Caroline Marie - September 18, 2011

Caroline Marie joined our family on September 18, 2011 at 3:09 am.  And she was apparently in a rush to meet us!  I started having contractions at about 11:00 Saturday night just as we were going to bed.  They were 7 - 10 minutes apart so I assumed Tim and I had plenty of time to get to the hospital.  I woke Tim up at about 1:00 and told him we would probably have to call someone to watch Will that night.  I decided to get in the shower and try to relax a little for what I thought was going to be a long night of being attended to by nurses in the hospital.  Shortly after I got in the shower, my contractions started coming every 2 - 2.5 minutes.  I quickly called my doctor who asked if I thought I needed to go to the hospital.  I was pretty sure I did so she said she would meet us there.  Our next call was to a friend to watch Will.  We were initially going to bring Will to her house so she didn't have to wake her three kids and transport them in the middle of the night, but plans changed and she brought them to our house.  In hindsight, it's a good thing she did!  Since it was after hours, we arrived at the hospital through the Emergency Room at 2:49  They brought me inside and Tim parked the car.  It felt like he was gone for hours, but I'm sure it was just a minute or two.  The trip to the Maternity Floor seemed like an eternity, also.  I had to stop three times because I couldn't take the contractions sitting down.  When we arrived at Maternity, the nurse asked me to go into the restroom and change into a gown while she found me a room.  After another contraction, she quickly determined that I needed to get to get into a room immediately.  I still didn't think there was a big rush.  We got to the room and I changed into a gown.  I vaguely remember the nurse (Joy) say to someone "she's staying.  She is complete."  I wasn't paying much attention at the time, but a few minutes later I asked Joy what she meant.  She said, very calmly, that if my water broke, we would be having a baby and that they were going to try to wait until the midwife on call arrived.  I'm not sure how she planned on making my water not break, but I accepted her answer at the time.  I was still thinking I had another few hours of labor.  Just a few minutes later, my water broke and with one push, Caroline Marie was born at 3:09 am.  Tim told me after that Joy was repeating "get a doctor here NOW."  I don't remember that part either!  The midwife arrived about 30 minutes later to find Caroline perfectly healthy!  Here she is!