On the morning of the 19th I went into my midwife to have my membranes stripped for the 4th time in a little over 2 weeks. My midwife told me her guess for me was Saturday the 21st. Being already 6 days past my due date, it was alittle disheartening to think about facing 2 more days. I went home and resumed my normal routines. About 2:45 in the afternoon I had a contraction. it was no biggie. it didn't hurt very much and I'd already experienced literally hundreds just like it in the past 5 weeks. Shortly after that Kyle took the kids to run some errands while I retreated to my bed to feel crummy and sorry for myself that I was still pregnant.
Over the next hour I experienced enough contractions that I thought I should start paying attention. My contractions were very sporadic and not at all regular. About 4:45 I thought I should call my midwife and just give her a heads up that I was having the contractions and see what she thought. I figured I'd wait for Kyle to get home to call, I expected him around 5:00. Well, as how all things go, Kyle wasn't home until after 5:30 and I wasn't able to reach my midwife until 6:00. We chatted. My contractions were still any where from 2 minutes apart up to 7 minutes. I could still walk, talk and breathe through them. It was decided that I should eat some dinner, take a shower, and she would call me back after an hour and we would go from there.
She called back at 7:00 on the nose, right as we were starting our family prayer and scriptures. At that point I was pretty sure the baby was coming, but was sure I still had several hours. until 10:00 at least. I saw no reason to not put my kids to bed first and then head into the hospital. My midwife agreed to call back in a half hour. Kyle was looking at me like I was crazy. He wasn't sure why I was waiting. I was still convinced we had plenty of time. I told him if he felt so urgent he could give his mom the heads up and throw the bag in the car while I continued the bedtime routine.
When my midwife called back she asked, "so, what are you thinking?" I told her we were going to leave for the hospital. Glancing at the clock 7:34, we would be leaving in the next 10 minutes for sure. I hung up with her and called my mom to tell her we would be leaving for the hospital. For some reason I started crying while talking to her, not sure why but it was very emotional. As I hung up with her the clocked switched from 7:36 to 7:37. I went and kissed my kids good night, and headed out the door. When I reached the car a contraction hit me so hard I had to lean on the door frame and was physically unable to get in the car. After waiting a moment for it to pass I climbed on in and we backed out of the drive way. It was 7:46. It took about 3 minutes to get out of the neighborhood and to the freeway entrance. In that time I had 3 contractions. Kyle pointed out that they were every minute. I continued to have a contraction about every minute for the rest of the drive. It's about a 20 minute drive with no traffic. Kyle drove 90 the whole way with moderate traffic and made it in 15. I spent those 15 minutes resisting the urge to push and yelling at Kyle to make the pain stop, insisting that I couldn't do it and I needed an epidural. We pull up at the hospital at 8:03. I stumble out of the car while Kyle went to park the car. I somehow made it inside where a security officer kindly helps me into a wheel chair and begins wheeling me up to the 6th floor.
I begin having a very surreal experience where I'm feeling hyper aware of my surroundings but I feel like I'm viewing it on TV or even as if I were reading my thoughts out of a novel, not experiencing them for myself. I watch the security officer hold the elevator door for a man and his son. Silently I'm cursing this kind man who is helping me so much, for helping other people. I watch the man look at me as he pushes the number 2 button. What are you doing? I'm screaming n the inside, I don't have time for this! I'm very aware of the boy who can't be more than 8 staring at me with huge eyes. They exit and we make it to the 6th floor. The security guard wheels me into admission and takes off. I can't help it but I'm yelling at the staff. I'm telling them that I need an epidural right away. I don't have time to be in here. They don't understand, I don't have any time!!!!!! They ascertain that I am indeed Kari Holker and tell me kindly that they are taking me into the triage area and I begin to flip out on them. I don't have time for triage, I need an epidural right away. They convince me to stand up and help me out of my clothes. They get me on a gurney and a nurse says, "She has a lip and her water is bulging!" All of a sudden it went from 2 nurses in the room to at least 7. Immediately the gurney starts moving and I hear Kyle's voice. Finally he's here!
I'm in the delivery room and in less than a minute my midwife walks in. She comes and sits at my feet, she's able to get my attention and she tells me, " your baby is coming". I hear a nurse say, " get the camera daddy". Kyle turns to get our camera out of our bag. My brain stopped working and my body took over. I pushed. Kyle turned back towards me and sees Karter's head. I push again and his torso is out. I'm being coaxed to reach down and catch my baby, I tell them to just pull him out. I push one more time and he's out and in my arms. 3 pushes, 1.5 minutes, I'm still on the gurney and the time is 8:14. Crazy. It seems like something you'd see in a sitcom. It's now 6 days later and I'm still not quite sure that it really happened to me. But he's here! He's perfect and healthy and adorable. His older sister loves taking care of him. She's very hands on from picking out his clothes to helping change diapers to turning on a musical toy for him when he starts crying. Big Brother Kendal has adapted very well to the baby. He's not as hands on, but you can tell he takes his role as big brother and protector very seriously. His interpretation of helping "his baby" when Karter cries is to throw a blanket on his head.
