Carter's Birth

I am so happy to have our family complete! Carter makes me feel fullfilled as a mother and he truly completes our family. I am so happy he's here and healthy (so far), we go to see the pediatric urologist this Wednesday to make sure his kidneys are working good.

On Tuesday, March 16th Brady went to work and my mom and I went to the hospital to have a scheduled amnio. My doctor wanted to make sure Carter's lungs were developed before he was born. Dr. Guzman (my doc) did not have any time scheduled on call at the hospital for the entire month of March as he was coming back to work after being off for the birth of his own twins, so another doctor, Dr. Nieves performed the amnio. If all was good then Dr. Guzman was going to come in after work hours at 5:30 pm to perform the c-section. He's a really good guy that Dr. Guzman.

The day went by much faster then I had anticipated. The results of the amnio came back around 3:30 and then I was officially admitted to the hospital and started getting prepped for surgery. Dr. Guzman came in a little before 5:30 and I was headed to the operating room by 5:45.

It seemed with Sophie that everything happened like a blur, but with Carter, I was much calmer and really wanted to enjoy his birth. Getting a spinal is a weird experience, but the anaesthesiologist was so great about it. He made sure I was comfortable and I felt really safe.

Brady came in as the surgery was starting and he really wanted to watch everything as this is our last time, so the anaesthesiologist let Brady stand in his spot. I started to feel very sick and my body decided to throw up almost the entire surgery, even though I had taken anti-nauseu medicine. That was a not fun part!

Carter's head was so big that Dr. Guzman had to use a vaccuum to get him out and when that didn't work he had to go back and increase the incision size and use the vaccum again! Gotta love those big round heads my kids have!

The window in my uterus was there again, which means that the uterine wall was thin and thank goodness Carter was small and I wasn't any further along in my pregnancy. Taking that into consideration, we're officially done with our family. It is too risky for me to be pregnant since I have such big babies...who knows if I'd make it this far in another pregnancy.

Before we knew it Carter came into the world crying...it really is the best sound ever. I love hearing my newborn babies cry for the first time! Brady went over to Carter and the anaesthesiologist held the little bowl for me to throw up in, that doctor was so great about keeping my face wiped and telling me every detail of what the nurses were doing with the baby. Everyone in the OR was shocked that Carter weighed so little (8lb 10 oz) after Nathan came in weighing 8 lb 15 oz and Sophie was 10 lb 3 oz!

It seemed like an eternity before Brady brought Carter over to me. I got to kiss him and touch him and look at the massive amount of hair on his head! It was too short of a time before Brady took Carter back into the labor & delivery room to finish being examined. I was stitched up and wheeled back into the room to recover.

I was sat up in bed and Carter was brought over and I was able to hold him for the first time. I wanted to nurse him right away and got to do that. He ate for almost an hour before the nurse noticed his breathing was rapid. I knew he wasn't as sever as Sophie had been, but they took him to the NICU for observation. He was put on an IV drip to keep his blood sugar up and started on an antibiotic.

It wasn't until 1 am that night when I got to see him again. It so hard to be seperated from your baby! The nurse wouldn't let me get out of bed when I wanted to at 10 pm or 11 pm or midnight, but we're persistent and finally at 1 am I got up! The nurse was shocked and amazed that I could get out of bed so quickly and easily after a c-section, but having a baby in the NICU is good motivation!

Carter's breathing was rapid, but he didn't need oxygen and was very healthy other wise. His blood sugar was good and he was peeing which meant his kidneys worked! By 5 am his breathing regulated and the fluid had worked its way out of his lungs. I was able to feed him again later Wednesday morning and by that afternoon he was off the glucose drip and could come into my hospital room.

Brady could only take three days off of work so he took Wednesday off while I was in the hospital and went to see Nathan & Sophie to show them pictures and videos of their new brother. They couldn't come to the hospital because of RSV. I went home on Friday and so Brady took Saturday off and the following Tuesday (Sunday and Monday are his normal days off). It was good to have him home for the first four days, plus my mom came to stay with us for the first week. She'll be back next week until I'm cleared to drive and pick up my kids again.

Carter's a great baby! He eats great and sleeps good. Nathan and Sophie are in love with him, as are the rest of us. Its hard to put him down because I know he's my last and I know how quickly they grow so I want to cherish every moment with Carter Quinn. He's changed so much in the last 12 days!!