Ashton Tanner Carr

Ashton Tanner Carr is here! He made his debut on January 25th, 2017 and we're all in love. He is so sweet and mellow and just a bundle of pure goodness. He came at 1:11 in the afternoon and weighed a whopping 9 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. He came a week and 2 days early which was pretty surprising to me. But I guess it shouldn't be too surprising since I had been dilated to a 5 and 70% effaced for a week. I knew it could happen any time.

I started having regular contractions right at midnight on the 25th. They were consistently 4-5 minutes apart and after about 15 minutes of them, I woke Chris up and let him know. Things happened very similar with Annie, and with her, after 3 hours of consistent contractions and already being dilated to a 4 for over a week, the contractions turned painful quickly and I was dilated to an 8 and in A LOT of pain by the time I got to the hospital. I did NOT want that to happen again so as soon as I noticed these regular contractions, I got nervous. I called my mom and let her know this could be it. She and my dad recommended waiting a half hour or so, so Chris went back to bed and I started getting ready to go to the hospital...just in case. I did my hair and got the last minute things packed into my bag. My mom stayed awake at her house and we texted back and forth for a while. I'd text her every time I had a contraction. They ranged from 2 minutes to 8 minutes but averaged 5 minutes apart. After over 2 hours I got one that felt stronger than all the others and that was all I needed to feel to make the decision to stop waiting and get to the hospital. This baby was coming! I was so nervous but so excited at the same time. 9 months of waiting and the time was finally here to meet this baby boy.

My parents came over and Chris and I headed to the hospital. I was still having regular contractions but they were not painful. The hospital I delivered at was Scripps Encinitas and only about 15-20 minutes away. So far, it wasn't turning out like labor with Annie like I was afraid of. We weren't speeding to get there because I wasn't in any pain. I kept waiting for the pain to hit but it didn't. I started wondering if this was all just false labor. We checked in, they put me in a room, I changed, and then the nurse came in to see where I was at. I assumed after having all of these contractions that I had to be more than a 5. Turns out, I was dilated to a....5. Ugh I was frustrated. What did this even mean?! So the nurse said what they wanted me to do was pace around the room (or hospital, but I preferred the room) for and hour and a half and see if that did anything. If not, they might say to go home. If I dilated more, I'd be admitted. So the pacing started. Chris lied down and I started walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. This was actually pretty awful because when I'm pregnant and due, the pressure I get is pretty bad and I have to take sitting breaks, not because I'm tired but because I start feeling like my body is falling apart. After an hour I called the nurse in. I told her that I was pretty sure this wasn't changing anything. I was still getting contractions but nothing more intense. She checked me and said I was now dilated to a 6! That was surprising. So now what? The nurse went and talked to the doctor and came back and said that since I was dilated to a 6, this was going to happen eventually and going home didn't make much sense, especially because they knew I really wanted an epidural before the painful contractions really started. This was it! We were having a baby!

Once I was admitted, the nurse recommended getting things done quickly because the contractions could get worse any minute. The plan was to get the paperwork signed, get my water broken, and then get the epidural right away. So that's what they did. Once my water was broken, the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. He did awesome. I've had bad experiences in the past so I was pretty nervous to get the epidural and I started crying. Not because it even hurt. I don't know why I started crying because I seriously barely felt it! Well, turns out my body does not react well to getting epidurals. Something similar happened when I got one with one of my previous babies. Can't remember which one. Anyway, after he did it, I started feeling really weird. My heart rate went crazy. I felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest. When I said something about it, I heard the nurse say in a concerned voice to the anesthesiologist, "Heart rate is 163." That didn't sound good. I then said I did not feel well. I literally felt like life was being sucked out of me. I don't know how else to describe it. My closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing. It's all I could think to do because I could tell I was about to have a panic attack. Then I heard the nurse say, "Blood pressure is 60 over 30." That didn't sound good either. I was panicking inside. I asked if I was going to pass out or stop breathing. The anesthesiologist said no and that everything would be ok. He gave me a shot of something to get my blood pressure under control and that made all the difference. My blood pressure and heart rate stabilized, and I could feel color coming back to my face. In fact, the nurse even said "Your lips have color again." I guess my lips and face had gone white during all of that craziness.

