Thursday, November 6, 2008

Playing catch up

Well, I finally got a chance to weazle into work after hours and check my email so I decided to catch you up on the birth story. There's not much to it, but I'm incredibly grateful for the help that I had. I worked on the baby's room that day for the first time, really being able to put some "umph" into it because I have been so pre-occupied with keeping the house up for visitors who kept coming to stay with us. I really hadn't been able to get the room together like I had hoped, so it was nice to finally have that time to put my focus on the nursery. I told Phillip that he should go spend some time with one of his buddies that lives right down the road, so off he went, and spent pretty much the day there. He called me later that night stating that everyone was getting together for Mamwhiches at his friend's place and that I should come. I was really gross in sweat pants, a nasty shirt, my hair all kronked up, and my SWOLLEN feet in flip flops, but I really didn't feel like cooking- so off I went! After dinner I decided to fulfill my urget for icecream so I hopped in Phillip's truck (picture lil' ol me in this big red pick up whose engines roar when you crank it) bouncing down these old mountain roads because the shocks are so bad, and out to the grocery store. I was standing there, still looking like scank mind you, at the ice cream aisle for 10 minutes not being able to make my mind up because I WANTED IT ALLLLLL!!! I finally chose one, after getting many dirty looks from the locals, hopped back into the truck, bounced on home to eat my ice cream while working on thank you notes (which by the way are still not done and I'm soooo sorry!!) I went to the bathroom, stood up, and there was a gush. I really hadn't had a problem with incontinence at this point so I'm thinking "Did I just pee on myself?" Started back on the notes, had to pee again, stood up, and another gush, and the gushes just kept repeating in this cycle. So this lady called up her hubbie, who was quite involved in a marathon of the "Halloween" movies and told him that I thought my water broke. Meanwhile, I'm really really really freakin out because I was toooootally not ready. We packed our bags after calling the hospital, headed on down, and notified the parents to be on stand-by once we checked into the hospital because I still wasn't quite sure if it was my water breaking or not. We check and and there was no doubt by that point that my water broke. So I called my parents, and couldn't get them. Kept calling, kept calling, kept calling.... nothing. This is weird because it was 11:00 p.m. and they are never out that late, and are usually in bed. So, I call my dad's cell, hoping he had it on at the house, and he tells me that they've already left town and are headed my way! Crazy loons! I love them. They finally get there around 3:00 in the morning, along with Phillip's mom and we all camp out in the lobby waiting for baby Carter. It's funny 'cause all the guys Phillip was with that night for the "Halloween" festival stayed at the hospital from minute one until Carter was born! All 19 hours!!! How sweet! I had a great nurse to start out with, then the shift change, and the new nurse started. I didn't exactly like this lady. She scared me half to death in the middle of the little bit of sleep that I got by turning the lights on straight above me, then ripped my IV out, and just had no bed-side manner. My mid-wife though.... she was fantastic! I cannot rave enough about her. I just don't think I could've gotten through it with out her support. And not to mention Phillip and my mom.... geez! I would've given up looong before Carter actually decided to make his grand entrance if it weren't for them. They held my legs and helped me push for almost 3 hours, poor things! Oh, and let me say that I'm a HUGE advocate for the epidural.... holy Hannah!!! It was the best thing EVER! There's no way in this world I will ever have a baby without it! Looking back at the whole night, I'm pretty sure that it was the bouncing around town in Phillip's old truck that shook up lil' Carter and made my water break. I'll have to remember that for the future ;) Carter was born with no complications and got a 9 on his APGAR scores. He's such a sweet baby and has really captured his momma's heart, and his daddy's too when he's not screaming in the middle of the night LOL! He's doing better now with sleeping. For a while there we couldn't get him to sleep without being on our chests and that made for some looong sleepless nights. Now, we can put him in his carseat, in his crib, and he'll sleep for 4 or 5 hours, then want to nurse. I'm looking forward to him sleeping through the night, but I know that's a loooong way down the road. I can't wait to post his pictures from Halloween. We had such a blast! Oh, and in case you are wondering, my friend Katie who was pregnant at the same time as me had her little boy and they are all doing well. We are looking forward to our playdates with our boys! Thanks for checking in on us. I'll do my best to get back to the internet and keep you as updated as possible. For now, go to www.danacochranphotography.com and check out Carter's first pictures. She did such a great job! If you go to her home page, then click clients, and then Carter James you can see them. He's quite the cutie, but DID NOT want to cooperate during the session, so he has quite the ticked off look on his face for some of them. Much love!