel a need to say- i am NOT against giving my baby formula. i understand the benefits of breast milk and have no plans to stop giving it to him. but for whatever reason, my baby is not gaining weight on my breast milk alone. i will always do what's best for my baby, and with that, there is no shame. after all, i am a formula baby and i turned out pretty great.

we will be monitoring his weight twice a week. please send us good vibes, i'm hoping thanksgiving will help him pack on the pounds.


love, sarah

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!

HAPPY 30TH, I MEAN, 25TH BIRTHDAY, DADDY!

it was a good excuse to spend our first night out without hanky. don't tell, but we were home by 11 :) 

love, sarah

Playroom mood board

we got big plans for the front room, y'all. 

love, sarah 

So long, Daddy!

today is josh's first day back at work. he works for the houston fire department and has a pretty crazy schedule. he works two 24 hour shifts a week on a rotating basis. 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 5 days off. it's confusing but predictable. what i can't predict is my first night will go without my helper.

daddy missed us too much today, so he called and told us to come by. i think he secretly just wanted to show hanky off to the guys on his crew. i know hanky is going to learn a thing or two hanging around that fire station, which is frightening and wonderful all at the same time.

love, sarah

Henry's Birth Story

my husband will tell you that i sneezed and our son was born. he'd make you believe that it was a walk in the park for both of us and while that isn't necessarily true,  i will tell you that giving birth to henry was the most incredible day of my life. i would probably be okay doing it once a month  :)

to be honest, i can't even tell you when i went into labor with henry because it took me a few days to figure out what was actually happening.  about a week before he was born, i started to have some stomach pains but this was not unusual for me so i thought nothing of it.  throughout my pregnancy, i had always had this irrational fear that i wouldn't know i was in labor and josh would end up delivering our son on the side of the road.  everyone told me that when it was happening i would surely know. i tried to believe them, but turns out that i was right...  i had absolutely no idea that what i was feeling was actually my body preparing to welcome our little man into this big ol' world of ours.

on tuesday morning, at my 38 week appointment, my doc asked me how things were going.  i told him things were great, but that i was anxious to meet my little guy.  he asked if i had been having contractions and i said that i wasn't sure.  he kind of laughed at me and helped me lay back so that he could begin his exam.  while touching my belly, he looked a little bewildered and said "are you not feeling this?"  i shrugged and told him that i had weird pains all the time, but that my back had been particularly hurting yesterday.  he said that i was having a contraction right that moment! he tried to teach me how to recognize and time them.  turns out i was having them pretty regularly. oops.  after checking my cervix, he said that i was only dilated 1 cm, but almost completely effaced.  he got another doctor to come check me too and they both agreed, henry would be here soon.  i was given clear instructions on when to come to the hospital-- if my water broke or thursday morning at 6 AM if it hadn't.  he teased me that i may not make it if i based it off of my contractions or pain level. and there i was, again, envisioning my squeamish husband attempting to deliver this baby in less than ideal circumstances because i was the idiot who didn't know that i was in labor until my baby was crowning.

i called josh to tell him the news. henry was coming and sooner rather than later! josh was running errands but quickly met me at home so that we could share the excitement.  i called my boss and told him to officially put me on maternity leave. i couldn't believe that this was really happening! i was so excited that i wanted to do everything that i could to speed up the process.  every (safe) old wives tale about inducing labor, i tried.  i think josh and i walked around our neighborhood twenty times.  we ate dinner at a nearby mexican restaurant and i ate a whole bowl of spicy salsa. we got a couples massage and my therapist worked on all of the sensitive pressure points associated with labor. we had attempted to have sex. i downloaded a contraction timer and tried to track each contraction, (but to be honest, i was guessing most of the time).

in the early hours of thursday morning, i woke up with an extremely sharp pain my lower back.  it went from a shooting pain that made my tailbone feel like it was on fire to a constant dull ache. i contemplated waking josh and telling him that we needed to go to the hospital right away, but i decided that i wanted to stay home for a little longer.  this was going to be the last time that we were alone in the house. i looked at my husband and felt so lucky to be us. i was so ready to share the love we had with our unborn son.

we arrived to the hospital a little before 6:00 AM.  i went to the triage desk at labor & delivery and they checked us in.  they hooked me up to the monitors and i was able to see the peaks and falls of my contractions on the screen.  shortly after, the NP came in and told me i was dilated to 3 cm and today would be the day that my son would be born. i sent josh to get himself some coffee and i snuck a few bites of a granola bar.

after moving to the delivery room, we met our nurse stephanie. within moments of introducing herself, she cracked a joke at my husband's expense.  i knew right away that we would get along perfectly.  to me, your labor nurse is the single most important person during your delivery. stephanie definitely ran the show and i was happy to have her with me.

at around 10:30 AM, my doctor came by to check on me. he checked my cervix and i was dilated to a 4, but my waters were still intact.  he broke my water and i wasn't prepared for how much liquid there was and how warm it felt. but stephanie quickly helped me clean up and told me that things should start progressing quickly. the doc told us that he would be back at 3:00 and we would have this baby! time to relax.

