Parker Thomas Waters

It has been a really long time since I've blogged. But as I sit around at night I wish I would journal more, and so far this has been the best way for me to do it. However, I still struggle. Well, we've had a super fun thing happen in our lives! We got pregnant, which was a surprise, when Tate was just 10 months old. Well... fast forward 9 months and you have the following story.

March 17, 2014: (Cory's birthday)
Today is a Monday, and that happens to be Cory's day off. Its also Cory's 27th birthday. I had a doctors appointment at 8 am, so we all got ready, went to the doctors appointment and decided to go to breakfast afterwards. I am 37 weeks tomorrow, so moving right along. I got checked at last week's appointment and was dilated to a 1+ and 30% effaced. I got checked today and was dilated to a 3 and still 30% effaced. This is exactly where we were at with Tate. So, if my math is correct I will probably go on April 1st, just one day before I have an induction scheduled. But not any sooner. We had breakfast at IHOP and I had the stuffed French toast. This pregnancy has been so funny for me because I have never had a sweet tooth (despite my husband) until now. I went to work until 3 pm. Cory and Tate came back for me. We went to dinner at Café Rio for the birthday boy and came home and had cake and ice-cream. Tate and Cory loved the green icing. I am so so sore after this appointment.

March 21, 2014:
Today is Friday. I woke up today feeling very emotional. Cory and I have had a rough couple of days with communicating. I know its super hard for him with me being this miserable and this pregnant, but we've talked this morning while he was at work for a minute and we both decided to start over. Cory is always so good at that. I started working from home at 10 am. I feel really good today. Sometimes in the morning I feel like I'm not pregnant. But then by the evenings I feel super nasty. I'm supposed to work from home from 10-2 and then in the office from 2:30-5:30. But by 1 I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Sarah is coming up and says that she can do my hair for me so I decide to have her drop by for lunch and girl time. I'm super lucky that she does my hair because she does such a great job for such a great price. After talking to her and getting my mind off of my emotions I'm feeling much much better. Cory wants to have a "date night" and go up to IKEA to look for new nightstands for us. He sure knows me. So we got in the car and went up to Salk Lake County. After Ikea we stopped at Smith Marketplace in Alpine. Sarah and I went there a few weeks back and I couldn't believe all of the home goods they had there. Its like a hidden gem! Then we stopped at RC Willey's to see if we liked any of their furniture. By this point we were ready for dinner so we stopped at Zupas and had our favorite soups and sandwiches. And lastly we decided to stop at Home Depot. While we were at Home Depot I started to think to myself, "Dang, I've done a really good job walking through all of these stores, with a toddler, and being 37 weeks pregnant!" and right after, I started to feel super super tired. So, Cory gave me the keys and Tate and I went out to the car to wait the rest of the trip out. Once we got home, we got Tate ready for bed ASAP because it was an hour after his bedtime. As we were brushing his teeth he got really really upset and we noticed a little bit of blood on his toothbrush. Meaning another molar was coming through. That explains the melt down at dinner and him only eating the crunchy ice. So we gave him some baby Tylenol and his bottle and tucked him in for bed. He was exhausted and out before we knew it. After we got the Scouts some canned goods out on the front porch we decided to call it a night. Cory is on days, so he had to be to work at 6 am. I took a half a Unisom to help me to try and get a good night sleep.

All was well.... until about 11:40 pm.

I kept waking up with a super tight stomach that really hurt. I kept thinking it was because of the way I was laying, so I would re-adjust and then fall back to sleep, thanks to the Unisom. But then I would wake up again with pain. I finally started looking at my phone and noticed that these pains were happening pretty close together. I didn't want to wake Cory up and have him keep track of them for me, because he had to work in a few hours, but I was curious so I woke him up and asked him to find an app that would count my contractions for me. After he did that, he went back to sleep and I laid there dozing in and out of sleep using this app to keep track for me. I woke up to a pretty painful contraction and once it was done, I realized that these contractions were pretty close together. It just didn't feel like it because I was so drowsy from the Unisom. By this point it was about 1:30 and my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and ranging anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. I started to remember my first delivery and how I refused to go in for so long. But last time I was only a week early, not 2 and a half weeks early. During my contractions I would think "after this I'm going to wake up Cory", and then it would stop and I would feel just fine and think "He has to work at 6 in the morning, I don't want him to have to work without sleeping". Then I felt a little pop and had a little bit of a wet feeling. I knew my water didn't break because I've been warned that when that happens it is A LOT of water, but I have also heard of girl's waters leaking? And I definitely didn't pee my pants. Finally, I decided to just try and wake Cory up, and see what would happen. Sometimes, he's so delirious in his sleep that he wont wake up for anything. Lucky for us both, he woke up and looked at how close my contractions were and told me that we were going to hospital. He got in the shower and had me try to start packing. Yup, wasn't even packed! During this time, I packed the dumbest things. I decided that my first priority should be to start with just getting dressed. Cory called the doctor on call, Dr. Ludlow, and he told us he thought it a pretty good idea to come in. I called my good friend across the street at about 2:40 and she came right over to stay with Tate. She's seriously the best. While she was setting up camp on the couch, I was talking to her telling her how things were going and started to have another contraction. At the same time that I bent over the couch, Cory walked behind me and accidentally bumped me. It pushed my contraction even deeper and I fell to my knees and had the worst of all the contractions to that point and it lasted like 2 and a half minutes. Whatever happened during that bump caused Cory to tweak his back and he was in pain as well. Our poor friend just sat there probably wondering what she was going to do! It was at that point that I knew that I at least needed to go to the doctor and get checked out. We were so not prepared for this!

