Twist in the plot!

As the title suggests, there has indeed been a twist in the plot called, Our lives. Remember how I was pregnant and not due until January 11th? Well Little baby Carter Edwin Stratford must have been super bored in there because out he came, 7 weeks early! Needless to say, we were shocked. (and still are even though it's been a month. On month already holy cow!)
Anyways here's the whole darn story! As long and boring as some may find it, it's for posterity, people, and I personally want to remember every detail. (I'll spare the very graphic ones.. for posterity's sake as well..) (also, this might be the worlds longest post..)
One dark and stormy night, I went into labor... a baby was born.
Just kidding. Well, somewhat true.
So UVU had a whole week off for Thanksgiving and we were super excited to come down to St. George for the break and be able to eat real food instead of the 3 kinds of cereal we'd eaten practically every meal the week before. I know it's disgusting.. but we didn't want to shop before we came down for a week and gave all our food the chance to go bad. That's reasonable right? Well it was a good choice because our food would definitely have gone bad..
Anyways, We got here saturday afternoon and were staying with Preston's family. We went to Harmon's and got yummy food for the week and randomly I started having these pains along with my contractions. I'd had braxton hicks contractions of course but my uterus always just got really hard and I never had any pain. But these were painful! It surprised me because it was so random and sudden. I just kind of figured they were normal and tried to ignore it. They happened every 15 minutes maybe. That was also slightly alarming because I knew they weren't' supposed to be consistent. I went to bed and they continued through the night but I pretty much ignored them and tried to sleep. I actually slept for a bit, surprisingly. I didn't sleep very well, but I usually have to adjust to new beds for a bit. And you're welcome for that useless random fact.
On Sunday the contractions continued and kinda got worse, especially sitting through church. That night we went for a long walk because I heard that walking it off or lying down helped braxton hicks. But throughout the walk, about every 10 minutes, they would happen and I would have to stop and wait them out because they were pretty painful. I couldn't believe that they would be normal but I convinced myself they must be because I was only 33 weeks and there's no way they would be real.
I had kinda asked my mom earlier and she thought maybe it was normal, so I asked Kerry (father in law) and he thought it might be normal too, but I might have downplayed it because I didn't want to scare him even though they really were pretty darn consistent.. He offered to have me come to the office so he can see what's up and I thought, 'well it's probably fine I'll just ignore it.' So I "slept" through the night again, (not well) and it continued. I decided to go to Kerry's office. Also, I had been measuring my blood pressure which had been unusually high for me. It wasn't horrible, but we were all watching it a little.
So the Dr. did his thing, which was pretty darn painful I have to say. Not his fault by any means, I'm sure it's painful for a lot of people. (just giving the details here, people.) I sat up and he grabbed my hands and said something along the lines of, " It looks like you're going into early labor, you're 3 cm dilated and 100% effaced. We're going to take you over to labor and delivery." My jaw just dropped. I was horrified and fear flooded me. That sounds really dramatic, but I was so nervous! I started holding in sobs while he was talking. He asked if I wanted him to continue with the delivery or have someone else do it. I said he cold continue. That was kind of nerve wracking as well because I was worried it would be super awkward etc etc. But later I was glad because it was really nice to have family and support there. He left the room for a second and I just started sobbing and preston hugged me and he was crying too, and it was just a flood of emotions. I was so stressed and scared and unprepared and I had to finish school! I had no idea what to do about school. Would I lose all 17 credits and the whole darn semester's work? Also I had practically nothing for the baby! The stuff we had was in Provo and the important stuff, like carseat, stroller, diapers/wipes etc we didn't even have.
Preston was so good through the whole thing I just have to say, I love him so stinkin much.
We went over to the hospital and they put monitors on my stomach to measure my contractions and baby's heart rate and other things. They just asked me tons of questions they ask everyone, and gave me a few shots for different things. One was a betamethasone shot to help the baby's lung make surfactant so they wouldn't collapse when he came out. (this is the very simplified explanation) We were worried because he needed enough time in the womb for it to work. Every hour made a big difference. They also gave me something to slow the contractions down. They were hoping they would slow enough to be able to keep him in there another week or 2. I got an IV which was horrible. It was almost the worst part haha. It hurt so bad for some reason! They tried to get it in my right hand but it stopped at a certain point and couldn't go further and it killed. Then they switched it to the other hand and they were both sore  and bruised for like a week.
So pretty much after checking to see how far I was again, I was continuing to dilate and they decided the baby was coming out soon. Ahh!! help me... My family had come by that point and Preston and I decided to tell them the name since there was no point in waiting longer. We told them and everyone go choked up and hugged. It was a precious moment because I could see how much all these people loved Carter already! Edwin is after Preston's grandpa, my mother in Law's dad. She was really appreciative and my softy of a dad had tears in his eyes. I think it was just a realization that this baby was real and going to be there soon and actually had a name. Anyways, I have a really great family. My grandparents came in later and brought me a cute plant with a porcelain dove. They're so sweet. Matt was up at school still and was so scared for me and nervous and wanted to be with us so bad. poor little sweetie. Will cam over after work and was all concerned and probably bored during the whole wait but waited the whole time almost.
