Updates

So I guess we should start with some good news...Carley is finally here!

...but first, let me back up and give ya'll a little rundown of what's happened the past couple days. We'll start with Thanksgiving. Since Carley was due to arrive on the 21st and still hadn't made an appearance, we decided that planning and cooking a huge Thanksgiving dinner wasn't the best idea. Because ya know...there's the possibility that as soon as the bird went in the oven that my (beautiful and amazing) daughter would decide that she wasn't in the mood for turkey and want to come out of my uterus. So instead, we piled in the car and headed to Cracker Barrel for a taste of their "turkey dinner with all the fixins' and a biscuit" Boy was that yummy! ...and the best part? No clean up! All we had to do was sit, order, eat, pay the bill, and that's it! It was perfect! We spent Thanksgiving with my mom, my sister, and her boyfriend. After dinner we sat out on their rockingchairs and spent hours just talking, laughing, and being silly with the camera. Here's a few pictures:

Friday morning we slept in (because I'm not crazy enough to brave the Black Friday crowds with a 41 week belly). We got up around 9, had breakfast, and then spent about an hour trying to figure out what to do. We ended up going to the Humane Society where Nick volunteers at and loved on some of the dogs there. Then we went off for lunch and afterwards decided it was safe enough to go to the stores to pick up a few Christmas decorations. As soon as we got home, I put on some Christmas music to set the mood, Nick started up the fireplace and we turned into busy little bees decorating our Christmas tree, hanging wreaths on the door and windows, putting candles in the window sills, and garland-ing up casa Hernandorena. Around midnight I decided it was time for bed and left the rest of the decorations right where they were at so we could start again the next day.

...and ::cue head to hand music now:: my daughter decides that Saturday morning (when the house was still messy and scattered with Christmas decorations slewn around the house) was a good day to start labor.
It's ok baby girl, even though you've got awful timing, I'll forgive ya ;)

Anyway, I woke up with mild contractions around 930ish (I was too warm and cuddly sandwiched between Rascal and Bella to bother turning around to look at the clock, so "ish" is as close as it gets...you can blame the dogs!) I dealt with contractions for about 45 minutes before deciding that a) yes, these could be the real thing and b) I should probably start looking at the clock to see how far apart they were coming. Around 10:30, Nick and I headed downstairs for some breakfast and then I went back upstairs to take a shower and start getting ready. I lost my mucus plug after my shower (sorry, no pictures!) and yelled out to Nick "ok,  I think this is it...go ahead and put the bags in the car." I waddled around for another 15-20 minutes as I threw some clothes on and made my way back downstairs and into the car. The trip to the hospital wasn't too bad -- well, except for the contractions that made me want to assume the fetal position.
::fast forward:: get to the hospital. get out of the car. ouch, there's another one. very nice lady brought me a wheelchair. eep! one more...get sent to triage and --- my favorite part, WAIT FOR 4 HOURS!

When I got sent to triage I was still only 1 cm. Some back labor and many contractions later, I finally made it to 4 cm at 4pm and they decided it was time to admit me and get me into a room. The contractions weren't too bad, but the back labor was intense and there was no amount of breathing that could get me through it. I decided to go ahead and get an epidural around 6pm (still 4 cm). After the epidural, the pain subsided and I was able to finally have some relief. I made it from 4 cm to 5 cm before the epidural completely went flat and stopped working. And of course, as soon as that happened, the contraction + the back labor intensified like crazy. They were coming every 30 seconds and even the nurse was looking a little wide-eyed with how strong (and fast) they were coming on. Charlene (that was my nurse) was soo awesome though, and helped me breathe through it all while the anesthesiologist (who was stuck in an emergency apendectomy) made his way back up to me. Nick and my mom were a huge help too and really helped me focus and get through each contraction one at a time. By the time he made it back up to my room, I was 8 cm and ready to be pumped up. He tried fixing the first epi to no avail, so we decided to go ahead and get a new one in place. Finally, I got to 9cm and stayed there for about 3 hours with no progress. Around 1 am, my OB decided it was time to use the "c word" and my nurse explained the whole process and what recovery would be like. At 2 am I was taken back to the OR and by 215 our little princess made her way into the world and our lives complete.