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The details

Well, I've been wanting to write this blog for awhile now, but I'm just getting to it now. I want to record the details about my labor and delivery because this blog is my journal. If you're not interested in that type of thing...just enjoy the pictures! :) (I know I look horrible in the picture to the right, but I just had to put it in because Carter looks so funny! :)

On Thursday, 3/27, around 6:30 or 7, I started noticing what I thought were contractions. When I had Mason, I didn't start to feel contractions until my water had already been broken for 4 hours and I was at the hospital, so I wasn't totally sure. I timed them and they were coming between 10 and 20 minutes apart. I didn't want to let myself hope that I was in labor, 'cuz I didn't want to be disappointed if I wasn't, so I just kept telling myself it was not the real thing.

Once David got home from school around 8:30, I was still having them pretty consistent every 10 minutes. I kept doing the things I normally do, cleaning up after dinner, the laundry, putting Mason to bed. After Mason was in bed, I decided to lay on the couch and rest and see if they went away. There was a video that they made me watch at one of my appointments about pre-term labor, and that's what they said to do to see if they are the real thing. Well...they definitely kept coming. David kept asking me "are you having one?" when he would notice me all of the sudden jump up and walk around trying to find a more comfortable position. At this point they were about 7 minutes apart, sometimes sooner so we decided to call the doctor. They told me that we should probably come on in.

I was still worried that it wasn't the real thing, and I told her that I didn't want to get there just for them to send me home. She assured me that they wouldn't do that. So, at around 11:30 or so we bundled up Mason, got our bags together and left. I thought about doing a blog on the way out, but decided against it...just for the same reason, I really didn't want to get my hopes up that the baby was coming..I didn't believe that this was really it. We dropped Mason off at my parents house, and the contractions were 4-6 minutes apart at that time. It was a lot harder to bear them when I was strapped in the same position.

The hospital that we have to go to for our insurance is about 45 minutes away, in the middle of Downtown. There are lots of stoplights close together and it seemed like it was taking forever. Especially when the contractions were coming so quickly.

When we finally got there, I went to check in, and they had my information because I had called earlier. The girl told us that they didn't have a room clean, and asked if we wanted to wait (I was thinking...well we're not going home, what other choice do we have?!) She asked how I was doing and I said the contractions were coming every 4 minutes. Apparently I did a good job of convincing everyone that I wasn't in that much pain because they made us wait in the waiting room for 20 minutes while they cleaned up an examination room.

Once I finally got into the examination room, they still didn't believe that I was very far along in labor-they hooked me up to some monitors and said that they would be back in 20 minutes to see if I could stay or not. I asked if I could stand up during the contractions, 'cuz it was a lot harder when I had to lay on the table. The lady said that would be fine. When she came back in 20 minutes, she realized that the readout wasn't good enough because I was standing and said she would have to get another 20 minutes with me laying down.

FInally, she must have realized that I was really in labor 'cuz she said she could check to see how far I was dilated and if I was at least a 5, I could go on up. Well, she was pretty surprised and things started moving pretty quickly when whe realized that I was already dilated to a 10 (or so she thought...she couldn't really believe it, she said, because I was not acting like I was that far along). Just because I wasn't screaming and yelling, and was responding pleasantly to them, no one believed that I was really this close. Anyways, she asked how long I had pushed with Mason, and I told her 30 minutes, and that made her even more nervous. She said we had to get upstairs right now. I immediately asked if I could order my epidural then. She said I probably didn't have time! I was so worried, I asked to please just see if I could get it 'cuz I really didn't want to do a natural birth. She said she would see, but I could tell she didn't really think that I would be able to.

When we got up to the room, there was a full staff waiting for me. They were all prepared to help me have the baby right then. They were going to check me one more time and started hooking up the monitors. This is when everything started to change. They realized that Carter's heartbeat was unusually high...so they got an ultrasound machine out. I didn't realize what was happening until the Doctor said "Your baby's breech...we have to do a C-section". Wow, I was definitely not expecting that. Two days earlier, at my appointment, they had said that he was still head down...no wonder it seemed like he had been moving around a lot!

My water still hadn't broken but they could see that it was close and we didn't have much time before I would want to start to push. I was having terrible contractions at this point and was just so worried that Carter would try to come feet first before they had a chance to do the C-section.

They started prepping me and it was just a whirlwind. THey had to knock me totally out, and I don't remember them even giving me the anesthetic...just all of the stuff right before. When I woke up I was really groggy and the incision hurt a ton! But...baby Carter was now here and so things were looking up!

Now we have another precious little boy and are so happy to have him here!

This is after we got home from the hospital. Mason had been running on very little sleep and he just crashed. He and Daddy had a lot of fun together while Carter and I were in the hospital.

Carter Hudson Ford

Baby Carter Hudson Ford is here! He arrived 10 days early and via emergency C-section because he had turned since my last appontment and became breech! He was 6 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long. We are all doing well and excited to have this new baby in our family! I will post more details and pictures later!

A hard night's sleep

As soon as we found out that we were expecting our second, we knew that we wanted to transition Mason to a toddler bed well before the baby's arrival. We knew that Mason would be going through enough changes at that time and probably be feeling jealous, and we didn't want having to give the baby his crib to add to the problems.

