Just sitting around catching up on my
DVR'd shows on Sat. night when I felt some dull, but regular contractions. They were pretty regular, but like 10 min apart. So we just kept watching TV because I surely couldn't go to sleep! Around 1:00am, they started hurting and coming 4-6 min apart, and all I could think about was that I was already 4 cm, so I really didn't think I had time to waste. Just so happened, all the kids had asked
Mamaw (Wayne's mom) if they could spend the night with her in
Bishopville. So we packed up what we could think of (I somewhat had my bag packed), grabbed the camera, and Wayne, Nana and me headed to Florence. Got there and got on the monitors around 2am and the nurse said I was still 4 cm and would come back in 1 hour and see if I was progressing..... She came back and nothing. Wayne reminded her that it takes us about an hour to get over there and she and the Dr. (who was not my
dr, but happened to be on call - another bit of stress) decided to repeat the check in an hour. Here she comes at 4 am, I was still contracting, and no progress!
Ahhhhh. She decides to just keep me until the end of her shift at 7, and see if they would admit me or send me home. So I sat up straight in the bed, asked for a
percocet and hoped gravity would help out. She came in at 6:45am and said.... You are 7cm. So of course I asked the most important question... Where's my epidural? and can you please hurry with that? So everything just started happening so fast! The anesthesiologist comes in and sets up, goes and waits for my platelet count from the lab... the nurse checks me in the mean time and says I am 8cm....starting to get nervous about getting that epidural in time. He comes back and gets everything going. I started feeling tingling right away, but then developed what he called a "hot spot". I had one spot, about the size of a tennis ball on my left side that wouldn't get numb. I told him it was definitely manageable, that I think I would rather leave well enough alone! That 90% of relief was way better than 0%! The nurse and OB come back in and noticed my contraction strength had dropped way off and they were becoming further apart, so decided to give me some pit to keep the labor from tapering off. So my contractions came back double strength.... and now I am pushing my nurse button about that 90% relief, yeah, I am thinking I need at least 95%. She comes back and says... time to have a baby! The Dr. comes in and out comes a beautiful baby boy at 10:50am!
Now he needs a name! So one DAY later, Carson it is.
We chose to come home the next day. The
dr. told me to stay to rest until Tues. But resting in a hospital, with a nurse of some sort coming in every 1-2 hours to check on the baby, to take my blood, to ask if I was needing some medicine, to take my blood pressure... was no more rest than I would get at home. So we left Monday around 4.
I can't begin to tell you how pretty and perfect he is. He is a blessing. I am amazed that something could be so perfect. I am amazed at the overwhelming love. I am amazed how great I feel. I am amazed at how well the other children have taken to a new baby.
Ava wants to help by bringing all kind of things out of his room to me. She wants to straighten all his blankets. Josh wants to hug him all the time. He says "mom, I just can't quit hugging him, I love him so much" and Caleb has been so helpful with bringing me stuff and helping me pick up and keeping somewhat of a visible floor.
Here are a few pics...
Ava got real quite the other day, so I went to see what she was doing. She met me as she came out of the bathroom and looked up at me with this pitiful look. I asked what happened and she pointed at Nana's brush in her hair and said "It stuck". We pulled and pulled and she never whimpered once, and finally it came out. The sad thing is I remember doing the same thing, however, mine ended with scissors taking the brush out.
Wayne and his Dad put the beds together last week. Ava helped.
Finally, all together and with the new bedding!
.....and just add kids!
She loves The Little Mermaid, so her Great Aunt Carol made her this beautiful cake. Lots of our friends came to play and help eat!
Sara Preston
