Sweet bliss

Carrie Elaine was born on 9/10 at 9:27 am, weighed 8 lbs even and was 19 1/4 inches long!

The labor was definitely short. They started pitocin at about 6:30 and I had my water broke at about 8:30. When he broke my water I was 4-5, which was impressive seeing as how the contractions hadn't been bad at all (I was a 3 when I came in). So he breaks my water and I go ahead and get an epidural even though things weren't bad yet. The epidural obviously took a little while to get placed and the contractions were still not bad at all the whole time. They had it in place at about 9:00. When they got the epidural in, she checked me again and I was a 6. Unfortunately it wasn't taking in part of my right side though and there was a spot that I really felt the contractions in, and it really was hurting bad. They had me roll over to my side for awhile, which didn't work either. They were finally able to fix the problem, though I'm not really quite sure what they were doing. I told the nurse that it was a lot better but there was still a lot of pressure in my bottom during contractions that I had to breathe through. I didn't think anything about it but just figured it wasn't working again. She went ahead and checked me again, and low and behold I was an 8! Now mind you this was only 10 minutes since she had checked me last. I was just in shock. She ran out of the room to call the doctor. He was there within 5 minutes and there was already every nurse in my room and my bed being broke down. My doctor didn't even have time to get completely dressed. He sat down and I guess was waiting for a contractions. I thought he was doing some pulling down there and seriously if I had been able to feel my legs I would have kicked him. Turns out it was the baby's head coming down! The next contraction they had me push. A whopping 3 pushes later and our little Carrie was born. So um yeah, went from a 6 to complete in 20 minutes.

I was in complete shock and wasn't ready at all for delivery time, mentally. Chris kept waiting for me to break down crying, like I always do, but I just sat there in shock that it was all over. I was expecting it to take at least a couple of more hours! I just sat there looking at her and trying to figure out if all of that really happened. I tried nursing her before they took her away to the nursery but she just sat there with my breast in her mouth and she was just like um, why is this here and what am I supposed to do. I was afraid she wasn't going to get nursing down very well. Needless to say, I was completely wrong. When they finally brought her back to me a few hours later she was starving and latched on right away. From then on out she nursed at least every 2 hours for 30 minutes at a time.

Unfortunately Chris had come down with a stomach bug that I suffered from that previous Monday. He didn't have a fever and was able to be there for the labor and delivery, but he only held her for a second after she was born, just as a precaution. He also went home as soon as they took the baby so he could get some rest. He called me that afternoon and unfortunately had woken up with a slight fever and so he obviously thought it best for him to stay home. I was completely bummed, but also felt the same way. The kiddos were able to meet their new baby sister on Saturday and they have all been doting on her ever since. Even Elijah! Every few minutes he will have to come by and touch (lightly!) her head and sometimes will give her a little kiss. It is just too precious!

Now onto the name. We really liked the name Anya and were planning on naming her that. After she was born though it just wasn't right. We then went through many more names and just couldn't find one that seemed to fit her. So nameless our baby girl stayed. On Saturday we thought it would be Claire. I really love that name. But when Chris came back that evening Claire didn't seem to fit either. Finally, about 15 minutes before we were discharged on Sunday we seemed to have found the name that fit her. I don't know how many times my nurses kept asking what her name was, and I felt horrible that we hadn't come up with anything yet. I don't know why it was so difficult this time.

Needless to say, we are in love. Completely and totally in love. Again.