Presenting Our Sweet Caroline

Today at 7:47am we finally welcomed our little miracle, Caroline Eirene Tullis, into the world weighing 6lbs 2oz and measuring 20 inches! Here she is:



Yeah, that's what I felt like, too, sweetheart!

The following is her birth story - you may skip it if you want, but it's here for posterity! Hee hee!

It all started on Sunday night. Because I was delivering 3 weeks early due to our many little complications, my body was - of course - not prepared at all. The doctors decided to start me on a drug to get things going. It would take about 12 hours to do it's job and, if it didn't do what it was supposed to, they'd give me another dose. So, around 7:30pm, it started. Within a few hours I was feeling contractions. It was fun. The nurse gave me an Ambien so I could sleep and - surprisingly - I did. Until about 4am when the contractions were getting pretty uncomfortable. Ugh! At 7:30am, the medication was removed and I hadn't made a huge amount of progress. However, my contractions were pretty regular so there was a debate about whether to start the lovely Pitocin or do another dose of the other drug. We found that moving onto my side caused the contractions to stop, so it was another round of the other drug. Once that was given, the contractions started up again. However, each time they checked, I hadn't made much progress, so we waited. And, after two doses of pain meds, I gave up and got an epidural.

Here's a pic Alan took of me hooked up to a lot of my drugs:



At this point I think I was on 2 monitors, a blood pressure cuff, a saline drip, the epidural, the pitocin, and had a catheter. I was getting ready to go on magnesium as well because of the blood pressure issues, so I had all kinds of nonsense hooked up. I was trying to hold off on getting the epidural because I didn't want it to wear off . . . *insert forshadowing here* . . . but the contractions were getting really strong and, if you've ever been induced, you know they come faster and stronger than if you get to do things the normal way.

Anyway.

After the epidural, we waited until 11:30pm to remove the second dose of the original meds. Then I was put on the pitocin. Then things started to get uncomfortable and I had to ask for more of the epidural meds. I slept off and on during the night but was interupted frequently by the nurse to check my vitals, check my progress, adjust my meds, and make sure I was doing ok on the magnesium. Magnesium can really mess with you, give you flu like symptoms, and just generally make one miserable.... I said a prayer before they added that to my IV drip asking to avoid feeling like crap and managed to get by with only hot flashes (and they are finally taking me off of it in less than an hour! Hoorah!).

Now, before I proceed I should mention that our nurses work 12 hours shifts from 7am - 7pm or 7pm to 7am. I've had a great bunch of nurses and was starting to get some of the same nurses I'd had earlier in the week until Sunday night. I had a new nurse who got me through the night (she really was great - so kind and sweet and gentle) and we were getting ready for the shift change . . . .

However, just before 7am... my water broke. I called my nurse in and she said that yes, it sure looked like that was what happened! Hoorah! She checked me and I'd progressed. Joy! She then said - are you feeling any pressure? I thought for a sec and assessed my situation... no, I was feeling fine. So she said goodbye and told me a new nurse would be in to check on me soon. And she was off. And I swear to you the second she walked out the door that pressure she was talking about? BOOM. And all of a sudden, I was feeling OUCHIES like WOAH. I called the nurse station and was like - EPIDURAL FAIL! FAIL FAIL HELP ME OUCH! Haha, although I was quite nice about it. You know, between my pathetic moaning.

The new nurse came back in and I was like - uh, yeah, um - ouch? And then the worst thing ever happened. My IV with the epidural drugs started beeping. Yeah, it was empty. EMPTY!!!!! And the contractions I was having? Holy FREAK. I couldn't talk, breathe, move, nada. I felt like someone was tearing my insides out. It pretty much sucked. So they called the anasthesiologist type people. This nice lady came in and tried to talk to me. I was like - yeah, hi, no time to chat, DRUGS NOW, KAE???

She hooked me up. You know, except where she said (just shortly after 7am) that the drugs should start working around the top of the hour. I knew at that second that our princess wasn't waiting for the top of the hour. And thus I would be delivering without the epidural. Luckily I managed not to hyperventalate or mention this to anyone.

Oh, did I mention how many doctors I've seen since my doc has been out of town? Yeah, the doc on call today I had not met. She came in around the same time as the anasthesiologist, checked me, and was like - oh wow, baby.

I was like OH HOLY FREAK OUCH DANG BABY COMING NOW.

And then the nurses and doctor left the room between contractions. Then another contraction came and I turned to Alan and said - just like in the movies - get the doctor back in here now. And being the dutiful husband he is... he did as he was told. Doctor came back in and was like ... HOLY COW BABY!

For those of you who understand baby delivering talk.... in the space of 45 minutes I went from a 6 to a 10 and delivered a baby.

I love my little girl... but OUCH.

So, that sums up what happened to me today between 6:45am and 7:47am. But I think something like this makes all of that worth it:



She is such a cutie and we all love her already. Here she is with her mommy and daddy:



(Don't I look stunning???)

And here is he is with her big brother:



Words can not express how beautiful that moment was right there. Seeing my sweet Soren finally holding his baby sister - finally being a big brother..... ugh. Tears to my eyes. He didn't want to let her go at all - but my mom was there, so he did have to share. But we kept our promise - he was the first non-medical staff type person to hold her after mommy and daddy.

I am now very exhausted. I need to feed our little angel and then try and take a little rest. After they disconnect me from everything, of course. Hoorah! There are more pictures to post and more stories to tell, but that is all from me for now.

Oh, ok... here's one more picture: