The ride to the hospital was excruciating. It’s a short drive, just about seven to ten minutes away but I was having contractions about a minute apart by that time. Ironically the lights at the intersection of Bangeter and 13400 South were out due to an accident. Things were moving okay, as far as a 4-way stop goes at about 7:15 am. When he was only a car or two away from making it through the intersection, the emergency responders arrived. At this point all traffic came to a halt and Jared was desperate to get through. He yelled at a police man who had gotten out of his car but evidently the officer couldn’t hear him and went went to help with the car accident. My contractions at this point were on a pain level I’d never felt before and I was screaming through them at this point. Somehow Jared eventually bullied his way into the intersection and was able to make a left turn and get to the hospital. I was on my hands and knees in the front seat with my head buried behind his back during the entire ride. Jared told me that I kept knocking the gear into neutral and he’d have to put it back into the correct gear. Our SUV’s interior lights were on because my weight was throwing off the sensors in the front seat. I remember thinking I’m sure we were quite the sight but my pain was off the charts at this point and I couldn't have cared less. 

After what seemed like forever Jared pulled up to the drop off at the south entrance at the hospital. He immediately saw someone in the hallway in what otherwise seemed to be a pretty empty area. He jumped out of the car as fast as he could before that person disappeared since he wasn’t sure where the labor and delivery unit was. We later found out this woman was an instructor at the hospital. She grabbed a wheel chair and they helped get me out of the car. I was in so much pain at this point I was almost delirious. I couldn’t sit in a wheelchair and so I climbed into it backwards with my knees on the seat and facing backwards. They rushed me up the elevator and into the labor and delivery unit. I’m certain we surprised everyone at the front desk. They immediately asked who my doctor was. Jared answered and then he made eye contact with Dr. Langer who was all scrubbed up and standing in the hall with several nurses. Dr. Langer didn't recognize me right away because I was turned around in the seat. We later found out that she was the only doctor there at the time and was ready to perform a c-section on a patient. She normally delivers at Jordan Valley and we felt so fortunate by the turn of events that she was there. 

It was a whirlwind being rushed in. They threw me onto a bed and in an instant my pants and slippers came off and they checked me. The nurse immediately said “he’s right here”. I was out of my mind in pain at this point and was still hoping for an epidural. We had NO idea I was fully dilated and so finding out that I needed to push without so much as a Tylenol in me sent me into somewhat of a panic. Dr. Langer said “okay if you feel like you need to push you push” and two pushes later he came right out. This all happened so quickly. They placed him on my chest and Jared was able to cut the cord. I was in still so much pain I wasn’t able to get a good look at him but I remember that he had a lot of dark hair that was wet and curly. Apparently when some women give birth the au natural route they sometimes have feelings of euphoria and relief after. This was hardly my experience. I was still in an incredible amount of pain and almost delirious about what was going on around me. I was unaware of what nurses were helping us and what doctor was helping me.

When Carter was born I was still in my shirt that I came in with and the nurses hadn’t put an IV in my arm yet. Sadly the most memorable thing I remember about the moments after his birth was the high amount of pain I was in. Immediately after his birth one of the nurses gave me a shot of Pitocin in my right thigh. Some of the pain was relieved once the placenta was delivered but I was still in a lot of pain that caused me to shake and cry. Our doctor had left to perform her c-section since her patient was already sedated and would return when she was done to stich up my second degree tear. The nurses gave me a dose of Fentanyl which didn’t seem to be working. I felt very traumatized afterward by what had just transpired.  I felt awful that during those first forty five minutes of his life I wasn’t able to hold him or do much more than acknowledge my baby, let alone bond with him. Jared was able to hold him and a nurse was kind enough to hold him in front of me for a few minutes so I could see him. He looked healthy and beautiful. The nurses eventually doubled the dose of Fentanyl and I started to feel some relief from the pain. About a half hour after he was born our doctor returned and was able to stitch up my tear. About an hour after he was born they finally were able to get my pain under control. I was able to get cleaned up a bit and they moved us into a recovery room.

