So, Apparently the Answer is Yes

Nesting does include random acts of barbering!

So, we got a little surprise on Christmas Eve eve.  We had planned to spend Christmas week with John's family in San Antonio.  Cora's aunt and uncle and two cousins flew down from Virginia, and since we hadn't seen them in over a year, we were really excited to see them and to spend time with Yiayia and Dado.  (I'm pretty certain that Yiayia and Dado were pretty excited to get all of their grandkids together for the first time in a while.)  When they volunteered to babysit the kids one night, Josh, Amy, John and I were happy to let them.  We thought we were going to have a nice relaxing dinner on the Riverwalk and take in a movie.  In fact, John and I were really excited about seeing our first movie in the theater in a while.  Well, we did have a nice relaxing dinner.  We did get our tickets to see a 3d movie at the IMAX.  We did get in line at the really crowded Starbucks.  We even ordered our coffee and paid for it.  Then, my water broke.  Yup, right there in the middle of Rivercenter Mall.  Panic is not exactly the right word for it.  I think I may have had a tiny little fit of hysteria.  (I think I was entitled to it, though!)

Our original plan was to drive back to our hospital almost 2 hours away.  That idea quickly derailed when the line to get out of the parking garage was taking 30 minutes!  However, it became clear that God does not ignore the details in His plans.  He put attendants in the parking garage who cared for me while John went to retrieve the car.  They even opened a cash only lane so that they could move the cars through faster.  We were also very well cared for at the hospital in San Antonio.  Our story was a bit of a novelty at the facility, and it seemed that everyone who came in my room knew that my little one wanted to be born on the Riverwalk rather than at our hospital 100 miles away.  After only 45 minutes of pushing and a total of 8 1/2 hours of labor, Carys was born.

Much like her sister, Carys was proclaimed to be very stubborn throughout the labor.  She did not let us down in bringing drama to the delivery.   Though my doctor chided me to push harder, it turned out that sweet baby had her cord wrapped not once, but twice around her neck!  We had some very intense moments after the delivery since Carys was quite blue in the face and took what seemed to be an eternity to start crying.  Again, God took care of the details because my hospital does not have a NICU, but fortunately, this hospital does.  After a good angry cry, her APGAR went from 2 to 8, but because of the stress of the delivery, she was whisked away to the transitional nursery.  She ended up spending most of the day there until she was able to keep her temperature up.  But, I got to go down to see her throughout the day.

Carys and I were released from the hospital on Christmas Eve.  We spent the next few days recuperating at Yiayia and Dado's before returning to our house.  What a lovely Christmas!