Little Wonders

Not even 24 hours after leaving the hospital with our false alarm, we were back there again. It all started around 1:30AM Sunday September 23rd. After I went to bed at Midnight (see previous post) I woke up and had to go to the bathroom. I walked down the hall, and notice the door was shut. Rob was in there. I turned around to walk back down the hall, and all of the sudden, my water breaks. I turn again and knock on the door, rob says "what" and I say " I think my water broke" I sit on the floor, and he opens the door, ready to jump in the shower. He says "Are you sure you didn't just pee your pants?" Now, I had to think about that question. I didn't know what it felt like to have your water break, so for all I know, I could have just peed my pants. I assess my thoughts, try to think of the last contraction I felt, etc. I then determined that while I still had not felt any contractions I was sure my water broke. (Please also remember that I was still very much on Morphine-once again see previous post)Rob then says he is going to jump in the shower. I calmly change my clothes, and go up stairs and wake up Brittany. I go back downstairs, watch and Rob is running around trying to gather his things (funny side note- he is getting his stuff together, and asks "Em, what did you spill as he is running up and down the hall- I tell him "I didn't spill anything, that is where I was when my water broke." HA HA HA. he stepped in it, and I got a towel to try and clean it up. at this point, I still didn't feel any contractions. We get everything in the car, call my mom and Rob's mom and let them know, and Brittany called Mindi. The drive to the hospital was amazingly LESS stressful than the drive on Saturday. Probably because of two things. 1: I knew they were not going to turn us away. and 2: The morphine had me so tired and numb, that I didn't really think about what my body was about to do. (Thank you Morphine!) When we got to the hospital, they took us into a room to get settled. Rob and I had a little time to ourselves, where we decided for sure on a middle name. Soon, My mom, Brittany and Mindi got there. Of course, My mom and Brittany were armed with even more clothes for the baby, and candy and snacks for Rob. I got hooked up to the heart rate monitors and at some point, Robs mom arrived. (the rest of everything was kind of a blur. -Here is what happened, maybe not in this order.) I was told I could have my epidural if I wanted. (we had been there maybe an hour and a half) I said yes. I failed MISERABLY at getting an epidural. I was scared, and holding onto Rob for dear life, and couldn't hold still. Once that was done, I fell asleep. I slept, and Slept, I woke up here and there a few times. One time, Brittany and Rob wanted to show me the "maternity pictures" that they took for me. (I was sad I didn't do any before hand). After I looked at the pictures, I fell asleep again. I slept, and slept, and slept, and then next thing I know, the nurse is instructing me how to push. I also spiked a fever of 102 at some point in this process. It is now about 2PM. I have been in labor for just over 12 hours, and yes, I slept through about 9 hours of it- and I mean, Nice deep sleep.) After the instructions on how to push, the next thing I know- They are putting a baby on my chest. I remember thinking "I cant believe how much hair she has" (which I shouldn't be surprised, Rob has a lot of hair too) As I had her on my chest, the nurse looked down, and said something, and the next thing we know, She is calling for a NICU nurse. I don't remember really anything, other than thinking "Why is she calling someone" The NICU nurse came in, and they took Her and Rob to the NICU. I guess she was not breathing right, also, since I had a fever, they thought she would too (which she didn't, her temp was actually very low- which doesn't usually happen if the mom has a fever) After they took her away, I fell asleep again for another hour or so, Then they woke me up to take me to my room. When I got settled in there, I text Rob and asked what was going on, and when they were going to be up, since I had not really seen my baby, and was more awake, I was kinda freaking out. He sent me two pictures, and told me they should be up soon, that he was just holding her as she was finishing up getting some antibiotics. When They finally got up to our room, Rob walked in first, and he had the BIGGEST smile on his face. I finally got to hold and really see my baby girl, and then we let grandma's hold her. After that, Momma carter left, and The Jensen kids got there, followed shortly by Grandma and Grandpa GG, and Robs mom and dad. I think Robs sister Kim came back as well (Im still a little fuzzy about that first day). That is all I'm going to post about on this update. She did get her first bath that night, but that will be its own post next. Here are the pictures leading up to the delivery and some of the first pictures of our beautiful Perfect daughter Anistyn Cambree Kaleolani Carter. She was 7 lbs 13oz and 22 inches long. ****Going to the hospital and settling in****

****Sleeping and "Maternity pictures"****

****Delivery room board, Dr Barney, Nurse****

****Anistyn Cambree Kaleolani Carter****

****Anistyn and Daddy****

****headed to the NICU, in the NICU with daddy****

***Waiting for Anistyn****

****Mommy finally gets to see Anistyn, First Family Picture****

That is all for this post. I am so glad Anistyn is finally here! We love her so much already!

