Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Beach baby
My little man and I went on a quick solo trip to FL to see his grandma and grandpa while they were in Daytona for a race. We made it through two flights and two crowded airports with only one minor airplane meltdown (which of course happened when the seatbelt sign was on and it was too bumpy to even try to break the rules and walk around...) BUT we survived! He LOVED the beach, especially when quite a few alarmingly brave seagulls started circling above him while in the baby bjorn (mom was not as pleased with the proximity of the screeching birds and booked it out of there!). We had a great time, playing with grandma and grandpa's dogs, sitting in the sand, commanding every bit of grandma and grandpa's attention and staying up WAY past his bedtime to bask in their adoration... and of course, indulging in lots of naps in the ocean breezes! AND his aunt Anne and uncle Bobby woke up early on a Saturday just to come see us off at the Orlando airport! Poor Carter was so disappointed to wake up the following morning to just his mom to entertain him... :)
Thursday, February 16, 2012
June 27, 2011 10:57 am
I loved being pregnant. I had no morning sickness... in fact, I was praying to throw up or at least feel nauseous throughout the entire first trimester. I spent the night before each doctor's appointment in tears- walking into the exam room, shaking all over, and keeping my eyes closed and fists clenched around Taylor's hand until the doctor promised he could see that little flicker of a heartbeat. I calmed down a bit once we hit the second trimester and began to embrace the idea that there was a healthy baby in my tummy....and I realized how completely in love I was with him already! I found myself daydreaming all the time, just completely amazed that I was going to have a baby!
I felt him kick for the first time at 17 weeks, in the security line at the Las Vegas airport. I froze, shoes and laptop in hand, with a not-so-thrilled group of hurried travelers behind me, and rushed to tell Taylor-- who gently reminded me that we were about to be stampeded if we didn't hurry forward-ha! So began the most fun part of pregnancy. I felt great, had a cute little tummy, and could feel my overly active little guy jumping, hiccuping, and wiggling all day long. Fast forward nine months... my cute little tummy had quickly grown so large that a sweet hostess actually expressed concern that I wouldn't fit into the booth at our favorite Mexican restaurant (which sent this overly sensitive pregnant girl into tears! haha). Taylor and I were in the midst of moving, and our house wasn't completed yet, so I was completely happy to keep Carter right where he was., and he was just as happy to stay put. He showed absolutely NO signs of entering the world on or around his due date (June 20th), so the doctor scheduled an induction on June 27th at 41 weeks. I really wanted him to come on his own time but deferred to the doctors, and started planning for our little man's now-scheduled arrival!
On Friday June 24th, Taylor and I went on one last mini vacation by spending the night at a downtown Nashville hotel, eating great food, watching in-room movies while snuggled in bed, recalling old memories, and saying goodbye to the only "us" we'd ever known. And we continued to enjoy a relaxing weekend, loving on the dogs and trying to wrap our heads around the idea that we would be meeting our baby that Monday morning!
Taylor woke up early on Sunday morning to go fishing (like 4:30-5:00 am early!), but it was raining. He then woke me up to see if I wanted to go out to Pancake Pantry. Being a total morning person and completely pancake-obsessed, I hopped out of bed as quickly as my hugely pregnant body would allow and off we went.
Taylor spent the next few hours watching movies on that rainy Sunday, but I couldn't sit still. I showered and took advantage of my planned induction by making my hair look pretty (total waste of time), but I just didn't feel right. Taylor kept asking me to sit down and watch a movie with him (since the two of us could literally spend an entire weekend watching movies!) but I had these very slight weird pains in my stomach and couldn't stop walking around and fidgeting. While I'd like to think I'm an intelligent person, it did not hit me that I may be going into labor... until I found myself curled up on the bed, unable to breathe through the pain, telling Taylor this definitely wasn't "it.". He called the hospital who said to time the contractions and to come in once they were less than 5 min apart- which we knew but were far too panicked to remember. We started timing them and couldn't get more than 1-3 minutes between them... I was convinced we were timing them incorrectly, but my sweet husband grabbed the overnight bag and told me it was time to go. I started listing off things that needed to be done before we could go, but he somehow convinced me to just go in to the hospital to be checked out. On the way to the hospital, he started calling our "labor list"... and I kept chiming in in the background that there was no need to panic...that it was clearly not happening yet. All this while I was literally doubled over in the worst pain ever! I actually remember saying to Taylor that it wasn't supposed to hurt this bad... and he made the very astute point that yes, child birth has been known to cause a bit of pain in most women! By the time we made it to the hospital, Taylor's anxiety was starting to show through the calm mask he had been fighting to hold onto...and he almost jumped out of the car after this guy who stole a parking spot from us in the Vandy garage! We then proceeded to get lost walking into the hospital and couldn't find the labor and delivery department. When we finally found it, they rushed us back to a room where they confirmed that I was definitely in labor (I had been convinced that they were going to tell me those weren't real contractions and that my very low pain tolerance had me fooled).