They moved me into a different room where I tried to "sleep" that night. Sleep? what is sleep? I think I'll never know it again..
I went to Kerry's office around 5pm monday the 24th just to give a timeline.
Poor preston slept on the uncomfortable couch and my dad and kerry kinda  hung around and checked on us a lot. We would see how far I was every couple hours maybe, and the contractions had started to slow down a little. I think I went up a cm every hour and a half or 2 or 3 hours? I don't remember. Family came back that morning and we just hung out there while I contracted and they just did their thing. I was up to almost 8 cm I think and they started to talk to me about an epidural and that I had to decide what to do soon because I wouldn't be able to past a certain point. It was kinda hard to decide because the contractions were painful, but I wasn't dying or anything. I think maybe I just expected the pain to be worse, so It wasn't that bad.. or I'm just super tough!! :) jk that's definitely not the case. I was nervous because I wanted to be able to feel what was going on a little, but I knew it would get more painful. I decided to do it and my dad put it in which was kinda fun. Not for him though. He said later, "I've done tons of epidurals and never had a problem. women can be screaming and whatever else and it's always fine but this time I was so nervous and shaky." It was funny. He did a great job though. It didn't even hurt. Yay for my awesome dad! I love him. Then they put the catheter in with was so uncomfortable and gross. Eww never again. So a little later, I noticed one side of my body was totally numb and the other one felt totally normal. I thought, "What in the fweak just happened.." (Kid History anyone?) Anyways I just kept giving myself a little bolus by pushing this button, but it didn't feel better. I noticed the tube for the epidural flow had come unclamped from me rolling onto it or something. My dad fixed it and I could still feel everything on one side. It kinda hurt so I asked about it and my dad offered to give another bolus but I wouldn't be able to feel anything. I said sure and pretty soon I honestly felt NOTHING. It was the weirdest feeling. I could see them lifting my legs but I didn't feel anything. They could have ripped them off and I wouldn't have known. It was so gross.
I rested for a minute, and around 2 ish in the afternoon on the 25th, we decided I was ready to start. I got kinda stressed and a million Drs and nurses were in there all hangin out and watching the show. (I guess because he was a high risk baby.) It was really embarrassing but part of me didn't care because while I was pushing, phew... I didn't care what was happening. To preface this little section of the story, I was sooo so so tired at this point. I hadn't' slept for 3 nights and I was just exhausted. There were like 4 nurses on one side holding one leg and Preston holding the other. They would wait for a contraction then tell me to take a huge breath and push. It was the hardest thing ever! Not to be dramatic but I seriously thought I wasn't going to be able to do it. I was so light headed and tired and I passed out at one point because of holding my breath and woke up to Kerry saying, did we lose her?' and one of the nurses next to me saying, 'If you don't do this right now we'll be here for a week!" I was pretty delirious and thought to myself, 'I have to be here for a week? Why? Oh my gosh I'm still pushing.. no more no more!' Then I pushed again. It was ridiculous. I think I just kept apologizing the whole time because I felt bad that it was taking so long and everyone would tell me, you're so close! Come on! etc. Then nothing would happen. Finally after this very detailed, traumatic event, out came the head. It was so crazy. Sorry for the graphics but I actually had a mirror because they asked me about it and I thought it was super weird, but when the baby started crowning I said, wait I want to see! It was so weird because I wouldn't feel anything but out he came. It was like an out of body experience and I kept thinking, who's baby is this? This can't be my baby. They mentioned that I had a second degree tear, which I started to feel the next day and ouch I tell ya..
They wrapped him up and put him on my for a second and I was just kind of shocked still. There was a little alien-like baby in my arms! They took him out of the room and brought him back i think? It;s all kinda foggy. But everyone was taking pictures and i was emotional and preston was sobbing it was so cute. He was so happy. He's such a great daddy. Then everyone left and I was just in there with the nurses for a bit. She helped me into a wheel chair and took me to the NICU where everyone was. Preston was in there doing skin to skin with him I think. They say it's super helpful in their development. I's pretty amazing what our bodies can do!
I stayed in a room in the mom an baby unit for a couple days and we would just go down to see carter all the time.

Now if I haven't scarred anyone for life with the gory details, let me share some blessings we saw throughout this experience. First of all, we have no idea why he came early. There weren't complications as far as we knew, but my dad and kerry actually thought I might have started to become a little toxemic/pre-eclamptic. I had some swelling and my blood pressure was going up. It wasn't cause for his delivery, but it he hadn't come I would have had a c- section and ended up just having problems. Also, my parents were planning on going on vacation that week, but something came up and they canceled it. If they had gone they wouldn't have been there! It would have been really hard for me. I just feel like I was really watched over and protected through the whole thing by my Heavenly Father. He sure does know what we'll need and when we'll need it even if it totally wasn't in our plan.

Well, There are tons of updates to make and this post is far too long, so I'm forcing myself to start a new one. It's been quite the wild ride. Feel free to continue on, or take a nap from this emotional roller coaster you may have had while reading this story (oh that might have just been me becauseI'm so darn emotional lately..) Enjoy a random selection of the trillion pictures we have of him! :)

This grandpa loves his grandbaby

Here's to the best husband in the world. 

I can't believe I'm putting this up but I just think it's hilarious how swollen I look in all the pre delivery pictures! and tired.. and boy was I both.