Our little guy decided to arrive at 37w1d on Friday night, August 14. Carter Michael arrived via c-section at 7:58pm weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 3/4 inches long.
On Friday morning I was in a small fender bender (Mommy has not been a good driver while she was pregnant). All of the doctors told us though that it was a blessing in disguse that I ended up in the accident because chances were very strong that I would never had known I was in labor and we could have been in a bad situation, perhaps not making it to the hospital in time. They also said that they really do not feel as though there was any correlation between the accident and Carter's early arrival. I decided I better call my OB to let them know what happened and they immediately told me to go to the hospital to get monitored. After being monitored for 4 hours I was still having contractions (but was not in any pain) that were steady so they decided they wanted to keep me for observation for 24 hours. I ordered food because I was starving (the doctors at the hospital said I was fine to eat which ended up being horrible because I threw it up for 10 hours after the c-section) and then a nurse came in around 5:45pm to examine my cervix right after I ate. She did the check and got a look for horror on her face and immediately asked for someone to come in to check me again. Another nurse and then the resident doctor checked me again and explained I was 6 centimeters dialated and fully effaced. Everyone was shocked because I wasn't having pain - guess I had some high pain tolerance going on that day. I asked the doctor when we would be having Carter and he immediately stated TODAY. After moments (okay a long time) of panic that my mom wouldn't be there in time and that I didn't want Carter born on August 14, exactly two years to the day of my botched bladder surgery, I finaly calmed down and realized there was nothing I could do to change anything. Looking back I think that God wanted me to be able to put in the past all the negative memories I had associated with that day. I now have wonderful memories and I can put the past behind me.
Things started going very quickly because they needed to get me to the operating room soon because I wasn't supposed to go into labor at all due to my bladder. I was immediatley transferred to a labor and delivery room and bloodwork and IV were started. We had to wait for Dr. T to come (my primary OB was on vacation but I ended up loving Dr. T) and for the operating room to be cleaned because another c-section had just been finished. Around 7:00pm I was wheeled into the operating room and TJ had to stay outside while I got the spinal. The spinal was not too painful and actually wore off before the c-section was over - towards the end of the surgery I started to feel being stiched up and asked if that was normal which obviously wasn't, so they gave me some additional topical medication. I had some crazy high pain tolerance that day! By the time the c-section started I was fully dialated and was still in no pain, just slightly crampy. The c-section started at 7:44pm and Carter was born just a few minutes later at 7:58pm.
It was a truly crazy experience to be awake while having surgery but knowing that my son was about to be born made everything okay. Everything went as well as expected and Carter was perfect, scoring 8 and 9 on his apgars. Daddy got to watch and take pictures as Carter was cleaned up and then got that first hug that he was waiting so patiently for! The rest of the night is slightly blurry as I was exhausted and on morphine. We stayed in the hosptial until Monday morning when we got discharged around 11:00am. We are now home as a family and I couldn't ask for anything better than that!
Here is a link to pictures of Carter's birth (warning that a few of them are a little graphic - but nothing too bad).
http://picasaweb.google.com/branditribell/CarterMichaelTribell?authkey=Gv1sRgCLzn66L08_2dNA#
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