One Year Ago

Just one year (and a couple of days) ago, the night of April 10, I had just arrived home from work. I was extremely pregnant (don't listen to what any of your grammar teachers tell you--"pregnant" IS a gradable adjective) and showing Austin how dorky I looked as I ran (read: waddled) around the yard after Seamus. I felt a little icky, but I figured I had just eaten too much at my work Going Away Party. I wasn't due for another week and a half, afterall, and had convinced myself that the baby would be late anyway. I went inside, did a short Hypnobirthing relaxation session, ate some cereal and fell asleep with Austin on the couch. Around midnight, we adjourned to our more comfortable bed.

At about 4:30 am (MT), I woke up with that infamous, "What the heck, did I just wet the bed?" feeling. You always hear that that's what you'll think, but it's true. Being leaky is always surprising, no matter how prepared you think you are. I rushed to the bathroom as I said something to the effect of "Austin, wake up! I think my water's broken!" He mumbled that I was fine and should come back to bed. Thanks, Aust. But I confirmed that the "leaking" was not stopping and was under no power of my own.

Austin finally came to and brought me the phone so I could ring the hospital. They said they'd be ready for me. Since I wasn't expecting a baby for at least two more weeks, I hadn't packed anything. Although due to daily nagging by my coworker JoAnn, I had at least made a list of what I needed to bring.

After finishing on the phone with the hospital, the contractions began. And it isn't easy to run about the house and pack a suitcase when your entire mid-section has an agenda of its own that involves repeatedly seizing up all your core muscles at once.

By 5:00, we had dropped Seamus off at our friend Rita's, (unbeknownced to her) and made it to the hospital in record time. The Delta County hospital has an amazing maternity ward with individual rooms--complete with hottub and bathroom! I changed into the lovely hospital gown and the nurse discovered that I was dialated to 8cm and fully effaced. (If you're like me a year ago and these things mean absolutely nothing to you, this means that I was almost completely ready to push the baby out--you have to be dialated to 10cm.)

Thanks to the recommendation of my aunt Fiona, I had taken Hypnobirthing relaxation classes to prepare me for the birth. For more information on Hypnobirthing, click here. For me, it was wonderful because I was interested in giving birth without pain medication. Never at any time during the labor portion did I actually feel in pain, although there was quite a bit of discomfort.

Each time a contraction would happen to move the baby down, Austin--who was a champion support during the entire process--would hold my hand, stroke my hair, and talk to me about a beautiful Spring day we spent at Silver Lake in Utah. And when it finally came time to push my baby out, although I had some moments during the contractions where I panicked a bit and got a little scared, I was able to regroup and relax in between and it only took 17 minutes of pushing before that little wiggly baby boy was out in the big wide world. It was AMAZING! I never thought I'd be interested in natural childbirth, but I was so glad to be 100% involved and aware of every moment.

They let Austin cut the unbilical cord and then gave me my little baby (yet unnamed) right away. I got to hold him and nurse him for a whole hour before they took him to get cleaned and weighed and measured--and even then, he never left my room so I got to watch everything. He weighed 7lbs 8oz, and was 18.5" long.

Austin and I had thought that we'd want to leave the hospital as soon as possible--who likes hospitals?--but the two nurses who attended me the whole time I was there--Cindy and Brenda--were the sweetest, most helpful people and the facilities were so comfortable and cozy that we decided to stay the full two nights. We came home on the Sunday and arrived just before my mom pulled in to town. It took us a week and several options before we came up with a good name, but in the end we settled on Carson Neil.

So here it is, one year later, and my little boy has 8 teeth, weighs about 24 lbs, has a full head of dark blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes, plays fetch with Seamus, thinks all his toys are meant to be pushed around like cars, waves hi and bye, loves babbling to the pictures on his wall and biting the noses on all of his stuffed animals--and WALKS! He had a brief go of it about a month ago when I posted the video of him stumble-walking. But two weeks ago he got down to business and little by little it has become his primary mode of transportation. (It's a good thing too, because we told him if he wasn't ambulatory by the time he was one, we were sending him back.) :)