The Eckert Family Blog: The Big Day ~ December 19th, 2009!!

Carter was due to arrive Dec. 24th, 2009, Of course we were hoping he would either come before or after Christmas, just as long as he was here before the new year ( for tax purposes~ Ha!). Since I felt so good, I decided to work until I felt I could no longer work or my water broke, which ever came first! I figured he wasn't going to come just sitting around!! Well I decided not to schedule myself the week of Christmas because I was hoping he would come a little early, and I would need to be off! So I scheduled my last night of work on Dec. 18th, I figured Saturday Dec. 19th would be a good time to have him...that's what I told everyone! Also my Mom had a contest going on with our family, we all had predict the date and weight of Carter's arrival... Of course I picked Dec. 19th because that's when I wanted it to happen. Well I really didn't think Carter was going to arrive before Christmas because I felt so good still, but Guess What?!?! I woke up on DEC. 19th (my prediction date) to a strange trickling feeling.... I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom... at first I thought i was just peeing, but then I looked in the toilet to see it was clear liquid... so I yelled at Allan.. "I THINK MY WATER JUST BROKE"... He ran into the bathroom and was like "NUH UGH"... so I stood up and then a big GUSH came out ... and i was like YEP its definitely my water breaking!!! So Allan ran and got the phone so I could call my doctor, I think I called 3 different numbers before I called the right one. The office was closed since it was a Saturday so they had to page my doctor to call me. I then called my Mom to tell her that my water broke, and I asked her if she thought I had enough time to shower, and she said, "oh yeah", plus I had to wait to hear from my doctor. So I took shower, did my hair and make-up, and ate some soup! After waiting an hour we finally heard from the doctor and she told me to go the hospital. My water broke around 10:45 am and we got to the hospital around 1 pm.

Once at the hospital the nurse checked me and I was dilated to 3 cm. We got to our room and my contractions were coming every couple of minutes, and the nurse told me I could get an epidural at any time. Well I didn't want to slow down the labor progress so I was trying to tough it out, but by 3pm I was pretty uncomfortable, and I wasn't trying to be a hero.. so I called for the epidural! The epidural did not hurt at all, I was really surprised... then it was easy-going from there... I just laid back and watched t.v. all day! Around 7 pm I started to feel a sharp pain in my bottom and I thought my epidural was wearing off...so I called for an extra shot of meds... but in the meantime the nurse checked me and said the pain was my baby's head coming down and I was ready to start pushing!! So after getting my extra dose of medicine I started pushing around 7:50pm without my doctor being there! My doctor finally showed up around 8:10 pm and that's when the real pushing started and Carter arrived at 8:29pm!! The nurses said I could teach a course on pushing I did so good... I definitely had no idea what i was doing! They immediately put Carter on my chest and it was the happiest moment of my life!

Carter was 7 pounds 2 ounces and 21 inches long!

We got a flip video camera as an early Christmas present just in case Carter came early... Here are a few videos of Carter's arrival!

Me at the hospital waiting on my epidural ~ my Mom had just brought that Christmas bear for Carter!

After the epidural... still not looking very swollen...