Welcome to the World

Please forgive us for being remiss in updating this blog with our biggest of big news! I'm certain most of you already know that we welcomed our son into the world this week. He's absolutely perfect in every way, but needless to say, we've had our hands full since we brought him home.

The Birth Story
For those of you interested, here's the account of the big day. If you prefer not to read about the details of childbirth, then skip to the next section if you don't mind. On Tuesday, August 26 (9 days before the due date), I got up at 12:30 am for my usual trip to the bathroom. While washing my hands after, I felt a trickle run down my leg. I wrote it off as still needing to pee more, but every time I sat down, the trickle stopped. But when I stood up, it started again. The light bulb in my fog-induced brain flickered and I wondered if my water just broke. Mike and I had prepared for this moment in case there was confusion. Amniotic fluid is basic and urine is acidic, so what did we do? We brought home some pH paper from the lab of course. A quick test confirmed without a doubt that the trickle was amniotic fluid. I called the hospital to tell them what happened and they advised me to come in. I marvelled that I had yet to feel any contractions and wondered if my labor would be fast (Ha!). I woke up Mike and we packed up the car and headed to the hospital.

The drive there was pretty uneventful, though I did begin to feel contractions. As soon as we settled into the delivery room, the contractions came on strong and regular. I was only 1 cm dilated, but with these strong contractions, I hoped we would make some good progress towards 10 cm. However, 7 hours later, contractions completely debilitating, I was still only 2 cm. Even though we hoped for a natural childbirth, at this point I knew I couldn't handle another 7 hours of those contractions only to gain a single cm. I asked for something to help take the edge off to help me rest in between contractions. We were exhausted having slept only a couple hours before this all began. The medication helped me sleep a little in between contractions, but after 2 more hours, I had not made any progress on my cervix. I began considering an epidural. The doctors were optimistic that it might help my body relax and make better progress, but they knew my wishes for a natural delivery. We decided on the epidural, just wanting to get things moving in a forward direction.

Getting the epidural was certainly not a fun experience, but I felt incredibly relieved after its effect took place. Things moved slowly though and it wasn't until 9:30 pm (21 hrs in) that I was finally at 10 cm dilated. Let the pushing begin! That moment of excitement was extinguished after 2 hours of pushing with no baby making an appearance. The doctors could tell that it was going to be a tight fit for him to get out, but it ended up being tighter than they thought. They recommended a C-section to get him out. Mike and I agreed the best thing at this point was to just get the baby out one way or another and bring this labor to an end. At 11:06 pm, nearly 23 hours after my water broke, he was born with a full head of hair and screaming his lungs off. Mike cut the cord. The doctors confirmed there was no way he would have come out any other way than with a C-section. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 21.5 inches long. Not a huge baby really, just that my pelvic bones weren't going to allow him through. But he's perfectly healthy and I am on the mend.

New Parents at Home
Because of the C-section, we were allowed to stay at the hospital a little longer for my recovery. It worked out well because we could take advantage of all the doctors and nurses there to help us figure out what we needed to do to care for this baby. But by Friday, we were ready to get settled back in our own place. We've been at home a few days now (I've lost track) and we're getting the hang of things. It may be a couple weeks before we can get this baby on something that resembles a sleep schedule but for now, all are healthy and happy, even if some of us are a bit sleep-deprived.

Today we gave him his first bath, which he managed pretty well, and shared his opinion of the whole process by pooping all over me after I dried him off. He also figured out how to suck on his own hand. He seemed to be trying to figure out that maneuver for a few days and today it finally connected.

Photos Online
I'm about to upload some pics to Flickr so take a look when you get a chance. Some of you know the story behind the baby's first name; it's his grandmother's maiden name Carter. Ironically, Carter was born on the same day as his namesake; he and his great-grandfather share a birthday of August 26.