The Carr Ride: Baby Ben

Well, I haven't posted in almost a year. Yikes, Sorry about that. My computer died and we bought an extremely cheap replacement several months ago and it is absolute garbage, so I haven't been writing much. Anyway, I have an hour and I'm determined to write something. Here goes.

WE HAD A BABY!

Happy words, indeed. Benjamin Steven Carr was born on June 3rd at... oh heck I can't remember. What kind of mother am I? It was early afternoon and he was 6 pounds, 7 ounces. He was our largest baby and he beat Adam by 12 hours to become our longest gestating baby. I guess I'll just recap the last year or so really quickly because I am determined to write something.

Jeff and I have always wanted 3 kids. It was hard to think about for a long time because postpartum with Avery was so difficult, but we knew that our end game was to have another child. In December 2013, we decided we wanted to start trying, but unfortunately there was that whole appendicitis/near death experience thing and that delayed everything quite a bit. It took a little while for me to feel healthy enough again and then it took longer than expected to get pregnant (Adam and Avery were, as I'm sure long-time readers are well-aware, pill-babies, so we assumed that we would get pregnant immediately.) We really don't have any major complaints, though, because we found out that we were expecting by the end of October 2014.

It looked a little iffy at first, because I had some bleeding and then my HCG levels were being funky and it took until 9 weeks along to see ANYTHING in an ultrasound, but things worked out eventually. I think I've blocked out most of the first trimester from my mind. It was a rough time- Jeff got a special assignment at work and started working a crazy schedule of rotating 12 hour days and nights for a few months. My mom came and stayed with us for two weeks and I kept throwing up in the front yard. That's about all I remember.

We told the kids we were expecting on Christmas Eve. They had been wanting us to have another baby for a long time and so they were super excited. Adam wanted a boy baby named Lightning McQueen and Avery wanted a girl baby named Rapunzel. I think they must have watched a lot of TV during my first trimester.

We found out that he was a boy in January, but I was a little unsure for a while because the ultrasound tech said "It looks like a boy" and when I asked if she was sure, she shrugged. But I usually have several ultrasounds in my second tri to check my cervical length, so it was confirmed pretty quickly.

Everything was going pretty swimmingly, except that I had contractions starting at 12 weeks. My body loves contractions, but they are usually not productive. Around 28 weeks, they started getting more troublesome and productive and I got put on bedrest. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and my mom were basically our angels because they took turns staying with us for 2 whole months. We also had amazing support from our ward. People brought us two meals a week for almost the whole time. It was so wonderful.

I got taken off bedrest at 36 weeks and I was so sure that I would go a little bit longer, but I started having consistent contractions all of that day and I was pretty uncomfortable. They stayed consistent all day, but weren't getting closer together until the evening. I got in bed and felt a super strong cramp. It was a really sudden change and I yelled at Jeff to call the hospital and tell them we were coming. We were at the hospital within 30 minutes of the first pain, because it was just really obvious that I was in labor. When we got there, I was at 4.5 cm and then 6 and then... nothing for hours and hours. I've stalled at around this point in all three of my labors and in the first two they gave me pitocin, but this time they just let me labor. Ben was tolerating my contractions really well and I had an epidural, so I wasn't in pain, so we just hung out. It was kind of nice for the hospital, I'm sure, because there were so many other women giving birth that night. I think I heard 5 babies be born.

I eventually started progressing a little bit, but the doctor thought that I probably had a few more hours to go, and at this point, I had a weirdly emotional moment where I missed Adam and Avery. I asked my mom to bring them to the hospital to say hi and right after I hung up the phone, I started to feel a little bit of pressure. I had just been checked, so it took some a minute to go and fetch the doctor again and by that time I was ready to push. I went from 7 cm to 10 cm in about 20 minutes. I can't remember how long I pushed, but it wasn't very much. I didn't tear at all (I'm sure you're dying to hear about that, but you've just read about a birth, so you really need to be less squeamish), so that was cool. I thought that each progressive birth would probably be easier and easier, but Avery's birth was still the easiest.

Anyway, Ben came out very healthy and it looked like he would not need to go to the NICU, but his blood sugars got a little funky and he couldn't regulate his temperature, so he ended up bunking there for three or four days. (Random fact- each of my kids have gone to the NICU for different issues. Adam- breathing, Avery- jaundice, Ben- blood sugar. All three have also had feeding issues, though.)

It was a pretty non-eventful NICU stay, so pretty soon we were back at home starting our life with three kids. And what is that like? Well, it's a lot like the beginning of Home Alone. There's a swarm of people and someone is always mad at me. We also seem to eat a lot of pizza.

In all seriousness, adding a third kid to the mix probably is the hardest thing that I've done. I feel like I'm trying harder and failing more than I ever have before. But in all sappiness, adding a third child to the mix is probably the most rewarding thing that I've done. The love in my heart sometimes overwhelms me. I do feel extremely blessed.

Gotta go, someone is screaming.