Introducing Carter William Holden

So this will be a long one, here is the official detailed account of Carter's birth.

Colin and I went to Barnsley Gardens on Sunday for a work event for me. We spent Monday relaxing with some fly fishing, spa treatments and Frisbee golf (action shots below).

We had a nice dinner that evening and then went to bed early, typical for a pregnant lady. I woke up several times during the evening with what I thought were pre-labor contractions. They came every 10-30 minutes and varied in intensity. I figured this meant that labor would be coming within the next few days or so since I was still carrying really high.

So we decided to go ahead and leave Barnsley a day early on Tuesday and head home so I could relax and Colin could get some work done. So I got up Tuesday and decided to take a quick bath before breakfast because it reduced the intensity and timing of the contractions. I got out of the bath a little after 7 as Colin was getting up and as soon as I started getting ready, my water broke.

So we decided to leave right then and head back to Atlanta. Colin called the Dr and he said to take our time and come on to the hospital even though I wasn't having close contractions. We packed up our stuff, checked out and hit the road around 7:30. At this time I wasn't feeling any painful contractions, rather just the urge to go to the bathroom. As soon as we got on the highway around 7:35, I realized that something felt strange down below. I reached down and there was baby's head. I calmly (in my head at least) pointed this out to Colin who started to pull the car over to the shoulder and call 911 at 7:40. I then gave one more push and both shoulders pooped out. Colin then told me to "pull him out" and I did. I have to believe the adrenaline kicked in somewhere along the way because I wasn't in any real pain after my water broke. Carter William Holden came into the world at 7:50 AM on May 4th at mile marker 299 on the side of I-75 in Cartersville, GA.

Carter came out and gave a short cry, music to mom's ears, and then fell asleep. When Carter came out, the umbilical cord snapped (they believe it was a short cord) so Colin took our Garmin charger and tied it off. We wrapped him in Colin's shirt, cleaned out his mouth and I started trying to feed. Colin started pressure on my stomach to start uterine contractions and control the bleeding. The EMS and Fire Truck arrived about 8:03 AM. They took Carter and got him wrapped up. They then put me on a stretcher and transferred me to the ambulance to join him.

The EMT guy took this picture on his cell phone while we were driving to the hospital and sent it to me. This is the first time they let me hold Carter.

The ambulance took us to Cartersville Medical Center about 15 minutes down the road and Colin followed in the car.

We went to Labor & Delivery where they fixed me up and checked Carter out. Both mom and baby were given good bills of health. Carter weighed in at 6lbs 1.5 oz, was 17-3/4" long and got a 9 on his 5 minute Apgar.

We will be here until Thursday AM - they require a 48 hour stay since Carter wasn't born in a hospital. Everyone has been really great, the 911 operator actually called later to check on us. And the Ambulance drivers came back by as well with their "Proud Uncle" stickers. We are the only couple in the Mother Baby ward (there were 2 other couples who checked out today) and we were the only "birth" today as well. So we are getting lots of attention, not just because we are the crazy couple who gave birth on the side of the highway. Needless to say, it is very different from what we were expecting at Northside.

Thank you all for the well wishes. We'll do our best to follow up with everyone as we can.