Carter Julian Gregory Eldridge Watermelon Dumptruck Sky

Why, oh WHY am I up blogging at 6:30 a.m? I rarely get a chance to watch an entire 30 minute television show uninterrupted, so (considering that I've been up since 5:40 this morning) I kinda would like to be in the bed with my coffee catching up on Guiliana and Bill or REwatching Duck Dynasty. OR (even better) still sleeping. But, as nature would have it, I wake up every single year on April 27th at 5:40 in the morning with cramping. Strange? I don't know. I think maybe my body remembers that this day is the anniversary of something so very special and it wants to make sure I don't forget. How could I?

It was 5:40 a.m... April 27th, 2005. I was 12 days from my due date, when I woke up to some pretty intense cramps. Looking over at my sleeping husband (who would be getting up to get ready for work in a couple of hours) and seeing him sleeping peacefully, and knowing that our 2 year old daughter would probably still be sleeping at least until her Daddy woke up, I climbed into the bathtub and ran warm water over my belly trying to ease the discomfort. It still wasn't quite pain, but it was extremely uncomfortable. After more than an hour of sitting in the tub, my fingertips were sufficiently prune-like but my "cramps" were stronger, so I carefully climbed out of the tub and quietly sat on the bed trying to gently wake my still sleeping husband. {side note: my L&D with Harley was induced, so I didn't get to enjoy "starting labor" on my own at home, so I was loving every minute of this!} I don't remember the exact way it all happened. I remember telling him that I was about 99% sure that this was "baby day" and telling him he needed to call work. Then I remember getting to the hospital and being brought a wheel chair and everything seeming so surreal- like a movie. Because things really were happening (for the first time ever in life) just like they do in the movies. What I DON'T remember is what we did with Harley. I do know that she ended up with Ruthanne (my mother-out-law), although I don't remember exactly if she came to us or if we dropped her off. I suppose that's irrelevant, but the fact that I can't remember bothers me.

Once we got to the hospital, things moved pretty fast. Ruthanne must have taken Harley to Mema and Papa (HER mother and father, Harley's great-grandparents) because it was kind of important for her to be in the room with me. We had our "L&D crew"... the same group as before, with Harley- me (obviously), Reuben, Ruthanne, and Erin (his sister). We had a system, but this time I didn't want to crack jokes as much as I did when I was laboring with Harley. Could have been the lack of the epidural this go-round. Who knows? ;) I remember being mean to Reub this time, which is something I made a point NOT to do the first time. But, every time I would say something mean, he would laugh which would make more mad. (guess he thought I was cute when I was mad... anger is not in my nature, so I guess it probably was kind of funny...) I remember the nurse checking me & saying that I was at 9 cm and that they would come back in a little while to check again. I told her I felt like I needed to push & she told me not to. The GREAT thing about NOT having an epidural is that your body KNOWS what to do. Your body tells you when it's time to push. I'm convinced maybe that nurse had stupid fingers and just *thought* I was 9 when I was 10. Doesn't matter. She walked out, I got up and squatted on the bed (yes, squatted)... and started pushing. After a couple of pushes, I reached down & could feel his head. Ruthanne looked at Erin and said "Is she pushing?" and Erin said "I think so..." so Ruthanne ran to the door & yelled that someone needed to get in there to catch the baby. It took no time & Carter was out. My beautiful, healthy 2 ounces away from 9 pounds baby boy... :)

I had learned a lot from my first delivery with Harley. I learned to rest. I think another perk of NOT having the epidural is that your body instantly goes into recovery mode. I immediately wanted to go to sleep. So I did. And I think that was the best sleep I have had to date. I remember Reuben coming in to tell me every time a new out-of-town family member arrived, but I was out of it. I was not up for entertaining. PLUS, they were there to see the baby. Not me. And I was glad for that. A few hours after Carter was born (heck, it could have been 12 hours, I have no concept of time from that day), Reub came to tell me that his dad was taking him & his sister to Red Lobster and asked if I wanted anything. All I said was "sleep".

I won't go into the specifics, but a few hours before I was supposed to be released from the hospital, I ended up getting verrrry sick. I had a 103 degree fever and developed 2 types of e.coli (which I freaked about initially because all I could think of was the ebola virus. I thought I was going to bleed from every orifice and die.) which settled into my lungs and gave me pneumonia. I was in the hospital for 9 or 10 days after Carter was born. Thankfully, Carter was able to stay with me. I even had a couple of extra days to decide on a name. We knew it was Carter. (If Harley had been a boy, she would have been Carter, as well.) We both wanted to name our son after our mutual best friend, JG O'Connor. We had played around with middle names and knew we wanted to add Reub's dad's name (Greg) in there. Ruthanne's daddy, Papa, is one of the greatest men I've ever known. His name is Julian. So, when Reuben came in a few days after our son was born and I told him I had just filled out the birth certificate information and that he had a full name... he looked at me expectantly. "It's Carter Julian Gregory Eldridge. Carter JG." :) I thought he was going to cry. It was so perfect. So much name for such a little fella, but still so perfect.

I think being in that hospital for the extra week is what cemented my bond with Carter. Most people have to "share" their baby after just a few days. I got an extra week where it was mostly just the two of us. :)

When Carter was 3 he asked for some mighty strange gifts for Christmas. One was a watermelon dumptruck. I had NO idea where he got that from, but knew that I had to find one. I thought maybe he had seen it on tv or something... Nope. The kid made it up. So, I bought a toy dumptruck, and made watermelons out of modelling clay and painted them up to look like watermelons. This was, of course, his favorite gift that Christmas. I even made a little sign to go on the back of the dumptruck that said "Carter's Watermelon Dumptruck". Harley came to me a few hours later and said "Mama, now I KNOW Santa Claus is real because there was NO SUCH THANG as a watermelon dumptruck!!!"... a few weeks later, Carter "changed" his name to Carter Julian Gregory Eldridge Watermelon Dumptruck Sky. (I dunno where "sky" came from. He probably, literally, looked up and said "okay, sky, too.")

Not even *I* can find the words to describe how much I love this crazy, funny, beautiful, smart, selfless child. He owns me.