We ended up staying about a day and a half in the hospital. Jared was able to bring Kylie and Kipton in to see the baby that day. Kylie loved holding him and couldn't get enough of him. We asked Kipton if he wanted to hold the baby and he said "no thanks!" and kept asking to go home. His cousin, Ethan had been over to play all day with him so I'm sure cousins are much more fun :) Janiel was able to come down that evening and stayed with our children overnight and took them back up to my mom's house the morning after. It was really, really nice to have a few days after we got home from the hospital to have some alone time with Carter and to get some time to heal. Though we weren't really "alone". We had a crew scheduled to install drywall in the basement and they ended up starting the day I went into labor. Remind me please that next time I have a baby to not be in the middle of finishing a basement. I have to say that even though my recovery immediately after his birth was rough in the long term it's been great. The long term recovery has been so much quicker this time. We are sure excited to have this little guy in our family and are so happy that he made it safely!

Our baby boy’s due date was on Friday, January 11^th. I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, January  9^th at 1pm. For that appointment I dropped Kylie off at preschool and took Kipton over to a friend's to play so I could go to my appointment. I had only marginal progress from the week before and was 70% effaced and a little more than fingertip dilated. The appointment went smoothly and my doctor gently massaged/stripped my membranes hoping to help start my labor going. It didn’t hurt and she told me it gave us about a 50% chance of going into labor in the next 72 hours. 

That evening after making dinner I finished putting some caulk between the tub and vapor barrier as we were working on finishing the basement. I remember having really strong nesting instincts that night. I cleaned the house, vacuumed and finished adding a few things to my hospital bag. I also made sure the children’s suitcase was packed and ready to go. I remember thinking that it would be a good time to go into labor since everything was ready. About ten or eleven pm that night I noticed I was having a few light contractions. They weren’t strong or happening very close together. I was curious if they were considered “false labor” as they would go away if I changed positions and they weren’t timed very close. On the other hand they were enough that I had a strong hunch they would turn into more than that during the middle of the night. It was unfortunate that it was so late because we hadn’t warned anybody to expect a call in the middle of the night if necessary. Jared sent a quick text to my sister late that night but we didn’t anticipate her seeing it.  

Jared fell asleep on the couch and at about 1am I decided to get into the tub. The hot water felt really nice and helped take away the pain of the contractions. I also expected it to slow down my progress as it had with Kipton’s birth. I’d spend an hour or so in the hot bath and when I’d get tired I’d go lay on my bed in a towel and would try to sleep as best as I could until a contraction would wake me up. When they got too difficult I’d take another hot bath. This repeated a few times and I had hot water continually trickling into the tub most the night. I was relaxing in the bath as best as I could but it wasn’t really possible to sleep in there. I remember being really tired. It seemed like around 6 am I recognized that my contractions were getting much more painful. At the time I felt like they were about 8-10 minutes apart but only lasted 20 seconds or so. I felt like they weren’t getting closer together but they were sure increasing in intensity. Looking back I wonder what the true reality was as Jared was still in the other room and I didn’t have a clock near me. I just knew at a certain point that the intensity was there and we needed to get going to the hospital. 

About 6:30 am or shortly after I got out of the tub and was trying to dry off and get dressed when Jared heard me. He jumped into the shower and noticed that I had several contractions while he was in the shower, much closer than the ten minutes I was telling him about. He essentially cut his shower short and decided we needed to get to the hospital quickly. He made some last minute calls to my sister to let her know I was in labor and to head over to our house. Because of how long Kipton’s labor was we hadn’t really thought about getting a last minute plan for who would watch our children if we went into labor in the middle of the night. I was having some excruciating intense contractions by then. The contractions went very quickly from manageable to being excruciating. Poor Jared was running around trying to help me, get the bags into the car and calling our neighbor Becky to come over at the spur of the moment and watch the kids until my sister Vaylene could get there. While Jared was in a hurried rush making phone calls and taking bags out to the car I had a contraction next to my bed where water started running down my legs and I knew for certain my water had broke.  At this point both Kylie and Kipton woke up during all the commotion but stayed out of the way. I’m sure they were concerned about what was going on. Jared helped me into the front seat of the SUV and unlocked the front door for Becky. I remember asking if Becky was there yet and she wasn’t. By that point I was on my hands and knees in the front of our SUV, in severe, severe pain. I told Jared we couldn’t wait any longer- we HAD to leave. We left and Jared called Becky’s cell to tell her that we had left and she told him she was on her way out the door.  

Part 2 here