Are you tired? Oh yes!

Well, I cried on the 5th and the 10th day, really hard. I just felt like things were going way to fast. Carl was soon back to work and I just wanted to have the magical powers to make everything stop. I just wanted to breath it all in and know that I wouldn't forget any of the details. I knew that all too soon it would feel like a dream...

At last we made it home and it is time to get settled after a little less than 48 hours of great care at UCD. Careful monitoring from UCD continues with Well Baby checks. Thankfully, Carl was off for two weeks and we had some time together as a family. Visitors, calls and gifts welcoming Soren were abundant! We are loved.

My water broke at 8:50 in the morning. My sub Katy was coming by to pick up the last of the files and pry the cell phone out of my fingers in 10 minutes. Not totally sure that my water broke, I went about my business thinking that I would call Carl after Katy left. Katy came and we worked together for about an hour. Once Katy was on her way, I called Carl thinking that he should know that my water had possibly broke. After talking we decided that the Advice Nurse should be called. Right before we hung up, I felt like my water had broken and this time it was very clear to me what had happened. I asked Carl to let me call the hospital and see what I should do because I wasn't having any contractions. I said that I would call Carl right back. I put in a call and left a message for the nurse and was waiting for a return call. I called Carl and during that time.... he and Matt (who he was in the field with) had driven (raced) back to his truck. I reassured him that I was fine and that he needed to drive carefully home. I reminded him that this baby needed a mother AND A FATHER. (Frankly, he sounded a bit excited at this point.) Meanwhile, I waited for the nurse to give me a call back and finished packing and handling last minute details. Carl got home before the nurse was even able to call me back. He had rushed home and was ready to go. I told him to slow down and that I wanted to talk to the advice nurse first before we head over to Labor and Delivery. She called and said that I had "bought my ticket in" and we headed off to the hospital with the expectation that we would have a baby boy in our arms with in the next 24 hours. We got there about 1 and my contractions started between 2 and 3. By 5ish, they wanted me to have a drug to speed up the contractions and get things going. They want to deliver the baby with in 24 hours of water breaking. By 6, the contractions were strong and my hope for a natural child birth was diminishing. Soren was at zero position and I was only 1 centimeter dilated. By 7 I had my epidural. Heaven. By 10, I was 8 centimeters dilated. By 11, I was ready to push. By 11:45, they were ready to let me push. I pushed Soren out in 45 minutes. Carl was awesome! He kept me calm and focused and was very loving the entire time. The nurse kept telling me that Soren had long blond hair and this was a point of motivation for me. Once he was out I said, "Oh, that feels so much better!" Then I said, "Hi everyone!" As I pushed.... a room that only had 3 people in it turned into a audience of 8 or so. I was so tired and just kept saying that I wanted to shut my eyes for a couple more minutes. Carl was a changed man at this point and I will never forget the look on his face and the movement of his body when he saw his son being born. No words to describe it. Love... Love.... Love.... for his wife and for the newest member of our family, Soren David Jensen. Carl moved around the room with Soren and continued to check back with me, while they weighted him, washed him and checked for his over all health. Several staff members told us that he had huge hands. One nurse told me that he was a gentle giant. The staff was incredibly amazing at UCD!