I'd like to say I handled the pain with complete composure, but to be honest, I was crying by the time I was 1 cm, and they were about to send me home had my water not broken right there in the triage room! They asked if I wanted an epidural, and I just told them that I was absolutely ready and willing to accept any pain meds that wouldn't hurt the baby... So yes, I happily submitted and took the epidural at 1 cm (in my defense, the contractions were super intense and coming every 2 minutes or so...ha ;)) I am not ashamed to admit that I have no pain tolerance and had no desire to feel any part of labor... which is probably what jinxed me! Over the next 22 hours, I flip-flopped between my normal happy, laid back self to a complete mess- throwing up, crying and apologizing profusely to anyone who would listen. Apparently I was suffering from "hot spots" where the pain meds failed to work... And Taylor has told me that I described this unpleasant experience by telling him that it felt like my insides were being torn apart or something along those lines. But then the doctors would fix the epidural, and I would start smiling again within seconds--those meds are amazing...
The good news is that my anesthesiologist resident figured out the problem right as the doctors were telling me that I needed to get ready to deliver the baby without meds... Oh that sweet resident (the next day, he tracked us down to write his patient evaluation before he graduated...and I literally hugged him while Taylor gushed about how grateful we were to him...and I remember him backing out of the room pretty awkwardly, so I am pretty sure we were a bit too enthusiastic... haha).
This whole time, my mom and Taylor were in the room with me, and my aunt and grandma were either in the room with us or in the waiting room... for some reason the doctors all kept thinking Carter's arrival was "imminent" so no one wanted to go home! Every once in a while a doctor would float the idea of increasing some pitocin or performing some other measure to kick things off, but I didn't want to rush my little guy, and his heart rate never showed distress, so they just laughed and said he was on his own schedule! So finally it was time to push, and while Taylor says I was a total overacheiver, pushing longer and more often than they even asked me too, I will admit that I was just afraid the meds were going to wear off again! So 3 hours of pushing later, we heard the midwife say, "I need help! This baby is huge!" or something along those lines... and a nurse ran over to help her hold him and then he was whisked away to the pediatricians... and on his way over there, I heard the sweetest sound in the world, that first little cry (which, of course, sent me into tears)! The doctor's were all shocked at the unexpected size of this giant 9lb 5oz, 22 inch baby, and my mom rushed over to watch, never taking her eyes of her new grandbaby. Meanwhile, Taylor held onto my hand and wouldn't let go, and then we met him... They set him in my arms, and after a minute of trying to figure out how to hold this giant newborn, I looked into those beautiful little eyes and nothing else mattered. I had never in my life seen a more precious face....His little eyes were wide open, and in typical Carter fashion, he was already searching for food, mouth wide open!
