Happy 4th Birthday, Carmen!!!

I can not believe my baby girl is 4 already. Just thought I'd take a moment & share her birth story on here.

On Wed. the 8th I had a doc appt. in the morning, I was 3cm dialated & 50% effaced. She stripped my membranes & told me that she might see me later that night, but if not we scheduled an induction for Sat. morning. I went to work after my appt., but was soo sore & had problems walking. I got home from work at 6pm, ate supper & we went into town to pick up some things. At about 7:15 I started having contractions that were bothersome, but weren't too bad. I started timing them & they were 4-6 mins apart and lasting 45sec to 1 min. We finished our errands, dropped Cordell off at Jake's sisters and headed to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 9:30pm and I was 6-7 cm & 100% effaced. At about 10:15 I asked for some pain meds., I didn't want an epidural but something in my iv would have been great. They called my doc and she said I couldn't have anything. I never imagined having an absolutely drug free delivery (i'm a baby when it comes to pain) My doctor came in at about 10:30 to break my water and told me she would be down the hall and would come back soon. I told her she didn't have time that I was ready to push. She didn't really believe me, but said she'd check me again, sure enough I was 10cm and more than ready. She wasn't ready yet so they wouldn't let me push, it seemed like forever for her to get ready but I'm sure it was like 3 or 4 mins. but that whole time I had to hold the urge to push. After 3 pushes Carmen was born at 10:45p.m. My first labor was 6hrs. 15mins. and my second was 3.5 hours. Carmen weighed 8lbs. 1oz. & was 20 1/4in long.

I remember being absolutely elated that our baby was indeed a girl! We didn't decide on her name for 24 hours, Cordell wanted to name her Elephant from the moment he learned I was pregnant. Three days before she was born we had Mariah Rose or Carmen Jade, Cordell really wanted Mariah, but Jake & I knew from the moment we laid eyes on her that she was a Carmen. Poor little Bubba was heartbroken :( I am so blessed to have the wonderful family that I do!