Changes...

First of all, our little dolly turned one. Oh my...are we really parents to a one year old??

We had a small party for her on her birthday...just grandparents, my siblings, and Paul and Elise. She pretty much glowed getting to be in the spotlight for the evening. :)

She was pretty thrilled with her cupcake. At first she looked at us like "really, this is for me?" Then she dug in, and as she finished the last bite, rubbed her hands through her hair. And then it was off to the bathtub. She loved her gifts, esp a doll from Grandpa and Grandma Knapp. She hauls it around and pats it's back. :) So cute!

(thanks to Wendi for the pics...I took mostly video)

And then...

Bridget became a big sister!

Carter Lucas arrived on Oct 17 at 10:18pm. I had gotten up about 7 that morning, and noticed some blood...just like when I was in labor with Bridget, but this time I had no contractions. So we went ahead with our plans for the day: going to Rader Farms with our Bible study girls. (super fun place by the way..highly recommend it!) Bridget and I spent the morning there, and while eating lunch, I started having hard contractions, just a couple minutes apart. I hurried Bridget through her hot dog and took off for home. Only by the time I got on the interstate, the contractions had stopped. We went home, took naps, and proceeded through the rest of the afternoon and early evening with maybe 2 or 3 contractions.

Earlier that afternoon Elise had called and wondered if we wanted to come for supper that night. Since nothing was happening, I agreed, and we got to their house about 5:30, just as contractions started up again, only they were about every 10 min or so. By the time we got around to eating at a little after 6, I was having them every 2 min or less, and at one point, as I gripped the kitchen table breathing through a contraction, Paul asked if I was going to deliver the baby in their kitchen. :) At that point we decided we'd better head home and call Luke's mom, who was going to stay with Bridget. We got home and got our stuff ready to go, all the while stopping every 2 min or less to breath through a contraction. I had Luke call his mom wanting to know how soon she was going get to our house...I was starting to get nervous.

His mom showed up about 7:30....and contractions slowed WAY down. So we sat around and chilled for about an hour. Finally at 8:30, my contractions were slowed down, but when I had one it was very painful, so we headed for the hospital.

We got there, got put in a triage room, I changed into my gown and went to the bathroom. 2 steps out of the bathroom and my water broke all over the floor. I was dilated to a 5, so they put me in a labor room, started an IV, drew blood and got everything going. My mom and Wendi showed up soon after, and I was already feeling nauseous and asked for some iv pain medication. The nurse checked me, and I think I was at like 7 or something. She said she was going to call the Dr. Since I was pretty much having one 45 min long contraction I didn't say anything but in my head I was thinking "why are you calling the Dr already? Bridget wasn't born for hours after I was dilated to a 7."

The nurse came back with the pain medication, and was just getting it ready to go in when the Dr got there. She checked me and told me she thought I could push if I wanted to. One push dilated me all the way, a 2nd got his head out, and he was born on the 3rd. :)

It was so great to be able to hold him right away and see him be pink and crying. Since Bridget had meconium stained fluid, she was taken to the nursery right away for oxygen. And, there was also an emergency c-section going on at the same time he was born, so there were no med students or residents in the room. Just my nurse, a nurse for Carter, a tech and my Dr. A nice change from the almost 10 "medical people" in the room when Bridget was born!

So...things have been going wonderfully since we came home...Carter is a great baby...pretty much sleeps and eats. I'll post some more recent pictures later, but he is def Luke's look-a -like!