The next couple of days in the hospital were a blissful blur... the doctors and nurses at Vandy were amazing and our family and friends were wonderful. I convinced Taylor to spend the night at home with the dogs so he could rest up and be ready to help out when we got home. And that first time the nurses rolled my little man into the room, and it was just the two of us, I finally got it... why people had kids. And I can't explain it, but I got it, and I couldn't believe we had waited so long to have one! He was perfect, and I literally couldn't stop staring...and as soon as he fell asleep, I would start wishing he'd wake back up so I could watch him take the world in. My first solo diaper change at 3 am was an absolute catastrophe that ended with me calling the nurses with my left hand and using a diaper to block him from peeing all over me with my right while he spat up continuously and I thought he was choking... But somehow we got the hang of it and 2 days later, for some reason, the hospital decided we were capable of caring for this itty bitty human and sent us out on our own... :)
I felt him kick for the first time at 17 weeks, in the security line at the Las Vegas airport. I froze, shoes and laptop in hand, with a not-so-thrilled group of hurried travelers behind me, and rushed to tell Taylor-- who gently reminded me that we were about to be stampeded if we didn't hurry forward-ha! So began the most fun part of pregnancy. I felt great, had a cute little tummy, and could feel my overly active little guy jumping, hiccuping, and wiggling all day long. Fast forward nine months... my cute little tummy had quickly grown so large that a sweet hostess actually expressed concern that I wouldn't fit into the booth at our favorite Mexican restaurant (which sent this overly sensitive pregnant girl into tears! haha). Taylor and I were in the midst of moving, and our house wasn't completed yet, so I was completely happy to keep Carter right where he was., and he was just as happy to stay put. He showed absolutely NO signs of entering the world on or around his due date (June 20th), so the doctor scheduled an induction on June 27th at 41 weeks. I really wanted him to come on his own time but deferred to the doctors, and started planning for our little man's now-scheduled arrival!
On Friday June 24th, Taylor and I went on one last mini vacation by spending the night at a downtown Nashville hotel, eating great food, watching in-room movies while snuggled in bed, recalling old memories, and saying goodbye to the only "us" we'd ever known. And we continued to enjoy a relaxing weekend, loving on the dogs and trying to wrap our heads around the idea that we would be meeting our baby that Monday morning!
Taylor woke up early on Sunday morning to go fishing (like 4:30-5:00 am early!), but it was raining. He then woke me up to see if I wanted to go out to Pancake Pantry. Being a total morning person and completely pancake-obsessed, I hopped out of bed as quickly as my hugely pregnant body would allow and off we went.
Taylor spent the next few hours watching movies on that rainy Sunday, but I couldn't sit still. I showered and took advantage of my planned induction by making my hair look pretty (total waste of time), but I just didn't feel right. Taylor kept asking me to sit down and watch a movie with him (since the two of us could literally spend an entire weekend watching movies!) but I had these very slight weird pains in my stomach and couldn't stop walking around and fidgeting. While I'd like to think I'm an intelligent person, it did not hit me that I may be going into labor... until I found myself curled up on the bed, unable to breathe through the pain, telling Taylor this definitely wasn't "it.". He called the hospital who said to time the contractions and to come in once they were less than 5 min apart- which we knew but were far too panicked to remember. We started timing them and couldn't get more than 1-3 minutes between them... I was convinced we were timing them incorrectly, but my sweet husband grabbed the overnight bag and told me it was time to go. I started listing off things that needed to be done before we could go, but he somehow convinced me to just go in to the hospital to be checked out. On the way to the hospital, he started calling our "labor list"... and I kept chiming in in the background that there was no need to panic...that it was clearly not happening yet. All this while I was literally doubled over in the worst pain ever! I actually remember saying to Taylor that it wasn't supposed to hurt this bad... and he made the very astute point that yes, child birth has been known to cause a bit of pain in most women! By the time we made it to the hospital, Taylor's anxiety was starting to show through the calm mask he had been fighting to hold onto...and he almost jumped out of the car after this guy who stole a parking spot from us in the Vandy garage! We then proceeded to get lost walking into the hospital and couldn't find the labor and delivery department. When we finally found it, they rushed us back to a room where they confirmed that I was definitely in labor (I had been convinced that they were going to tell me those weren't real contractions and that my very low pain tolerance had me fooled).
I'd like to say I handled the pain with complete composure, but to be honest, I was crying by the time I was 1 cm, and they were about to send me home had my water not broken right there in the triage room! They asked if I wanted an epidural, and I just told them that I was absolutely ready and willing to accept any pain meds that wouldn't hurt the baby... So yes, I happily submitted and took the epidural at 1 cm (in my defense, the contractions were super intense and coming every 2 minutes or so...ha ;)) I am not ashamed to admit that I have no pain tolerance and had no desire to feel any part of labor... which is probably what jinxed me! Over the next 22 hours, I flip-flopped between my normal happy, laid back self to a complete mess- throwing up, crying and apologizing profusely to anyone who would listen. Apparently I was suffering from "hot spots" where the pain meds failed to work... And Taylor has told me that I described this unpleasant experience by telling him that it felt like my insides were being torn apart or something along those lines. But then the doctors would fix the epidural, and I would start smiling again within seconds--those meds are amazing...
