The Upside of Down: Carson's here!!!! Amazing labor (no really!!)

August 19, 2010 at 5:00 PM I got admitted to the hospital. I was getting induced the next morning to finally "meet" my baby boy! I was 38 weeks pregnant. It was such a strange feeling leaving our house knowing the next time we arrived there we would have a child!! Becoming a mom for the first time is the most indescribable feeling.
Me and Bert left the house extra early and got there with my sister, mom, and Mark (basically step-father) in tow. Oh yeah, and quite a bit of luggage :) You never know what all you're going to need.
After they checked us into our birthing suite we had to go over all the medical history questions, watch a video about epidural (yes, please!), and then go ahead and get the IV in. We were so anxious and eager, it was like waiting for Santa to come! I had no clue what to expect. I was one of those women who actually wanted to have a c-section. The whole thought of a "regular" delivery freaked me out. After watching both my sisters deliver my niece and nephew had left me a little scarred. One had a tough "regular" delivery and the other ended up having to have a c-section after a very long labor. Needless to say, they had not left happy thoughts in my head. I reiterated to my doctor many times that I was not oppossed in the least bit to having a c-section. Carson had started to measure a little larger so I was very worried I was going to have to deliver this huge baby!
Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself here. It was very hard to go to sleep that night knowing that I would FINALLY get to hold Carson in my arms!! I could not wait to see his sweet little face, and just know that he was in the world with us healthy and safe :) I was being induced 2 weeks before my due date because there is still a risk of loss even that late in the pregnancy because of Carson having Down Syndrome.
I got up extra early the next morning to take a shower because I have had friends warn me to make sure you shower before you deliver because you don't know how long it will be until you get a shower again! At about 7 in the morning they started the pitocin, and by 7:48 my doctor had broken my water. At that point my doctor told me I could have the epidural at any point. I was very nervous about missing my window to have it because I had heard horror stories about that, but I also wanted to wait until I started to feel some pain. Around 10 I asked my nurse to put me on the list for the epidural. Thank goodness I did because it took them some time to get to me. The epidural was worse than I had expected. I let the student do it because I'm all about students learning, we were all students at one point :) All I can say is, I was sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat! I could feel it going in and moved a little, big no no! Once it was all over I was feeling great!! No more pain :) I think I almost gave my husband an anxiety attack because I was so relaxed brushing my hair that I almost ripped the epidural catheter out of my back!
After the pitocin, things started progressing pretty rapidly. This caused my heart rate to drop and Carson's. I was not aware that there was anything wrong when all of a sudden a team of nurses rush in telling me to get on all fours! Hello I can't feel my bottom half, to be honest I wasn't quite sure I wasn't already on all fours! They started shaking my belly, put an oxygen mask on me, etc. By this point my mom is crying and everyone in the room is looking very concerned. My husband even said at one point that he didn't know if he could do this again, lol! I guess the pitocin was working very well and Carson was dropping very quickly. This little scare happened once more, just to keep us on our toes :)
As it sometimes seems to happen, I was ready to start pushing and my doctor was in surgery. Every once in a while my awesome nurse would come in and check on me and tell me not to push.
After all the excitement from before, when it finally came time to push, it was such a serene, relaxing atmosphere. I had made a baby playlist and it was filled with all my favorite relaxing music, Jack Johnson, Bob Marley, etc. With peaceful tunes filling the air, I started pushing at 2:30 PM. Since only three people could be in the room with me, my husband Bert called my step-father Mark, who was in the waiting room with the rest of the family so they could all hear what was going on. In between pushes I was laughing, it was the most amazing experience delivering my son. It took 7 pushes and 18 minutes, and one vacuum suction later and our baby boy came out!! Robert Carson Barnes was here and he was perfect in every way!! Carson was born to the song "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley. A very fitting song for my precious angel to be born to. The words "Don't Worry About a Thing, Cause Every Little Thing's Gonna Be Alright" have never been so prolific :)Apparently, after I "delivered" the placenta I was naming membranes in it! That's a typical science nerd for you :) I don't know it was all a blur and all I was focused on was Robert Carson Barnes!
He was 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 inches long. Unfortunately, his chest was moving very rapidly and we only got to spend a few minutes with him before he was whisked away to NICU. I had just become a mother and now my son would not be able to stay with us! I was very distraught about this and all I wanted to do was snuggle with my baby. The NICU experience was a tough one but the nurses there made it as easy on us as they could and I knew he was in amazing hands. My next post will be about NICU because even though it was only 9 days, it was a lot :)
My labor and delivery was so much more than I could have ever imagined. I started out thinking I wanted one thing (c-section) and what I got was so much better! I was so glad I was present and aware and got to experience delivering my son that way :) I could only wish that everyone gets to experience the amazing feeling of birthing your child and then holding him in your arms! That is definitely one of God's greatest miracles :)
Every little thing's gonna be alright....

Valorie with my luggage. I've never been accused of packing light :)

At the hospital the night before Carson was born. August 19, 2010

The parents-to-be!!

Typical Bert, messing with stuff he's not supposed to!

Love

Eagerly anticipating what's to come :)

Me & my sweet sister, Valorie, who documented everything for us with posts on Facebook :) A great treasure to have to look back on.

The most amazing woman in this world, my mother, and another pretty amazing woman, my older sister Valorie. We were only missing my other amazing sister Tara.