The birth story of lil' Carter.

So based on our fast labor experience with Hannah, we knew we weren't going to dilly dally around with this next one. At the first labor pain we were going to head right into the hospital, and it's a good thing we did! Because this labor experience was very similar and nearly as short as Hannah's!

Perhaps shoveling all that snow Wednesday afternoon really was too much for me, because around bed time later that night I started feeling the early labor aches (9:30pm). I showered and laid down for a little bit but that same back ache kept coming every 8 minutes or so, just like I'd had with Eli and Hannah's labors. After about an hour and a half of it, even though it was still very mild and I could almost still lay very peacefully through them, I knew I should probably wake Kevin and start getting things together. It was about 11:15pm at this point. I called the night sitter and we had to figure out how to get her since their van was broken. I felt unsure calling her in already since labor was still so mild, but I wasn't fooling around this time! Kevin went to town and picked her up and by the time he got back nearly 40 minutes later, the pain was definitely starting to get a lot more uncomfortable. She came, we gave her a short bit of instructions, and off we went. It was about 12:30am by this point. Right after we left the house we hit a thick wall of fog. Ugh. All I wanted was to hurry up and get to the hospital now that we were in the middle of nowhere and you know, we're in the truck! I prayed that God would lift the fog, like he parted the Red Sea, and I was pretty frustrated that He didn't, but I did pray the whole way "just get us there, just get us there..." I was starting to moan through contractions now and they were coming about 3 minutes apart, so with a 30-minute drive through thick fog I was feeling uneasy about whether we'd make it in time. BUT we did! Whew!!! We checked into the hospital at 1:10am, and by the time we were settled and I was changed into my gown and all that and the nurse finally checked me I was at 8cm already, water bag still bulging. So I decided to stick it out the rest of the way with no meds. The nurse contacted my doctor to come in to the hospital right away. Contractions continued, hard and miserable, but thankfully short (maybe 30 seconds long?) and with each one I could feel that we were getting closer. The doctor broke my water and while she was doing that the next contraction started coming, and it was time to push! Midway through the doctor gave me an episiotomy, I continued pushing and out he came just a few minutes later! 1:50am, just 45 minutes after getting to the hospital. They laid Carter on me right away and did everything with him right there on my belly. I've never had that before so all the gooeyness kind of weirded me out, but wow, what an amazing experience. Sort of. I mean, I still hate the whole labor process. It hurts. So bad. But I'm so thankful it was short again. And based on Carter's weight, 7 lbs 9 oz, I'm glad he came 2 weeks early or he would've ended up being quite big! I'm just so thankful for the timing of it all! One day before Kevin's 6-day off of work, so he either won't have to take much time off at all and save his days, or he'll get a super long break at home, whichever we decide. Except the fog, the weather was clear. No blizzards! And we keep being told there's a big a snow coming the end of the month. I never did get to try all my Nettle Tea for labor (anyone want it?? I'll mail it to you!), and I never would've expected the lil' guy to come 2 weeks before the due date (Eli was 7 days after the DD, and Hannah was 3 days before DD) even though I was kind of hoping he would, but it all worked out just fine and with the beautiful blessing of Carter James!

Aside from being quite tired, I've been feeling really great! Very little pain, I haven't taken any pain pills or anything since the one immediately after delivery. I've been up and walking around and already enjoying the freedom to sleep on my belly again! =)

Carter was a super sleepy baby for his first 12 hours. I nursed him a little 1 hour after delivery but then he was not interested at all for the rest of the day! I was a little uneasy about that, because I still wasn't confident that he was really latching on well yet. But around 6pm he finally started showing interest in eating and I've been able to get him to eat well every 3 hrs-ish. Which is what I need to go do right now, so I better scoot!

But there's the brief update with much more to come soon!

You can see a lot more pictures over at the family blog!