The good news is that my anesthesiologist resident figured out the problem right as the doctors were telling me that I needed to get ready to deliver the baby without meds... Oh that sweet resident (the next day, he tracked us down to write his patient evaluation before he graduated...and I literally hugged him while Taylor gushed about how grateful we were to him...and I remember him backing out of the room pretty awkwardly, so I am pretty sure we were a bit too enthusiastic... haha).
This whole time, my mom and Taylor were in the room with me, and my aunt and grandma were either in the room with us or in the waiting room... for some reason the doctors all kept thinking Carter's arrival was "imminent" so no one wanted to go home! Every once in a while a doctor would float the idea of increasing some pitocin or performing some other measure to kick things off, but I didn't want to rush my little guy, and his heart rate never showed distress, so they just laughed and said he was on his own schedule! So finally it was time to push, and while Taylor says I was a total overacheiver, pushing longer and more often than they even asked me too, I will admit that I was just afraid the meds were going to wear off again! So 3 hours of pushing later, we heard the midwife say, "I need help! This baby is huge!" or something along those lines... and a nurse ran over to help her hold him and then he was whisked away to the pediatricians... and on his way over there, I heard the sweetest sound in the world, that first little cry (which, of course, sent me into tears)! The doctor's were all shocked at the unexpected size of this giant 9lb 5oz, 22 inch baby, and my mom rushed over to watch, never taking her eyes of her new grandbaby. Meanwhile, Taylor held onto my hand and wouldn't let go, and then we met him... They set him in my arms, and after a minute of trying to figure out how to hold this giant newborn, I looked into those beautiful little eyes and nothing else mattered. I had never in my life seen a more precious face....His little eyes were wide open, and in typical Carter fashion, he was already searching for food, mouth wide open!
The next couple of days in the hospital were a blissful blur... the doctors and nurses at Vandy were amazing and our family and friends were wonderful. I convinced Taylor to spend the night at home with the dogs so he could rest up and be ready to help out when we got home. And that first time the nurses rolled my little man into the room, and it was just the two of us, I finally got it... why people had kids. And I can't explain it, but I got it, and I couldn't believe we had waited so long to have one! He was perfect, and I literally couldn't stop staring...and as soon as he fell asleep, I would start wishing he'd wake back up so I could watch him take the world in. My first solo diaper change at 3 am was an absolute catastrophe that ended with me calling the nurses with my left hand and using a diaper to block him from peeing all over me with my right while he spat up continuously and I thought he was choking... But somehow we got the hang of it and 2 days later, for some reason, the hospital decided we were capable of caring for this itty bitty human and sent us out on our own... :)
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| Meeting my little man! |
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| SO awake from the beginning |
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| My sweet husband, didn't leave my side or sleep for 30 hours...he's a keeper :) And yes, Carter is already searching for food- he had absolutely no issues in that department. |
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| My amazing 87 year old Grandma refused to leave the waiting room for over 20 hours...no naps or anything. |
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| My cheerleaders...grandma, aunt Megan, and mom |
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| At this point we had no idea of how long of a night we were in for... it's times like these that I am especially grateful for marrying my best friend! |
Sunday, February 5, 2012
January 2012
7 MONTHS!
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| Ready to play with anything and everything! |
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| Moving all around in an army crawl... getting so so close to actually crawling! Yikes! |
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| Fun with breakfast- we're learning to love the messiness and appreciate our 4 furry vacuum cleaners that surround his high chair at all meal times! |
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| Big guy |
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| His buddy Nemo |
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| Really not thrilled with the hat or the freezing weather...or the fact that his mom decided to take a picture of him. So cute, even when he's grumpy :) |
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| Hanging with his friend, Evelyn |
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| On the move... |
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| Interested in EVERYTHING..and not sure why his mom would want to spend time starting at this contraption when he's right next to her. He likes to have an audience at all times. |
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| Oh Nemo... yet another one of Carter's toys meets its demise... |
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| A common dinnertime battle... the food is so much more fun when splattered all over his face, hands, and of course. his mom! |
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| Teeth! |
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| Emerging independence... and yet another dinnertime battle! |
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| Fun with dad! |
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| Big enough to ride in the grocery cart! |
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| Hanging in his high chair |
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