Announcing!!!

This is the email that Jon sent out to family announcing our new little baby. Sophie Jane. He sums it up pretty well. It's a long read, just a warning.

Hi all,

We are happy to announce the arrival of Sophie Jane Laudie!  She came this morning at 8:55 AM and is a beautiful little thing.  6 pounds, 11 ounces, and 20 inches long.  Carrie did amazing and the whole process was very short.  Baby and Mama are doing great and Shayla is the proudest big sister I've ever seen.  

First the name. 

We first started thinking of names last summer and Shayla was determined to name this baby Kate after her best friend.  We tried to shoot that one down and proposed a few other names to distract her from the Kate option, one of which was Sophie.  She grabbed onto that name (Sophie) and wouldn't let go.  Carrie and I weren't so sure of the name initially but Shayla was dead set on it.  Over time we added and removed many other names from our "official" list (the list where Shayla's vote didn't really count...) but Sophie always stayed on.  We grew to really like the name and today when we met her and thought about the 3 names we had on our "official" list, Sophie seemed absolutely right.  Shayla can always know that she was a big reason that her baby sister is named Sophie and hopefully that will be something fun for both of them.  We love the name Jane.  I have two sisters with the name (Amy Jane and Jane Anne) and wanted to bring that into our family.  Sophie almost shares a birthday with little Amy Jane who was a Valentine's baby born on Feb. 14 and we thought that it would be special for Sophie to know she shares a name with her aunt who's birthday is so close to hers and that she also shares a name with her aunt Jane Anne.  With Mike and Lindsey's Andrew having a birthday on February 13 and Sophie now having a birthday on February 15 I'm starting to think Amy might be up there pulling whatever strings she can to make sure that she gets to keep her day all to herself!

Now the delivery story.

Carrie woke up around 4:00 with contractions that were slightly more intense than the braxton hicks contractions she had been feeling for the last few weeks.  It was keeping her up so she went out to the living room and turned on the TV to watch a show while starting to track her contractions.  At about 7:00 Shayla and I were waking up and Carrie thought she was most likely in labor.  She wasn’t sure it was the real thing until about 7:30 when it started to get really intense.  I was sitting with Shayla while she ate breakfast and Carrie told me I better get ready fast.  So I jumped in the shower, got Shayla ready, and headed out the door to drop her at a friend’s house for the day while we went over to the hospital to check things out.  I got Shayla dropped off but in true bay area fashion ran into a bit of morning traffic on the 101 and it took a bit longer for me to get home.  About 8:25 Carrie called me and told me to hurry because this was happening fast.  She felt like she needed to push and the contractions were super painful.  I finally got out of the traffic and sped the rest of the way home (90 in a 45 – can’t usually justify that speed… glad no police were out).  When I walked in the door Carrie was just heading into another contraction and pointed at the bags for me to throw in the car.  I loaded that up, got her in the car, and we were out the door in a matter of seconds.  The contractions were so intense at this point that Carrie was pretty shaky and it was taking all she had to make it through them while I was speeding along.  Rushing to the hospital was not the ideal relaxed environment we were hoping to create for her so I was impressed with how well she did.  I remember reaching out to hold her hand a few times and she took it at the beginning but after 5 or 10 minutes (we live about 15 minutes from the hospital) she wanted nothing to do with me anymore – my focus was to be on the road and getting there as fast as I could.  Luckily the traffic wasn’t at a complete standstill on the road we needed so we made decent time and only ran one red light.  We made it to the last light, hospital in sight, when Carrie said she didn’t know if we were going to make it.  That was a bad sign considering how close we were.  It was the longest red light of my life!  We got through and as we turned into the parking lot she felt her water break.  I parked the car in the middle of the road outside the door, ran inside to the front desk and told them my wife was having a baby, like REALLYhaving a baby RIGHT NOW.  They showed me a wheelchair and then a few wide-eyed interns ran with me through the halls as I raced with Carrie in the wheelchair to labor and delivery.  Some of the faces we got from the people along the way were priceless.  We ran into labor and delivery and almost instantly we had 10 or so nurses in a room grabbing blankets, pads, etc. while Carrie got up in the bed.  Within 5 minutes Sophie was here.  Phew, I’m tired just thinking about it again.  Good times.  Carrie did an amazing job.

So, all is well, Carrie and baby are doing great.  I’m actually impressed with how well Carrie is doing.  She’s been up all afternoon/ evening and seems to be doing great.  Hopefully she continues with little pain throughout the recovery process. 

I picked up Shayla this afternoon from her friend’s house and brought her to the hospital.  She was so excited to meet her sister – it was like Christmas for her.  She held her and told her all about the fun things they’re going to do together.  I think she’ll be a great big sister.

We left Carrie in the hospital to fend for herself tonight and I brought Shayla home at bedtime.  We’ll head over tomorrow and spend a good chunk of the day before bringing Carrie home either tomorrow night or Sunday morning.

Thanks for your prayers and well wishes!

Lots of love,

Jon, Carrie, Shayla, and Sophie