Birth Story - June 30, 2010

Better late than never, right? That's what my mom would say so here I am 5 weeks later writing about the morning our little Carly Rose came into this world.

Her due date of June 24th came and went and no Carly. I really thought she was going to come early and then there I was overdue and anxiously waiting for that first contraction to hit me. Each night I would go to bed and think "is tonight going to be the night?" Then morning would come and I was still very pregnant. I was beginning to think that Carly was going to have to be induced and I was surprisingly ok with that because I really was done with the preggo thing. Luckily, that didn't happen because on Tuesday, June 29th we went to the doctor and she stripped my membranes. While it was kind of painful, it was worth it because it got things moving....and quickly. After that appointment Jeff and I went to pick up Katie from Sharry's and by the time we got home I knew that I was going to give birth very soon. Before we went to bed that night I called my good friend Janice to let her know that she would probably need to be coming over in the morning to watch Katie and sure enough by 11:00 that night I was in labor.

The first contraction woke me up and I knew right away that this was the real thing. I grabbed my iphone and started timing the contractions with the app I had purchased weeks ago. They were manageable at that point so I let Jeff sleep a little longer. An hour or so later I woke him up and told me that it was time to get ready to have a baby. It's so funny how different the second time around was. We were both much calmer as we got ready to go. Jeff casually took a shower while I made sure everything was organized and prepped for me to be gone for a couple days. Around 2:00am the contractions got stronger and closer and together and since I didn't want to take any chance of waiting too long we got in the car and headed to the hospital. I was dreading the car ride because I wouldn't be able to move around when a contraction hit but luckily Carly made it easy for me.

We arrived and got checked in and when the nurse checked me I was 3 cm dilated and after that things moved VERY quickly. We got into our room and was introduced to our nurse who told us they were very short staffed....great, I thought. Luckily, I had been through this before so I knew how I wanted it to go. I wanted the freedom to move around as much as possible or at least be able to lean on the counter because that was the most comfortable position for me. I kind of got my wish but I still had to be hooked up to the fetal monitor which was just plain annoying. Jeff was great as always but lucky for him, I am the type of person who deals with pain by getting in my zone and staying focused. Of course we had a chatty nurse who made that challenging because she constantly was giving us the play by play of what she was doing.

I labored for a couple hours with contractions that were coming about 1-3 minutes apart. I didn't get much of a break in between but I was making progress so I knew I could do it again without any medication. Around 4:30 I started pushing and after some serious screaming (which was very unexpected but dang it hurt!) Carly Rose Garner was born at 4:48 am weighing 8lbs 14oz and was 20.5 inches long.

I got to hold her right away and the moment she was put in my arms my heart melted. Jeff cut her umbilical cord and after seeing the tears in his eyes, I started crying too. We had another beautiful baby girl and our family was complete!

Welcome to Team Garner, Carly!