It all began last weekend when I decided I felt peace with the decision to induce Tuesday morning. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an easy decision. I did some praying, crying, thinking, wondering, and lots of loving on my first born.
We checked into the hospital at 5:00AM Tuesday morning. We did paper work and the nurses got me all hooked up to everything I would need for the day. Dr. K came in around 6:30 and seemed genuinely happy to see me laying there, he said he was afraid I would be bumped off the schedule because of so many women going into labor. Something about a full moon and women having babies go hand in hand. The nurse did say I claimed the last bed of the day....lucky me!!
Anyway, from there things went well. I was soon informed by multiple people including my doctor that I had the best nurse, Wendy. She was great and so much fun to talk to. The anesthesiologist was also a hoot and made that giant needle seem like no big deal.
My epidural went fine, and I could actually feel my legs which was great since last time I couldn't move a thing below my waist. Not a fun feeling. We were sailing smooth through the labor process.
My pitocin was going and my contractions were one on top of another, although I sat comfortably not feeling a thing. My contractions were moving so fast the doctor and nurse decided to shut off the pitocin and let my body do the remainder of the work. I was around a 4 at that point, it took me a bit to get to a 5, but from there they rolled me on my side and I flew to a 10. The minute they rolled me back over I knew it was time for this little guy's birthday party, as the nurse called it.
Unfortunately my nurse, Wendy, had been called into another room so I had a new nurse in for delivery. Tracy was her name, and she was just as wonderful and she got me started with the pushing process. Things were moving smoothly, when I noticed Carter's heart was slowing way down. At that point, the nurse paged some people for help...I figured another nurse and the doctor would come in, I was not expecting around 8 medical professionals to come storming in. At that point, I realized things were serious. The doctor got me pushing again, but Carter's heart was not cooperating. It had dropped dramatically and was not recovering in between contractions. He then looked over at my already super nervous Mom and Paige and asked them to leave. NICU was paged to come in and brought along the defibrillator and some other scary medical equipment that no one wants to see. Yikes, I was then terrified and felt totally out of control. It seemed nothing the doctor was trying would work. I was totally on my back, covered with an oxygen mask, told I would probably become extremely nauseous, could hardly hear a thing, and absolutely terrified. It felt like a dream or like I was stuck in a tunnel... I had made it this far, what if something happened? I remember I just kept saying, "I'm so scared." It's amazing how fast things can change and impact life forever. At that point my doctor practically got in my face, and assured me he would not let anything happen to me or Carter. He said he would try one more procedure and if that failed we would head back for a C section. Well, the procedure worked, the baby lowered enough for him to recognize his cord was coming out with him and being squished (cord prolapse), causing all sorts of trouble for baby. He was able to cut the cord and get the baby out quickly. I was relieved, but when he lifted Carter for a brief moment I noticed how blue he was and began to panic again. He passed Carter to NICU who got to work on him quickly. It was quite surreal, almost like a scene from TV. No one would say anything or tell me if the baby was fine. I was about to lose it, when finally the doctor told Justin to go check on Carter and give me an update. After several tense minutes Carter rebounded beautifully and I heard his first cry. Praise God! That was the sweetest sound and the greatest gift at a time like that. They checked his cord gas, and re-administered the APGAR and everything came back great. There is no fear or worry at this point about any long term effects of the traumatic birth.
Something similar, yet not quite as serious occurred with Caroline's birth. I think if we decide to expand our family any more I might just schedule a C section, not sure I want to relive those scary moments again. After things calmed down, Dr. K told me he has deliveries like that once every six months to a year....lucky us! Needless to say, I am more than grateful for his knowledge and calm presence during those terrifying moments. Justin was also great (as he always is) and although his face was as white as a ghost, he did beautifully at keeping calm and tending to my emotions.
Today, 6 days later, we are at home and doing well. We've been blessed with help from family, friends, and countless visitors. I dearly love all the people in my life, and am excited to share this time with them. Physically I am feeling great, Carter is nursing wonderfully, he is sleeping for long stretches, and I am truly enjoying this precious newborn phase. Emotionally, I am all over the place. One minute I am on top of the world and the next minute I am sobbing over something silly or nothing at all. I'll be glad when these hormones even out....I hate this out of control feeling.
