My baby is 2!

Yep, 2 years ago today Carli came into the world surprisingly 4+ weeks early weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs. 15 oz. She was the tiniest little thing and sooo sweet. What a crazy weekend it was! Friday evening we were at the stake center at Ben's basketball game. By the end my back was starting to ache, but I figured it was just because I had been sitting for a while. After we got home we put the kids to bed and Ben and I tried to watch a movie. I tried every position to get comfortable. The back ache would not let up. I tried going to bed. I laid there for a while, but nothing was changing. By 1:30 Ben was getting pretty nervous--understandably. Brandon had taken about 27 hours to get here, but Kate and Megan came flying into the world in 5 and 3 1/2 hours, respectively, from the first felt contraction to delivery. This one could have been a little scary!!! Luckily, it didn't look like it was going to be an extreme birth in that I had been feeling yucky for several hours.

Anyway, he finally talked me into calling my good friend, Kirsten, to come over so we could head over to the hospital. I do not like inconveniencing people and in the middle of the night?! Of course, she didn't mind and came right over at 2 am. When we got to the hospital I was only at 2 cm. :( So, we walked around for quite a while and slowly made progress. By 6:30 or so I was still only at a 4 so it wasn't going at quickly as we had anticipated. We spent time watching the Bond marathon that was on TV. However, 2 hours later I was really hurting and telling them I needed to push. No meds for this mama (that's a whole other story), but I was tempted this time. By the time it's really hurting, though, I'm already close enough to be almost finished so it's too late and I know I can get through that last little bit. The nurse was so great. She had a feeling once I got to a certain point it was going to go very quickly so she had been getting things ready. When I was ready she was ready! The on-call doctor (my doctor had disappeared upstairs to do rounds and they didn't know where he was) came rushing in and Carli was born after a few pushes at 8:53 am. My doc came in about 10 minutes later and she was already here! He thought he had plenty of time to make it back. Ha, ha.

She was here and she was perfect! We had debated calling parents before not knowing if we were going to be sent home earlier or not so since she arrived we figured it was time. What a shocker it was for them to get this call today! It was fun telling them the story. My mom hopped on a plane that afternoon and flew down. My inlaws were at a Mary Kay leadership meeting when we called. She was so excited to tell everyone around her that her newest granddaughter was here. We were not ready! We didn't have a stroller or new car seat yet. We didn't even have any diapers! We thought we still had another month or at least 3 weeks before she came. When My baby shower was scheduled for 2 weeks later so we ended up having a Welcome Baby shower instead. It was so fun! I felt great and Carli was doing perfectly! She was able to come home with me Monday afternoon. They had to do all the preemie tests on her since she was more than 4 weeks early (only by 2 days). She passed them all and was ready to go home! It was so wonderful having my mom there already. She is too incredible for words. How blessed I am to have such a mom in my life!

Right after she was born.

Daddy with Carli All four kiddos.

Sweet baby sleeping .
She was just sooo tiny! Still little. That Boppy pillow looks huge!
Blessing day. My aunt made this gorgeous dress when her first daughter was born about 35 years ago. I wore this dress when I was blessed and all my girls have, too. The whole fam on Carli's blessing day.She has the most beautiful blue eyes!
What a sweetheart she is. We are so glad she is part of our family! She brightens our days with her smiles and hugs. I can't believe she's already 2!