my contractions were still consistent, but nothing was happening too quickly.  josh and i soaked in the moments we had left as a tiny family of two. the tv was on, but i can't even remember what movie was playing.  we were too busy talking about how excited we were to meet our little man and how life was changing right before our eyes.

after not much progression- consistent and strong contractions, but only dilated to 5 cm, my doc decided to start the pitocin. and all those contractions i hadn't been feeling?  well they started to hurt, and bad.  stephanie tracked down the anesthesiologist and started loading me with fluids. i think they hung three bags of saline and it made my arm feel so cold. when they were doing the epidural, everyone had to leave the room because it is a sterile procedure. i was nervous about the needle, but i will tell you it doesn't hurt at all.  the strange part about it is that you can feel them poking around to find the right placement before they insert the catheter, but no pain!  after that, you are good to go! it takes about 5-10 minutes for the medicine to kick in and then i felt very warm and heavy from the waist down.  a few moments later i began to feel extremely light headed and sick.  i said "i don't feel so good," and then my hearing and vision started to go.  later, josh told me that i turned extremely pale and my blood pressure was around 70/30.  the anesthesiologist quickly gave me some medication to raise my blood pressure and i immediately felt better.  it happened again a second time, but with a little more medication and some extra fluids, i felt fine. actually better than fine, i felt great and was ready to have this baby!

i sent josh to get some lunch with his family and i tried to nap- knowing i had a lot of work ahead of me.  shortly after everyone left the room, stephanie came in and said that hanky was in some distress and his heart rate had dropped.  she was very calm and told me that i shouldn't worry. she turned off the pitocin and got me to put on an oxygen mask.  i then got on all fours to take pressure off of the baby. i took some deep breaths and tried to remain as calm as possible. i knew that i couldn't get worked up and stephanie explained everything that was going on.  the pitocin had me made have 6, very strong, back-to-back ,contractions and hanky had not had enough time to recover.  his heart rate had decelerated. she said she didn't like what she was seeing, but promised that she wasn't worried. turns out she was right, and because of the extra fluid, oxygen, and position change, hanky's heart rate stabilized.

i was glad that this happened while i was alone-- i didn't want anyone to worry. also, after that little incident everything started happening very quickly. stephanie checked my cervix and i was 8 cm dilated. a few minutes later, i was at 10 and ready to start pushing.

they positioned the bed and josh came to my side.  stephanie texted my doctor and he said he would be there in about 30 minutes. pushing came so naturally.  even with my epidural, i was able to feel the build up of each contraction and push at the right time. josh, my mom, and stephanie were all so encouraging. i pushed on and off for about 20 minutes. they told me that they could see his head and that he had a lot of hair! stephanie helped me reach under my leg so that i could touch him. he was almost here!! stephanie told me to stop pushing so that we could wait for the doctor.  i told her that i didn't think that was possible; the pressure of his head was so strong, it was too painful not to push.

after what felt like an eternity (but really was about 15 minutes) my doctor arrived! i like him so much and he seemed really excited to be there, which only added to the already positive environment. he told me to give it everything i had. i pushed and pushed and pushed.  nothing was happening. he asked me if i wanted an episiotomy. i said "well, i'd prefer not, but i really want to meet my baby." he said that if he did it i could have him in my arms in a few seconds. without hesitation, i gave him the go ahead.  with that final push, i felt the most immediate relief. i heard Josh saying how amazing i did and how big he was. henry was immediately placed on my chest and then peed on me.  i laughed and was just so incredibly happy. i was surrounded by both of my boys and life couldn't be any sweeter.

looking into henry's eyes, all i could think was: i know you. i know what you feel like on the inside and now i know what you look like on the outside. i know your every move and your very first breath. i know you better than any other person on this earth and you know me from the inside out. your dad and i love you more than we even thought possible.

henry matthew reinitz was born on october 23, 2014 at 3:33 PM.  he was 7 lbs and 20.5 inches. he continues to be the love of our lives.


love, sarah

Happy Halloween

happy halloween, from our pumpkin to yours.

love, sarah

Welcome to the world, Henry!

we are beyond thrilled to announce the arrival of our son and first born, henry matthew reinitz.  henry made his way into the world on thursday afternoon, october 23rd at 3:33 PM.  he weighed in at 7 lbs and was 20.5 inches. we are so incredibly in love and cannot wait to start this adventure as his parents.

and now we're three.

love, sarah

[im]patiently waiting & maternity pics

i sit here impatiently waiting for our son to be born, and boy, do we have some time. my due date is november 5, but i feel that he may make his debut sooner... wishful thinking? possibly.

being pregnant has been such an incredible experience for me and i know i will miss feeling him move inside of me. but i know that we are going to make new memories together as a family of three and i have never been more excited. 

i wanted to share some of my favorite images from our maternity session with amanda liberto of momma's gonna snap photography. i am so glad that i will have these moments to treasure for the years to come. 

see you in a few weeks little baby!

love, sarah