The Kirk Boys: Carter Julien Kirk

Our first picture as a family of 4

Carter is here! He surprised us all by coming 3 weeks early! He was due January 24th but came today - January 3, 2015 at 12:40 pm. He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long.

Let me tell you my story. I have lots to share with you about my first year of life so enjoy the reading. I tried to come a week before. It was December 27th and all of Mommy's family came to my house to celebrate Christmas. I woke Mommy up that morning at 2:00 am with contractions. She had these "pains" all day while her family was here so she was walking around the house and sitting/resting a lot - not really visiting or enjoying the company. Around 5:00 pm Mommy and Daddy went to the hospital. Dr. Smith was there and decided to keep Mommy after she was dilated to a 3. She and Daddy did lots of walking in the hospital, but would eventually come home around 1:00 am. Dr. Smith had given Mommy some IV fluids which re-hydrated her and stopped the contractions. He told her to go home and rest a lot so that is exactly what she did. Mommy didn't know it, but this would be the last week that I was in her belly.

The week of December 29th, Mommy sat a lot and rested just like Dr. Smith said to. She didn't go anywhere until that Friday. On January 2nd, she, Daddy and Brayden (he is my big brother) went to the mall to a store called Build a Bear. They went there just for me! They made a bear for me to keep forever and even recorded their voices welcoming me to the family. This was so sweet of them to do! I know this bear will be so special to me my whole life! Once they left the mall they ran a few errands, but Mommy still rested. That night she ate white chicken chili and cornbread and went to bed not knowing that would be the last night as a family of just 3. I woke her up again around 4:00 am with contractions again. These pains were hurting her (sorry Mommy) but she laid in bed breathing through them. She called Mawmaw and Pawpaw around 8:00 am and told them they might want to head to Raleigh (they live 2 hours away). Mommy got in the shower and that is when the pain REALLY started to hurt. It took Mommy almost 2 hours to get ready because the contractions were coming every 1-2 minutes. Memaw and Pawpaw (these are Daddy's parents) came over to watch Brayden while Mommy and Daddy went to the hospital. They got there at 10:30 am and Dr. Smith was working again! Mommy really likes him so that was a nice surprise for her. She was dilated to a 6 and everything was happening fast. I was really ready to come out and meet her, Daddy and my new big brother! Mommy got moved to a different room where she met her nurse, Amy. You are never going to believe this, but Amy is the same nurse that helped deliver Brayden when he was born! How crazy is that, but it made Mommy really happy and she was hurting so much that I was glad to see her happy about something. Mommy was now dilated to a 10 and still didn't have any pain medicine/epidural. She was really worried she wasn't going to have time to get an epidural, but Amy and Dr. Smith 'hooked her up'. Dr. Smith gave the shot to Mommy and it helped the pain not be so bad. We are now waiting on Mawmaw (Mommy's mom) to get tothe hospital. She gets there around noon and shortly after that Mommy is ready to start pushing - she was trying to give the epidural time to work. Mommy pushed through 5 contractions and I was out! It was now 12:40 and my birthday!!! Here is one of the first pictures taken of me.

After I was out of Mommy's tummy (by the way it was really bright and loud) all of Mommy's pain stopped and I got to lay on her chest. I got to meet Daddy and hold his finger and then it was time to meet my big brother Brayden. He was super excited for me to get here and ran down the hall to meet Daddy. Check out this picture of him doing just that.

He was all smiles and rocking his Big Brother shirt just for me! I love him so much already. Daddy took lots and lots of pictures of us meeting for the first time, so I will share a few of them now.