Adelaide Lee Carter

Well, our baby is here! This post is for Shane, my brother who is on a mission. I want him to be able to get to know his niece from afar. Thursday morning we went to the hospital at 7:30 AM and got started with an IV, which made me throw up. Then contractions started and the doctor broke my water. From there on it was intense! I got an epidural at noon, which worked great until about 1 and then I started feeling all my contractions again. We tried to up the dose, and that didn't work either. By the time the anesthesiologist got up to my room and figured out that the tube in my spine had come out of where it needed to be and that we needed to do another epidural, I was in screaming pain and almost ready to push. We got the second one in and it worked great until my nurses changed shifts and the new nurse turned down the epidural so that I could "feel contractions and push better." However, I hated her for a while because then the thing stopped working and I felt EVERYTHING! After an hour and half of pushing, Addy was here! I was about dead, and she had quite the cone head (but don't worry it's completely gone now), but we were both okay. I cried when I held her. Shane, she is the most perfect baby! So here are some pictures for you! I'll try to tell you about her as we go, making it short so that you have time to read it all!

This is us after the first epidural kicked in. For about an hour there we were real happy lol
Here Addy is after she was born. You can't really see her cone head, but here she is weighin' in. Dad was right, they're nasty when they come out! haha
Scott holding his baby girl
And here I am! Can you believe how fat I got? lol. I managed to stay very not swollen my whole pregnancy. And then they pumped me so full of IV fluids that my face, hands, ankles, everything, are swollen! I could wear my wedding ring through forty weeks of pregnancy, and then I have the baby, and BAM! I got...fatter? Wait...
SO precious. Shane, the feeling is absolutely incredible. I think that my doctor put it really well. While pushing, I was one angry girl. In fact, I looked at him right before she came out and just said, "I'm done!" Good thing it was only one more push lol. But while I was holding Addy he told Scott and I that his favorite part is watching his patients go from being just a woman (which is pretty amazing) to being a mother. And it's true. It's a total transformation. That is my baby!
The happy family!
Addy is so sweet, Shane. The only time she has really cried was her first bath in the hospital. Other than that, she just lets out one squawk and stops right when Scott starts talking to her. It's so sweet. When they did that thing where they poke their heel, she just gave one holler and then when Scott said her name and started talking to her she just stopped crying and looked toward his voice. She knows and loves her daddy already.

Addy also loves to make faces. She can be totally asleep and make a million different faces. This is one of my favorite pictures from the hospital!
She's also very strong! As you can see below, she LOVES to stretch her legs out. I'm not kidding you, Shane, she will sit there with her legs straight up in the air, fully extended for like, five minutes after a diaper change! She also won't sleep wrapped up tight because she can't stretch her legs out. It's so funny because that was how she was inside me. She ALWAYS had that foot in my ribs! And she still does it!
In her carseat ready to go home with her Halloween bow :D
We got home to this sign from my neighbors. We love them so much, and they have been such good friends to us throughout this pregnancy. I just thought this was really creative, so I thought I'd show you :D
Ok, so Scott took about sixty pictures and we counted about thirty faces that she made in two minutes of sleeping. I only picked my favorites becasue I know your time is limited, but you had to see some of these! (Plus, I get some of your time today, I gave you a niece!)






We also started our newborn pictures today. She only cooperates for so long, so this was the pose we focused on today. She is SO cute though, am I right?




Well, Shane, there's a little bit about Adelaide for you. She's an amazing little girl and already has so much personality. She's the most precious daughter of God and we are so blessed to have her! Already we feel so many blessings. It's like we've always had her with us, which, don't ask me how this works, but because we're married for eternity, we always have. (Weird thought if you let your mind wander around it). Anyway, the gospel is true and we love it! We love our little Addy and we wish you were here to meet her, but know that you are where you need to be! Besides, she'll be here when you get back, you'll just have to make sure to frequent my blog :D Love you Shane!