Caroline Xela Barnes

March 7th 2012 4:48pm

7 lbs 7 0z, 19.5 inches

We are now officially a family of 4! Sweet Caroline came into our lives on a sunny day in Seattle. My pregnancy was very uneventful, which I am extremely grateful for but in the last month my heartburn had been raging! It was hard to get a good night sleep so I was pretty ready to get the baby out. After having been dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced for more than 2 weeks and Mikes mom already coming to help, we decided that I would be induced on Wednesday. I had an appointment on Monday night at 5:30pm and my doctor said "So when do you want to have this baby?" and I said "tonight!" so he put me on the hospital call list to be induced if they had a slow time. They called me at 10:00pm and I was very ready but Mike had a presentation on Tuesday morning that he really felt that he needed to be at so we decided that we wouldn't go in that night. It was so crazy to me that someone would call me and say "hey wanna come in and have baby?" I called my doctor the next day and we scheduled for me to go in Wednesday morning at 7:00am. I definitely had mixed feelings about being induced and I'm not sure that I would do it again but I guess I have the experience under my belt now ha. The hospital wanted me to call before I came in so I called as we were about to leave at 6:15am and they asked me to come in 7:30am. Special thanks to my friend Megan who watched Rose for the day and then picked Mike's mom up at the airport! You are the best! I think one of the things that I was most terrified about having this baby was leaving Rose the whole time. Going into the hospital I was really sad and missing her and as the process drug on, I was still sad but starting to feel a little better and by the time the baby came, I had plenty of distractions ha. Once we got checked in and everything, the nurses started my Pitocin around 8:50am. Mike ordered breakfast at 9:00am. From then on it was one big waiting game for me and one big feast for Mike. I started feeling contractions around maybe noonish but they weren't that bad. Now let me just say, I love my doctor but I swear I have never waited around longer for a person in my life. The longest I've waited for him at an appointment was an hour and half and this day was no exceptions! I kept thinking that they would start the pitocin and I would see him soon and he would let me know the game plan for the next few hours. By 2:00pm I was pretty stressed and maybe a little mad! My nurse came in and told me that this time he was really on his way and wondered if I wanted my epidural now or in an hour after the anesthesiologist took care of a c-section. At 2:30pm the anesthesiologist AND my doctor both came in and deliberated over who would do what first. My doc broke my water and I was having the worst contraction of the day, I got my epidural. By this time I was dilated to a 5 and within about 20 minutes I was about an 8. I don't know why but I was SO TIRED! I have no idea what time it was but my nurse told me it was time to push. I pushed a couple of times and was just feeling exhausted so I took a little nap for about 30 mins and then it was go time! I pushed a couple of more times (I have no concept of time at this point) and my doc showed up for a couple more pushes and Caroline entered the world at 4:48pm! I actually felt a little bit of the pushing this time whereas with Rose I felt absolutely nothing. I kept feeling that no matter how hard I was pushing, we weren't making any progress. Rose didn't require much pushing and we know that now because Caroline was a whole 2 lbs bigger! My guess was that she was a little over 6 lbs and I was way off. Props to those ladies who push out 8 or 9 pounders!

Rose and Grandma came to see "Baby C" (as I like to call her at the moment) around 7:30pm. I was so excited to see what Rose would think but I knew she'd probably be pretty distracted with the room and it was bedtime for her. We got a very cute video of their first interaction. We are loving this little girl and are feeling so grateful that we were able to welcome another child into our home. The Lord has blessed us immensely! Enjoy some pics from her first few days of life.

*The name Xela is the capital city of Mike's mission. It is pronounced "shay-la."