Telling the Tale

Well, Carly is asleep for the time being, so I should probably get in the shower. But I've got a tale to tell.

As we all know, my doctor said Carly (so long, "Lil") was very unlikely to come on her own. So I had settled into a very relaxed state, wondering what I'd be doing with my week of free time. Sunday, August 9th, my house was a mess, we had very little food, and I had a big list of "To Dos" sitting on the table. That day I was also extraordinarily uncomfortable. I missed church and spent the majority of the day in a warm bathtub--though, I never showered or washed my hair: this will be important as you see the coming photographs of me. Around 11 on Sunday night, I started having severe pains. They felt like menstrual cramps times a billion. The "Braxton-Hicks" Contractions I'd been having felt nothing like this. I was confused. But the pains were coming every 20 minutes on the dot. "I think you're in labor" Chris tells me. "I can't be. I'm not anywhere close to labor--and Dr. M is in Texas" I reply. Alas, I am up all night timing contractions (another important note as you see coming pictures of me) and by 6 am, they are about 4-5 minutes apart and getting really strong. So we call the on-call doctor and he tells us to come in and get checked.

~

In all our unpreparedness and the fact that I'm having severe contractions every 5 minutes, it takes us an hour and a half to get to the hospital that is 10 minutes away. We get there around 7:30 and I'm in all sorts of pain. Two nurses try to check me, but Carly was still so high they had troubles. The on-call doctor came in to try to check instead. His first name was Periclus, and he had a heavy Greek accent. But he was super-nice and the med student following him around raved about his genius, so I felt we were in good hands. He checked and said I was no further than a 2 or 3, but labor was not going to stop. Our options? Sit in agony all day, waiting for everything to happen naturally, or break my water, get me an epidural and pitocin, and get this party started. We chose the latter.

~

The doctor broke my water and after that the contractions picked up. I was screaming quite a bit at this point, and the nurse hustled to find the epidural man. I remember Chris stroking my head and saying "Its ok, babe." I screamed back "No! This is not ok!" Soon the wonderful anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. I was freezing for some reason and shaking all over and having contractions and I was terrified my involuntary movements would cause permanent paralysis as he stuck a tube into my spinal column, but thankfully he had a little experience and all went well. In no time the warm drugs were flowing and the nurses piled warm blankets on me and then I decided this labor thing wasn't too bad. I could still feel contractions through the drugs though, so they he upped my dosage a little and soon I couldn't feel a thing. At that point, they brought on the pitocin.

~

It turns out I "respond really well to pitocin". That's what the nurse said anyway. I lost track of time, but not long after the epidural and pitocin drip the nurse checked me and said "Well its a good thing we did your epidural when we did. You're at a 9 1/2" (you start pushing out baby at 10 cm, in case you're like me and didn't know that until you took a childbirth class at 30 weeks pregnant). At noon, we were ready to start pushing. I was drugged enough that I actually couldn't feel contractions or the urge to push until the end. This was not a bad thing for me, as I still had the capability to push and our really really great labor nurse told we when to push and counted down for me the whole time. At the end, I could feel Carly starting to emerge, and I knew when to push without having to be told. Soon the doctor came in for the final few pushes and at 12:53, our beautiful little coneheaded Carly entered the world. So we were at the hospital at 7:30, started pushing at 12, had a baby by 12:53. All in all, it was a very successful morning.

My new opinion of having a child is I could do labor and delivery over again easily. That part hurts, but modern medicine is a gift from God. The recovery? That's the part no one tells you about. That's the part that will be really hard to knowingly choose to go through a second (and third, and fourth) time. That's the part that makes it hard to walk even 10 days later. Our little Carly is so worth it of course. But that's the part I really wasn't ready for.

~

We were in the hospital for the standard 2 days. Carly spent the night in the nursery (and some days--I needed a nap or two) and was brought to me to feed. She's been a champ at breastfeeding. She gained weight after being discharged from the hospital and then gained a whole pound 1 week later. Little piggy. I'm less of a breastfeeding champ, as it is rather painful. My goal is to learn the ropes until her 3 week appointment and then have a heart-to-heart with the wonderful lactation consultant at our pediatrician's office. Like everything, we'll just gradually learn together and make little goals.

When Carly was born her hair looked very red--or at least auburn or strawberry-blond or somewhere in there. Since we've gotten her home, though, her hair has darkened quite a bit and I think its almost exactly Chris's shade now. I'm sure it will change many times throughout her life. Chris is still "holding out hope" that it will be red (though, we'll accept her if it stays brown). She's a good baby and never cries, really. The only two things that really make her cry are hunger and sponge baths. She is nocturnal, however. She sleeps all day and is wide awake at night. Not fussy usually, just hanging out and looking around with her wide beautiful eyes. The nurse at the pediatrician's office says that will reverse itself soon. Here's hoping.

And how about choosing "Carly"? Well, a long time ago we were talking about names and Carly came up as one we both liked. It stayed the front runner the entire pregnancy, and by that last week, we were referring to her as Carly most of the time. The first time I held her Chris asked "Well, what do you think?" I said "I think she's Carly." He answered "Me too." And she was Carly. No real story behind it. We just liked it. Our first runner up was "Quinn". I still love that name for a girl, and would love to see Carly have a little sister named Quinn. But we'll take one step at a time! And no, Carly doesn't have a middle name. I don't have a middle name, I now use my maiden name as my middle name. My mom is the same way-- no middle name and uses her maiden name or initial. I wavered back and forth on whether to give her a middle name or not, but in the end liked the thought of keeping with that tradition. So she's Carly C. The lady at the hospital commented on how we were "sure keeping things simple" because we used the most basic spelling (there are a million ways to spell Carly) and weren't giving her a middle name. We like it that way.

We took Carly home on Wednesday, August 12th--my due date. A pretty good way to spend your due date, if you ask me. We have slowly but surely been getting the hang of things trying to keep her happy and well-fed. It can be exhausting and overwhelming at times, but nothing has ever brought us more joy. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes one, and we are both totally smitten.