The baby remained stable during all of that, thank goodness. My contractions were regular but too far apart. They were about 6 minutes apart and not super strong. So they gave me a little pitocin to get things going. That helped and soon they were getting closer together. They checked me and I was at about an 8. At one point the nurse checked me again and that examination went on waaaay too long. Why was this taking so long? She finished and said, "I'm going to be honest. That was the strangest examination I have ever done." What the heck did that mean?! Don't say things like that to me! She said not long before, the baby's head was down where it was supposed to me and everything was looking good. But that time, she said the baby's head was just...GONE. WHAT?! So I asked, "What does that mean??" She said that the baby might have decided to flip inside which meant that I could not deliver vaginally. Then I lost it. I covered my face with my hands and started balling. Not that having a C-section is the worst thing ever of course, but that was never my plan and it freaked me out hearing that and I lost it. Chris was sweet and tried comforting me but I was just too upset and couldn't stop crying. So then the doctor came in and checked for herself. Turns out I had a SECOND bag of water in there and it was blocking the baby's head and that's why the nurse couldn't find it. So weird! I didn't know there could be multiple bags of water. So she popped it and things continued.

Once I was a 10, they had me push and the contractions were just too far apart at that time and the baby wasn't quite low enough so they decided it was pointless to try to push him out. So we waited a little bit longer. Finally, the contractions were very close together and the baby's head was very low and ready. I pushed through I think 3 or 4 contractions and out he came! We were all pretty surprised at how big he was. We had been guessing around the 7 pound area because I was over a week early. They put him directly on my chest and it was an amazing moment. He was very calm and just lied there. Only cried for a second. He was purplish but no one seemed alarmed so I guess that was ok. I just lied there holding him, feeling so grateful that he was here safe and everything was ok. Chris and my mom were by my side the entire time, which was very nice.

I decided I didn't want visitors after having Ashton because I was incredibly nervous about the surgery that I was about to have. Chris and I knew we wanted to be done having kids after Ashton so we decided I'd get my tubes tied. The reason I was so nervous is because they'd be delivering medicine through the catheter from the original epidural and said there is a possibility that I could have the same reaction I had earlier. Well that reaction was AWFUL so I was pretty nervous about having to go through that again. I felt bad telling my sister, Kim and Chris' mom that visitors weren't a good idea. Normally I'd love for visitors to come meet the new baby, but not this time. My sister, Courtney didn't know we didn't want visitors so she and Troy showed up but it was totally fine. Fun to see some family members and show off our new little addition. I was super bummed that my kids couldn't come because the timing with the surgery made it so that it wouldn't work for them to come visit. We ended up going home the next day so the kids never even came to the hospital, which I was really bummed about but we were very ready to go home that next day. Chris and I don't sleep well at all in hospital beds. So the first time they met the kids was right outside our house. We got home right when my mom got home from picking up Mason and Annie from school. It was so fun to see them see Ashton for the first time. The tubal surgery went well. They knew how nervous I was so they gave me some anxiety medication which must have helped because I didn't panic at all. I was awake for the surgery and there was just a big blue sheet in front of my face so I couldn't see anything. Chris stayed in the hospital room with Ashton during the surgery.

Annie got the flu 4 days after Ashton was born which was super stressful for me. That's the last thing you want to deal with after having a baby! Chris took over taking care of the kids while I banned myself and Ashton to our bedroom to avoid the sickness spreading. Then all 3 kids got pretty bad colds. Ugh so frustrating. They all still have colds but Mason and Annie are slowly getting better. Paige on the other hand still has a pretty bad cold. I'm bummed they all have to stay away from the baby.

Ashton's due date was yesterday and he's already 9 days old! Things are going really well. The hardest part has been dealing with annoying postpartum emotions but even that is starting to go away, thank goodness. (I struggle with that part. It's just not fun crying randomly and feeling so emotional!) He is very sweet and very alert when he's awake and only cries when he's hungry or tired. That's when all babies cry, right? Wrong! Paige cried all. Of. The. Time. Poor girl was just uncomfortable all the time. So far, Ashton does not seem to be that way. A constantly upset baby is VERY hard. He got circumcised today. Something both Chris and I have been dreading but it went well. Chris was with him and I was in the room next door. So in 7-10 days he should be all healed. We sure love our newest little addition.