She's here!

Miss Caroline did not want to wait until her scheduled exit and made her appearance on April 18th! We had stayed up late watching movies and were getting ready to go to bed right about midnight. Every night since about 35 weeks Mike has asked me if we are having a baby that night and every night I said "I don't know. Maybe." Well Friday night I said "No. I think she will be here on Monday." Well, literally two minutes later I am crawling into bed and my water broke. Mike was already in bed and jumped up and started getting things ready and I just stood frozen for about a minute. I changed clothes and we jumped into the car and started calling our parents. We got to the hospital at 12:30 a.m., got checked in and headed up to the labor and delivery suite. I was having a few contractions, but nothing very painful. They checked me and I was dilated to a 5. Pretty soon after that I started having very painful contractions that were getting closer together as I was getting my IV placed in my arm. When my parents and sister got there about 2 a.m. my contractions were about a minute apart and miserable. They checked me again and I was a 7. The anesthesiologist was on his way and I got my epidural about 3 a.m. Wayne and Carla got there a few mintues later and I was feeling so much better. The OB got there a little before 4 a.m. They checked me and I was a 10! I started pushing around 4:10 and she was born at 4:28 a.m.

I had some postpartum bleeding issues that were extremely scary for both Mike and I, especially because we knew too well what was going on. I had to get another emergency IV and added a couple medicines to control the bleeding. I could barely keep my eyes open and Mike was trying to keep me with him. I couldn't see Caroline and I couldn't lift my head up because I was so weak. Luckily my bleeding finally got controlled. Normal vaginal deliveries lose about 300 ml of blood and I lost about 800 ml. I had to keep my IV with fluids running basically until we left the hospital, but my blood count was on the high side when I had come in, so my blood count dropped to the low end of normal and I didn't require a blood transfusion. Once I was able to eat, I started feeling much better. Everyone at the hospital was impressed with how fast I bounced back and we are very thankful that I did. We left the hostpital at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, exactly 36 hours after we got there.

Miss Caroline weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20 inches long and came out with a full head of hair. As she was coming out, one of the nurses said she we were going to need a ponytail holder. She immediately took to nursing and has been nursing amazingly since she got home. She has had tons of wonderful visitors and doesn't get very fussy at all. She has her first peditrician visit tomorrow. Here are just a few of the million pictures we have taken started right after delivery until today.