The Last One

Well, after all these months, and all our thoughts and feelings on this amazing thing called pregnancy posted on this blog, it is time for it to end. Kyle and I have loved sharing our perspectives and experiences with all of our friends and family through these writings, and we hope you have enjoyed following us along on our amazing journey.

This next step we take as new parents is so exciting, life changing and full of challenges as well as joys; all of which we look forward to. As River’s life begins in this world, we hope you keep us in your thoughts and prayers. The Carson family looks forward to the many visits, vacations and fun times with all of you who have been watching the unveiling of our new baby. I know there are going to be many amazing memories made with all of you in the near future.

Lastly, if interested, I will try and keep up with pictures of our adorable River on a new flickr account. Here is the link, and if you have problems with it, please let me know.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rivercarson/

Thanks again for all of your support throughout this pregnancy, and our wonderful new beginning. We love you all!

My little thumb sucker

River has been such a joy! I feel so lucky. He has been learning so much every day, and one of my favorites is when he finds his thumb! It is so cute when he is searching around looking for something to keep him occuppied and his thumb/finger and/or hand finds it way to his mouth. It is adorable! All of us are having a great time watching him figure life out everyday because everyday he seems to find something new. His umbilical cord also fell off yesterday (a week old!) so he is starting to look like a “normal baby”.

Currently, I am learning now how to nurse in public, since I get so antsy just sitting at home. I’ve had my parents here encouraging me to nurse in public at least once a day, and have been succeeding! Hopefully I haven’t flashed anyone yet, but practice makes perfect. So I should have this thing down soon! Even with all the newness, and sometimes difficult times, I love this motherhood thing. It’s pretty neat!

Here are some new pictures for all to enjoy!

First’s

Well, an amazing couple of days have passed as we have been witnessing a bunch of first’s. First bath, first “outing”, first walk, etc. Those events although seem so small, are so special. Watching my baby River experience the world has been so much fun, and as my dad keeps reminding me, I now get to see the world through a child’s eyes.

Other than all the first’s, we are getting the routine things down as well. Sleeping seems to be going pretty well, River seems to eat a bunch at night and then sleep for 3-4 hours. I know I’m pretty lucky (so far!) Breastfeeding is going great except when he likes to sleep on the job- suck, suck, suck, sleep… suck, suck, suck, sleep… ahhh… the life of a baby! All my friends say to appreciate this now, because before I know it he’s going to have some crazy energy, just like his father!

Here are some pictures of some of the “firsts” along with others. I hope you enjoy!

Finally Home

Boy does it feel great to come home after feeling so cooped up in such a small room! The best part though, I have to say, is bringing our new baby boy HOME. It is wonderful seeing him in a familiar environment with so much wonderful help from Kyle, my parents, and my uncle Tim who came to visit last night. I feel so lucky. It is very difficult trying to get around right now just due to exhaustion and my “larger than normal” wound from my C-section (because of some complications). But having family around makes all the difference in the world.

So as Kyle said in the last post, I am so thankful for all of your support through this blog, visits, calls and text messages. It has really helped me heal in so many different ways. With such a hard labor (not that ANY labor is EASY!!!) I also just have to say loud and clear how wonderful Kyle was during the whole process. Being dialated at 8-9 centimeters for so long brought on horrible contractions and Kyle was helping me all the way through the long hours. He slept with me at the hospital when I encouraged him to go home to a more comfortable bed, and did everything I asked. I am so thankful I have such an amazing husband, who has given me an amazing son. River is so cute and full of love. Motherhood really is amazing! I can’t believe how blessed I am on so many different levels.

Here is the last “belly picture”. As you can see my belly is not “normal” but will hopefully shrink down in time. River was SO worth it!

ps. If you would like to come visit, please call! We would love to share our new bundle of joy with everyone!!!

The family comes home today!

The Birth Center is letting Erin and River go home today! She will be discharged some time soon, maybe this morning.

Someone once described new born babies as “eating, pooping blobs”. That couldn’t be more true. All of our energy has been focused on getting River to eat, changing diapers, and watching him sleep. Sounds boring, huh? Well it’s not! It’s more exciting than white water rafting!

I wanted to thank everyone who visited us this week. It’s so nice to have people come and let us forget that we are locked inside a hospital. Also, thanks to everyone who text messaged Erin on Tuesday. It was the perfect way to give Erin encouragement and not be intrusive during labor. At one point the messages just flooded in and Erin was so tickled that she forgot that she was going through excruciating pain (for a small time). This is one example where technology improved life instead of complicated it. Thanks!

Little River is Born

At about 9:15, around the time Erin went into labor the day before, our doctor checked Erin’s progression. She said that Erin’s dilation had regressed from 9 cm to 8 cm and that the cervix was thickening instead of getting thinner like it should. What was happening was that, despite all of Erin’s contractions, our son had a bigger head than Erin’s pelvic opening (not to mention he was posterior). The cervix was swelling (i.e. closing up). There was no way the baby was coming out vaginally, the fact that Erin was trying to push River out was causing the cervix to close up. It was just bad genes, my thick-skull genes were conflicting with Erin’s small pelvis genes.

