Welcome to the World Carter!

Carter Steven is here! He is now a week old and the most precious gift to our family. We are so in love!! Let's go back and start from the beginning...

Wednesday the 23rd was a pretty difficult day for me. I was so uncomfortable because Carter had dropped so low and had been sitting on my pelvic bone for about a week. I couldn't sleep at night and had to waddle slowly around the house which made my nesting nearly impossible. My mom came over after school that day and I cried to her about how I was so ready for Carter to just come already! I hadn't had any contractions for the past couple of days so I thought that the doctor had lied when he said any day now. Mom left that night and told me that she was going to be prepared for an early morning phone call because she had a feeling Carter was coming. And she was right...

I got up to use the bathroom a little bit after 3:30 am. I had just started to get comfortable again when all of a sudden I felt something strange. I jumped out of bed as fast as a pregnant lady can move and that's when it happened- my water broke. "Ryan... my water just broke." I have never seen him move so fast. He lept out of bed like someone had just lit him on fire and he was immediately in Dad mode. He gathered all of our hospital gear (which of course I way over packed for) and we were off. We safely made it to the hospital and I got checked in about 4:45 am.

The whole ride to the hospital I had little contractions and I thought "Wow, this isn't so bad." I would be eating those words for the next two hours. Hard labor hit around 5:15. There is really no way to accurately describe the pain. No matter how you squirm and reposition, there is no relief. The only thing that made me remotely feel better was to grasp Ryan's shirt and twist it. All Ryan could do was stare down at me with wide eyes and say "What can I do for you?" There was absolutely nothing. The nurse finally wheeled me down to labor and delivery and spoke the most beautiful word I have ever heard in my life... epidural. I got it about 7:00 am. The relief that came from the amazing drug was almost instantaneous. I could finally breathe again. I recommend an epidural to anyone who is going to have a baby in the future. Going natural might seem like a good idea but TRUST me, it is much better to not feel anything below your belly button while pushing out an 8 pound baby.

All I had to do from then on was wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

I finally was able to start pushing at about 2:10. We had a wonderful nurse who made everything seem fun and relaxed. After each round of pushing, we just chatted. We talked about everything from the movie Knocked Up to the oh so hilarious experiences of her other patients. Carter was slightly turned and instead of facing down, he was facing up and to the left. Because of this, he was a little more difficult to get out. Before I knew it, the doctor had come in and told me that I just had one more big push. Carter made his debut into this world at 3:11 pm weighing 8 lbs 7 oz and he was 19 3/4 inches long. That first cry was the most incredible sound I have ever heard.

Now my beautiful little boy is one week old. We are getting settled into our routine. We are figuring out a pretty decent feeding schedule, getting faster at diaper changes, and learning how different it is to hang out with a bright eyed baby at 2am instead of our friends.