Charlotte's Birth Story

As always, if the title made you cringe, read no further. :)

My due date, March 11, came and went... I tried to expect a late baby, so that I wouldn't be bummed when/if I had to wait longer. Really, though, by the time I reached 40 weeks, I was done. Not only was I running out of shirts that could cover my belly (thank goodness for the husband's wardrobe), but I retained a lot of water towards the end and my shoes were getting uncomfortably tight! In the grand scheme of things, a week is but a blink in time and we made it.  I tried evening primrose oil, spicy food, stairs, walking... pretty much anything to get things started, but just exactly like I told the girls, the Lord knew Baby's birthday and we just had to wait!

I began having some contractions early Sunday morning. I knew they weren't "the real deal" yet, but they still kept me from sleeping. As soon as I got up and moving, they fizzled out to nothing. During my Sunday afternoon nap, they started up again, but as before, faded as soon as I got out of bed. Same thing Sunday night. By Monday morning, I was pretty tired and frustrated. Daniel debated whether to go to work, but in the end, we both felt like we should just approach the day like any other. So the girls and I ventured out to Target and the library, hoping to take my mind off of Baby.

Around one in the afternoon the girls and I took a rest time, and once again, my contractions started up as soon as I laid down. I called Daniel and he told me to just stay in bed, he was coming home to watch the girls. Over the next few hours, they increased in intensity, but never got super consistent or close together. I called my doctor, who told me to go ahead to the hospital, if only to get checked out. We got there at around six in the evening, unsure if we were going to be staying. With perfect timing, however, my water broke as I was stepping out of the restroom after changing into my hospital gown. We were relieved to know that we would definitely be staying. When they checked my progression, I was only at 3cm, however, so I was a little worried there could be a long road ahead.

Over the next hour or so, Daniel held my hand through the contractions and helped me fill out my March Madness bracket in between. When they checked me around eight, I had progressed to 6cm, and I began to notice a drastic difference in the intensity and intervals of my contractions. At around nine,  they checked me again and I was only at 7cm. I say "only" because that hour was tough, with several super-contractions all on top of each other.

Within thirty minutes, I was feeling a lot of pressure, and told the nurse I thought I might be almost ready to push. This next part gets a little fuzzy for me, but I do remember being told that it wasn't time yet. Well, I'm sorry, but there's just no denying the urge to push! Apparently, I even at one point SANG "pressuuuuuurrrreee" to my nurse (err, probably more AT my nurse). Daniel likes to make fun of me for this now, but he wisely refrained from laughing in the moment. :)

After what seemed like forever, the doctor came in with a black cowboy hat on and they got me in position. A few pushes later, at 9:54PM, Charlotte Faye made her way into our arms and hearts. Daniel and I were both in a bit of shock that she was a girl, but there's just nothing like that precious first look at your child. As she lay on my chest, soft and sweet, I remember noticing her full, kissable cheeks and fluffy, lighter-colored hair as they cleaned off her head.

I held her for a few sweet moments, but unfortunately had to give her up sooner than I wanted to because the after-birth did not go exactly as planned. I hardly remember this part of the delivery process with Elli and Cara's births, but this time was just as painful as the actual delivery. I won't go into much detail, but as I understand it, my IV got blocked and therefore they couldn't get me the dose of pitocin which helps stop the bleeding and the placenta to detach and deliver. They eventually got my IV working again and things quickly improved from there.

After all that excitement, it was the most wonderful feeling when they doctors and nurses cleared out, and Daniel and I got to snuggle with and marvel at our little miracle. After awhile, her grandparents came to meet her, and then we got settled for the night. At some point in the wee early hours of the morning, I spent a long while with just her -- telling her how much I loved her, memorizing her little features, and discovering her name. We went into her birth with about five or six girl names on our list, and we didn't agree on a first choice, so this time was necessary. When Daniel awoke, we both agreed that she was our little Charlie.