Erin was prepped for surgery and off she went to have the baby the very way we didn’t want. All of that sadness and frustration vanished as soon as River entered our world. He came out and was whisked to the warming table. He was audible, but not really crying. More like saying “Hi, nice to meet you, thank you for your help, it was getting tight in there”.

He has long dark brown hair, a cone head from Erin’s extremely heroic efforts, 7 lbs 11 oz, 20 inches long, and did i mention a huge head? I often joked that all new born babies look the same; wrinkled prunes, but this baby is our wrinkled prune and the cutest one on the block!

I really feel sorry for Erin though. During a C-Section the father can be in the operating room. The mother must be tied down on a table similar to a crucifix. Her arms are tied to the table so that she can’t reach down and interfere with the surgery. I, on the other hand, could walk around, watch the surgery, cut the cord, and hold the baby right away. The only thing i could do for Erin was bring the baby close to her head, but she couldn’t fully see it because her head movement was restricted. I felt like i was torturing her. All the hard work and pain that she went through, and all she could do was see it from the corner of her eyes. I almost broke down crying from the cruel injustice. The next two hours i was able to spend quality time with River while Erin laid alone in a sterile room (no outside visitors) because of complications from the surgery. There has to be a better system for C-Sections!

But when i was able to see her, it was like magic seeing the bond between a mother and her child. The joy in her eyes as she held her first born child was such a treat!

The experiences i’ve had today with River are absolutely breath-taking. I love swaddling him (It’s so much fun!). I’ve discovered that if you try to burp him by rubbing his back, he immediately falls asleep. And i almost did a touchdown dance when i first made him burp!

There is nothing like your very own baby!

Progress

Erin is asleep now, so i briefly left to give everyone an update.Her water broke at 9:30 yesterday morning, contractions started after she arrived at the hospital. After breathing through the contractions for 15 to 16 hours, her cervix was dialated to 9 centimeters (10 is when you start pushing). This was great news because we knew that the ushing stage was just around the corner. After enduring 4 hours of painful contractions her cervix was still 9 cm. She was absolutely exausted! We made the decision to start an epidural to let her body relax. The nurses said that she was fighting the contractions and she needed to relax in order for the cervix to open up all the way. After she couldn’t feel anything they added patosin to keep the contractions going. She fell asleep for about an hour, and as of the posting (8:00am) she is still at 9 cm. The baby is positioned posterior so we think that is the reason she is stuck. Considering the babies position, Erin has been enduring a lot of pain, drug free, for close to 20 hours. She is the toughest cookie i know.  We will let you know more as the labor progresses. Keep us in your prayers and hope we don’t need a C-Section.

River, it’s time to come out now!

It seems that all the pep talks that I’ve been giving my unborn son seem to be doing no good. Is this a sign of what is yet to come? If so, I’m in trouble.

So last night was a rough one. Starting around 3ish I was having pretty intense contractions, but far apart and not incredibly consistent. So I got up after trying to sleep through them and went downstairs to watch Mission Impossible. I felt at the time it was a fitting movie given my situation. Afterwards, I felt as if I was able to sleep a little more so I went upstairs and passed out for a couple of hours. I then woke up around 10 to get ready for our Doctors appointment in hopes that my body was ready to give birth. When we went to the Dr. she checked me and said that I was a “loose 1cm dialated” and then proceeded to “rupture my membranes” to help me progress. Ladies, whenever a doctor says that, be prepared! It was incredibly uncomfortable having someone really DIG in that area, but as kyle so politely pointed out, birth will be way more “uncomfortable” then that.

So with the rupturing of my membranes, I am having a pretty painful day (the rupturing causes contractions and other stuff) so I am trying to relax and keep busy all at the same time- whatever hurts less. Tonight we have dinner plans with our good friends Emily and Brett at their new house in Saint Paul, where I hope to bless the new house with some amniotic fluid. Just kidding guys– kinda.

1 Day ’till D Day

So although I know that the whole “due date” thing is a rough estimation, I was really hoping that it would be wrong and baby River would come early– and especially not late! But alas, it seems that either our new baby boy is quite punctual, or if he took the “timing” genes from my side of the family, he will be “fashionably” late.

So to keep busy Kyle and I have taken countless walks (which are getting much more difficult for me these last few days since it feels as if the baby is cutting off circulation to my right leg) and trips to the pool (where I have been getting quite the stares!) Today the plan is to go see a movie since Murphy’s Law states that things will go “wrong” in any given situation, if you give them a chance. So our hope when we leave the house is that I will go into labor at the least opportune time.

Tomorrow we have our official 40-week appointment with the Dr. to see where I am at. I promise to keep you all posted…

Here is a picture of me today. At least I know he’s gotta come out sometime.