Well baby is getting fussy and Caroline will be waking any minute now. Time to sign off and get back to the duties of motherhood. I am blessed! :-)
Justin decided to be quite the chef this year, he made 5 or 6 different dishes. Some great, others...we won't be making again. I must say though, Justin fries a killer turkey. YUM!
Every year Justin's mom traces Caroline's hands and feet and creates a turkey shirt! Isn't that just the greatest idea? 
This year we have so much to be thankful for, including two new babies, Carter and Maddy. 
Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Now it's back to work and real life for me! 
On a completely different note, this past weekend was basically our only open weekend from now until Christmas so we decided to decorate. Here is my enormous Griswald tree. Pictures don't really do it justice...it's huge!This was mid decorations....I need to take a new picture, it now looks more complete.
Ok, I'm off...I have an upset baby and a house to vacuum. Life might be crazy, but it is so good. Happy Thanksgiving!
Carter has grown lots, I would estimate him to be around 10lbs, but other than that he is not much different from his newborn self. He is finally waking for longer periods, and is usually a content little guy. It is fun to watch him because he is so expressive, his face gives so many clues to how he is feeling. I am still anxiously awaiting his first smile, hopefully it will happen soon.
During the day he is eating around every 2 hours and at night he goes anywhere from 2-4 hours. I've been able to sleep between the nighttime feedings so it hasn't been too bad.
Caroline wanted her picture taken, so here is her sweet face.
My very talented mother in law did the curtains and the bedding. I love it so much!
Next to his bed Justin built a tree, we currently use it to hold all his hats.
Here is my sweet sleepy boy, he is such a good baby and I just can't get enough of him.
Here is my big baby and a spider hat she made at school last week. It is weird, when she is at school and I am home with just Carter, I miss her like crazy. I miss the noise, laughter, and little conversations we have throughout the day. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to be able to get some things done, but it is just a little quiet around here and I almost feel like I am cheating on her or something by sending her off and being home with Carter. This feeling is probably just my crazy hormones acting up again.
Caroline and Justin carved up our pumpkin on Friday night. We made our pumpkin into an owl.
And here are my little trick or treaters ready to go. Remember how I wrote our neighborhood was celebrating Saturday night? Well apparently we were the only people who did not get the message that the idea had been revoked. We got all dressed, headed out into the neighborhood, and soon noticed we were the only people out. Justin got on his phone, rechecked his email, and saw a new email had come through about canceling the Saturday night trick or treat. By this time we were a couple of blocks away from home. We quickly turned around and embarrassingly walked back to our house. We had to convince Caroline that we just walked around for practice. Between that and the pitiful performance of the Tech football team, our Saturday night was shot. 
Here is our owl pumpkin, it looked a lot better in person.
Oh and since Saturday night was such a bust, we decided to eat away our sorrows Sunday. Justin and Caroline made a Halloween cake, and I ordered a jack o lantern pizza from Papa Murphys.
Finally Halloween came and Caroline got to dress up and really go trick or treating. For the most part she loved every second. We went to a party at her preschool teacher's house and it was so fun to see her joy as she ran from house to house screaming and giggling. The one part she was not so sure of was all the ghosts and goblins. She hated scary costumes and would stay far from anything spooky. At one point she was so frightened she was shaking...poor thing. I remember hating scary stuff as a child too, especially witches.
Here is a picture of her teacher and all her classmates before trick or treating.
As I already mentioned, I am not the sit at home type, so I took Caroline on her field trip last Friday to the farm. Here she is with all of her precious school friends. I didn't get the memo about wearing her school shirt...I seem to be missing lots of memos lately.
Here I am last Tuesday, delivery day, around 5:30 AM! So excited, about to change into the lovely gown to get the party started, and ready to meet Carter.
Sister and brother with their babes.
So proud!
Going home!
Papa Mike, Carter, and Caroline