It was raining, not a lot, but just like a light spring rain. I seem to remember the same thing when Tate was born? I don't know. When we got off the freeway, Cory went to UVRMC and went to their emergency room, I was pretty sure that we weren't supposed to go there, but he is usually always right. Still, I wasn't getting out of the car until I knew for sure. So he ran in and they let him now that we needed to be just around the corner of the building to labor and delivery. So we were on our way again. And we hit a stoplight....that lasted about 12 minutes too long...I'm not for sure on the timing, but... it had to have been at least that long! I kept begging him to run the red light because there was no one on the streets and he was so worried we'd get pulled over, and if that happened it would just take more time. FINALLY (it really probably was only 1 minute) he ran the red light and we hit ANOTHER ONE!!! He looked both ways and ran that one too! He dropped me off at labor and delivery and I hobbled in while he went to park (where was the valet?). There was a poor security guard who came to my rescue with a wheelchair and I was ready to go up to the 5th floor by the time Cory came running in. Labor and delivery got me right in and checked me and I was dilated to a 6+. So they got everything ready and I got my epidural right away. I was so nervous about all of this AGAIN! After going through it once I thought I would be ready, but all I could think about was the 2 and half weeks that I was missing out on preparing myself for this. Its not that I wasn't prepared physically, but mentally I wasn't ready. I started to have an anxiety attack (which has been bothering me a lot this pregnancy) and lucky for me I had a nurse who seemed to 100% understand and she helped me to calm down within seconds. I was so grateful for her at that moment. Everything else was GREAT. Other than I could not get my body to stop shaking. They kept putting lots of warm blankets on me, but it didn't really stop until I started pushing. The shaking was so uncomfortable to me. This time I didn't throw up until I was actually at the hospital, and I only threw up twice. Last time it felt like the pain was so bad I was throwing up, this time it felt like I would get some of the medicine and that would make me sick. Either way, throw up pushes are good pushes (that's what the doctor told me). Dr. Ludlow was on call, and I've only seen him 2 times before, but he was just great. Super helpful and talked about other things with us. He remembered both times he'd seen me before and that made me feel super good. I pushed for about 30 minutes and out came a new little baby. 7 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long with lots of dark hair. It was amazing. My labor's really do remind me of the movies. Where I go so fast that we're running and unprepared and screaming and speeding on the freeway, but once I get the medicine... its super smooth sailing. I am very lucky. This time I was super lucky and didn't tear at all. Dr. Ludlow let me know that my healing would be incredibly different since I didn't tear.

Cory and I decided to make phone calls to let people know the good news. But the babe was born at 5:53 am so it was a morning wake up call. No one was really expecting our call/ text's because we were early, which made it more fun. Then we got to spend a good part of the morning just the two of us and our new baby. This is exactly what I needed. I asked if I could go to the nursery with Cory and the baby and they made that happen for me. It was so fun to watch everything and talk to the nurses. They were worried that I would be too tired, but I was wide awake and loved this part. They said that babe's lungs were a little weak but that everything would be fine. They let us know that letting him cry was a good thing for his lungs to help them get stronger. Other than that he was perfect. We all went back to our room, I ordered breakfast and chowed that down and we just sat and enjoyed some quiet time.

Having a baby is a whirlwind and I would be lying if I said that I was sad I wasn't pregnant anymore. Any of you that know me know that I don't hide my discomfort and sickness well or with tact, but it really is so worth it. We have been so blessed to have another little boy in our family. He looks a lot like Tate and seems to have a lot of similar expressions. I was so worried about having a new baby so soon, and sometimes am still so worried about that. But watching Tate love this new little guy reassures me that they are going to be good little buddies. Tate already is very protective of this new baby. Anytime he see's him he repeats over and over "baby...baby" and then tried to give him a kiss. We also got him to try and say his name, and it just melts my heart to hear Tate say "Carper". I hope that Cory and I can teach these two little boys to be good. To love others and to love each other. They are so amazing and I am incredibly humbled to have been trusted to care for them. My boys really are my whole entire world. Cory always amazes me with how easily he catches on to things. With this new baby he has gone back in to newborn mode with ease and with INSANE love. And its been incredible for me to watch how much deeper his love has grown for Tate as well. Its amazing! I don't want to forget the feeling!!!