David found this really cute Sponge Bob bed that came with a table, stools and toy organizer. He set it up for Mason in December. It wasn't until January that we started trying to transition him, though.

I was nervous about it, but Mason has done really well! He has never liked going down for bed, so it is not unusual for him to cry a little bit and now that he has more freedom, he'll even bang on the door, but I think that there has been only one time that I came in later and found him anywhere but his bed.

A good thing about him being in his bed is that lately, instead of crying, he just plays around in his room before going to sleep, especially in the daytime when it is light.

I know these are a lot of pictures, but I just had to include all of them because I think they are so cute! He loves to read and almost always requests that he have a book in bed with him. These other toys, though, are things that he'll get out of bed after I've left the room and decide that he needs to help him go to sleep.

Every time I look in on him while he's sleeping, I feel so much love and gratitude for my precious little Mason!

This picture is especially representative of his night time routine. He always has to have his drinks in the exact same spot at the top of his pillow.

My baby bump

Well, there have been a couple of requests for me to post pictures of me and my 'baby bump'...so here they are!
This coming Monday will mark my 37th week and I will be officially full term! Last week, I was feeling lots of cramping, but I wasn't sure if they were contractions. For a couple of days, especially in the afternoon and evenings, I just wanted to lie down 'cuz it was so uncomfortable. I was getting hopeful that maybe I was starting labor. But now I feel perfectly fine (which is a good thing, too I guess), no signs of major contractions.

Here I am at 35 weeks.

And here I am at 36.5 weeks (yes, I am counting the half weeks...hopefully I won't have to count all of the way up to 40...but I'm sure just voicing that wish jinxes me).

My visiting teachers gave me a baby shower last week. I decided to wear the same shirt that I wore at the shower I had for Mason. Unfortunately, I just realized that all of the pictures that I have from both showers, I am sitting down, so you can't really see my stomach that well...but it's still fun to see the two side by side.

Mason's shower

Levi was almost 8 months old at this time, and I remember that I thought it was so sweet that he wanted me to hold him, and that he fell asleep in my arms! Here I am with my sisters Diana, Katie, and nephew Levi. Cindy was so sad that she couldn't come, and I was sad that she couldn't be there.

Here I am with my mom, and David's mom, still at Mason's shower.

At the shower that I had last week, I wish that I would have posed for at least one picture, I don't know what I was thinking. I did not get one picture of me looking at the camera. I thought this picture would be fun to post 'cuz it has Mason, Levi, and I in it...just like in the picture above...just 22 months later!

The boys were really good about helping with opening all of Mason's little brother's new things. It was so thoughtful of both Grandmas, and also some people in the ward to think to give Mason a gift as well!

Mason was really excited to see that his little brother got a basketball piggy bank!

Scientific Research Results

Thanks to everyone who participated in David's research study! We really appreciate the responses that we got.
For anyone interested, the study was to see if the gene that determines if you are right or left handed is linked to the gene that determines if your right or left thumb goes on top when you are clasping your hands. The results of his study showed that the genes were not linked. If your left thumb was on top, you have at least one dominant gene, if your right thumb was on top, then you have two recessive genes. Both right handed and left handed people showed about the same percentage of people having the dominant and recessive genes, showing that the two traits are not linked. :)

Furnace and pipes

I have been meaning to post this for the last couple weeks...but life has been pretty crazy. So, even though it is not current news, I am going to talk about it like it is...mainly so I can brag about how awesome my husband is!

A couple of weeks ago, David had a Wednesday off, so we were anticipating a nice day at home. He had two classes that were going to be starting the following Monday, so we were hoping to enjoy the day. When I got up, I thought that it was kind of cold, especially in the kitchen, so when I checked the thermostat and saw that it was still at 63 degrees, I wasn't too surprised. David had just fixed our neighbor's furnace, the pilot light kept going out on it, so I wasn't very worried either. Well, when David went down to the crawl space to check it out, it turned out to be a problem with the gas valve. Usually when there is something that needs fixing, David can figure it out, but he didn't want to mess with it and risk an explosion. When he was down looking at the furnace, David also noticed that some pipes were leaking. Great.

So...the next day we reluctantly called a professional for an esitmate. The first estimate was 1400 dollars! This company also provided an estimate for our plumbing problems-1200 dollars. That was wonderful news to hear. Yeah, so we got a second opinion. The second place said they could fix the furnace for 500 dollars, can you guess which company we went with?

Luckily, David knows how to fix plumbing. Since we had the estimate from the other company, he knew what was wrong, and was able to buy all of the parts to fix it for under a hundred dollars. It pays to know how fix things! He had to work on Saturday, so he didn't get started on the plumbing until around 3 pm. He worked really hard, but still ended up having to finish it on Sunday morning. I was sent to Home Depot 3 different times on Saturday night, all for the same part. :( The first one was not my fault, David told a worker there what he wanted and he gave us the wrong piece. When I went to return it, I got it wrong again, so I had to go back a third time to get the right one.

I am so lucky to have married such a stud that knows how to fix things!

The top picture above is the finished product, and the second one is what our kitchen looked like while the work was in progress.