Okay, Go! (or not)

September 22 was an eventful day In the Carter household. It all started around 9AM. I went with my sister to run some errands. We took Konnor to Karate, then went to Smiths to pick up his birthday cake for his party that afternoon. I was feeling very tired, and sick. I swear I had to use the bathroom more than once while we ran our errands. I was having contractions the night before, but nothing really close, or painful. The contractions were getting a little stronger as we ran our errands, but I was trying not to time them. Finally, as we headed to Wendy's to get drinks, and the kids a snack, I had a painful contraction. By the time we were leaving Wendy's drive-thru, I was having another one. Brittany said that the contractions were 3 minutes apart. I had also started spotting in the morning, but I was not worried about it, because the doctor advised that it was normal at the end stages of pregnancy. With the contractions that close, Britt had me call my doctor. I left the on call doctor a message and tried not to think about it all. When we got home, I barely made it into the house, when I curled up on the floor with another painful contraction. At that point, Brittany ran downstairs to get Rob, and sent us off to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, they put us in a triage room, and we patiently awaited to hear if we were staying at the hospital and having the baby, or if we were gonna get sent home. The nurse came in and hooked my up to the monitors, and I was in fact having contractions ever 2 or so minutes. After she was done hooking me up, I asked to use the bathroom, and she said that was okay. When I came back out, she checked me, and I had not dilated. So we were posed with two options. We could either A) walk around the hospital or somewhere else for a few hours, and come back and see if I progressed at all, or B) They could give me a shot of Morphine, and I could go home and sleep it off, or wait to see what happens. At this point, the nurse thought it would only be a matter of hours before I had the baby. We decided to try and walk around the hospital for a few hours, before I got dressed, I had to go to the bathroom again. I didn't think anything of it, since I was 9 months pregnant, I thought that was kinda normal, when the nurse asked me about it, I told her that when I went earlier, it was a false alarm, and that I only thought I had to go, but that I didn't actually go. She decided she wanted to check for a UTI. She took her sample, and told us to come back in an hour and They would have the results, and they would check me again. Rob and I stopped by the cafeteria and got me some soup, and then we found a nice little place to walk around. (literally around- it was a labyrinth on the hospital grounds)I ate, then drank water, and walked, and even jogged. after an hour, we decided to walk around the long way to the labor and delivery building. When we got there, We went back into the triage room. We found out that I did in fact have a UTI. The nurse said that I was not in labor, and that the UTI was causing the contractions. She checked me, and I was still at a 0. So we decided to do the shot of Morphine, and go home and sleep. I was pretty much asleep by the time we got home. I crashed on the couch up stairs while Rob ate something, and talked with my mom and Brittany about what happened while we were at the hospital. I don't remember much about that afternoon. I had never been on morphine before. I do know that we went to cafe Rio for dinner with Britt and my mom, and then Rob and I went to the new Dicks to walk around. (when I say walk around, I mean I walked around for maybe 30 minutes, then found a bench and fell asleep on it while Rob continued to look around the store) When we got home, we played games with Britt and the kids until Midnight (Once again, this is a little fuzzy to me, due to the morphine) When we were done playing, I went straight to bed. Morphine is great stuff. (More on that later) I thought for sure we would have our little girl that day, but ALAS, we didn't. No little girl for us on September 22. :( Here are a few pictures to document our false alarm.

We are Family

Robs Aunt Bev came in from Texas, as well as her daughter Melanie, and Mel's daughter Kinley. She is super cute! Rob was on the floor playing with her one night, and Kinley was giving him loves. It was adorable. Here are a few pictures of it. I love them!

September 14th, in the evening, I got together in Herriman with Robs family, and we had a picnic. Robs Brother Donald and his family were in town from Maryland, so It was fun seeing them, and hanging out with Mel and Bev some more. Here are a few pictures from that night.

Eye of the Tiger

A few weeks ago on September 14th, I took Chloe on a trip to the zoo. We had a blast! We went with my cousin Amie, her daughter Hallie, and Elisa, and her two kids Eli and Amelia. I was semi nervous about this trip, but I wanted to do it, because I wanted to do anything to put me into labor. I figured walking hills, while pushing an almost 4 year old in the stroller could only help me out. (It didnt- but more on that in the next post) We didnt see all of the animals, but we did see a few, as well as played on the train and the carousel. I was glad we went on the train, since it was the last day it is open until 2014, due to a new exhibit they are building. We took a lot of fun pictures. Here are some of them.

It was so much fun hanging out with these girls! I hope we can do more things like this. Its so fun to all have a little girl within a year. I hope they are all friends like we are!!