Baby Days

I think we are definitely due for a blog update! I can't believe Carter is already almost 9 weeks old! I'm going to go back to the beginning, just because this blog is kind of like a journal for me (be prepared, it's going to be long!). On Nov 13th, I had had a really hard day at work and wasn't feeling very well. I went to bed early and woke up at five in the morning and wondered if my water had broken....because it was either that or I had wet the bed. To be honest, I kind of hoped it was the latter, just because I didn't feel like I was quite ready for him to come yet. After a few minutes I was pretty sure my water had broken, so I woke Jeremy up. Jeremy is never very lucid when he wakes up, but after I convinced him that it wasn't a joke, he was all ready to drive to the hospital that minute. I, on the other hand, wanted to take my time. I knew my labor hadn't really started yet, and it was probably going to be a really long day. I wanted to shower, do my hair and paint my toenails (I think that's the least you can do for the nurse who potentially has to hold your leg for 3 hours). After I painted my toenails, we were finally on our way! The midwife confirmed that my water had broken, and so they admitted us to a labor room.

They decided to let me walk in the hallway for a few hours to see if labor would start on its own. By the time lunchtime rolled around, not a lot was happening. I was contracting a lot, but I wasn't really feeling anything. Jeremy was a great support person. He snuck me up some lunch and fed me gummy bears. At about 2 pm they started pitocin to make my contractions a little bit stronger. It worked really fast! It didn't take too long before I was ready for an epidural. Getting an epidural is something that I went back and forth on, mostly just because I have seen tons of epidurals get put in, and even after 3 years of working labor and delivery...they still freak me out. However, after a couple of hours on the pitocin, the pain won out. The anesthesiologist was really nice and humored me when I told him how to do his job..."make sure you wait long enough for the lidocaine to work"...It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be and afterwards I felt great! It was a really strange sensation not being able to feel my legs. I would tell my brain to move my foot and my foot would jerk a few seconds later. I thought this was hilarious! Around 8:30 the doctor came in to check me and she told me that I was fully dilated. They had us wait for an hour so that hopefully I could feel the urge to push (I didn't), so after an hour we finally got started. My good friend Clara was my delivery nurse. I was so glad she was working that night. Clara trained me when I first started working at the hospital. Before I started pushing, I told Clara that she had to tell me if I wasn't doing a good job (As nurses we always say "great push!" even if the person is pushing like crap). After about an hour, my doctor checked me again and said that Carter was occiput posterior, which means that he was coming out looking up instead of looking down. This makes the diameter of the baby's head about a centimeter wider, so it's a lot harder to push them out. At one point, Carter's heart rate started to not look as good and my doctor mentioned the possibility of using a vacuum to get him out more quickly. I told her that I didn't want to use one if at all possible. His heart rate started to look better. so we were able to keep pushing. About an hour and 45 minutes in, I saw my doctor open up the delivery kit and they broke down the bed (these are both signs that delivery is really close) so I thought I was almost there! I kept asking Clara if I was one push away and she kept telling me, "just a few more." Jeremy kept saying "You're so close, he's almost out!" Talking to him afterward, he admitted that he actually didn't think that there was any way that the baby was going to come out at all. After 45 minutes of this I yelled "You are all liars!" Finally, just when I thought I couldn't push anymore, Carter was born at 1149 pm. I thought it would be this magical moment when all of the pain went away after he came out. It still hurt a lot, but it was really amazing seeing him for the first time!

He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz exactly.

He was grunting and working a little bit too hard to breathe the first little bit so they had to measure his oxygen saturation (that's the little thing on his wrist)

After a few minutes they gave him back to me. When they handed him to me, he was crying, but as soon as i started talking to him, he stopped and looked up at me. It melted my heart!

He has been such a good baby from the very beginning. He just loves cuddling and staring up at whoever is holding him.

They kept us an extra day in the hospital because Carter was having some problems spitting up. After 3 days they finally let us go home!

Two days after we got home, my mom came to stay with us for a week. It was so great to have her here. It was really fun to see her with Carter. I think she would have taken him home with her if she could have!

After my mom left, Jeremy's mom came to stay with us. It was also really great to have her here. She was such a big help watching Carter so I could get some errands done.

Carter loves his grandmas! After our moms left, we had a few weeks alone to adjust to being a new little family

Carter loves napping with people! A couple of weeks later, my mom and dad came back to spend Carter'sfirst Christmas with us. Carter met his Papa West for the first time

On Christmas Eve, we went out to Longwood Gardens to look at the Christmas lights. We even got a little bit of snow

Here are some pictures of Carter on Christmas morning.

He was not a big fan of the moose hat. A few days after Christmas, Jeremy's family came for New Years. Our families' visits overlapped by a couple of days, so we were able to have Carter's baby blessing at our home while they were both here. Jeremy gave Carter a beautiful blessing. It was really special that both of our parents were able to be there.

Carter looked pretty dapper in his sweater vest and bow tie!

I actually really liked having the blessing done in our home rather than at the church. Jeremy's family was able to stay for a few days after the blessing. It was fun for Carter to get to meet his Grandpa Kuhre and Uncle Brandon

Carter has been such a blessing for our family. He is growing so fast! He just started smiling at us last week. Trying to get him to smile at me is my new favorite pastime. Jeremy and I love him more everyday!