Charlie

Early Sunday morning, May 29th, I was having a dream about setting my alarm so that we would get to the hospital in time to have the baby. It seems like immediately after that dream I woke up to the feeling of my water breaking. I jumped out of bed to see what was happening and it was evident that my water had broken! This happened at 1am. We called the doctor and they said to go on to the hospital, and we called our wonderful neighbor who came and slept at our house until H woke up. (H loved waking up and being able to play with our neighbor Henry and Henry's mama Diana all day!) We made it to the hospital by 2am and were checked into our room and I was hooked up to the monitors by a little after 3am. I wasn't really having any strong or regular contractions at that point and was barely dilated. They put some Cervidil in to try to get the process going. Slowly but surely I began feeling contractions that were getting stronger and stronger going from 10 minutes apart to five minutes apart. With H, this was such a slow process that we were sure it was going to be a long day (for H the process began around 1am, and I got the epidural around 1pm, and then began pushing off and on around 4, and he was born at 6:20). For some reason the monitor was not picking up my contractions, and the nurses I'm sure thought I was a wimp when I asked if it was too early to get the epidural about 5:30am! They didn't even think I was having contractions yet, but I was already very uncomfortable. I endured a little more discomfort and pain, and my contractions were coming every couple of minutes or less apart and were very painful. The monitor was finally picking up some contractions. Nathan was a champ throughout this - he is normally a bit of a squeamish person, but he was dealing very well with all sorts of things he wouldn't normally be able to. I guess I was starting to make some abnormal noises because the nurses finally came in to check me at 7am, and I was 7 cm dilated. They said the baby would be born soon and they would see about getting the anasthesiologist in. I didn't realize how hot you get when in labor. I went from being very comfortable to wanting to be doused with ice water in a short period of time. They came back at 7:20 to check again and I was already at 9.5cm and very much uncomfortable. They told me that it was too late for the epidural, and somewhere in my mind I was thinking that I could stop labor so that I could get the epidural. But once you reach that point, your body and the baby have already taken over. Charlie was coming soon! Pretty much immediately the doctor came in and I began pushing. Because of the pain, I don't think I was pushing effectively, one of the nurses was working hard to get me to focus, so they did "tug-of-war" pushing (where they pulled on one end of a twisted sheet and I pulled on the other) and this helped. It definately was uncomfortable and painful, and felt like a pumpkin was trying to force it's way out, and I didn't think I would be able to handle it, but now that I know what the pain of childbirth is, it is manageable. After about 20 minutes of pushing, at 7:47 - almost seven hours after my water broke, Charlie came into the world!

So, I gave birth the natural way. It was not exactly what was planned, but I am glad it was a relatively short labor. I am also glad that the I didn't have to make the decision to go without an epidural. I am sure I wouldn't have made that decision myself, but since that is the way it happened, I now know that I can handle it, and would even like to do it that way again. It is amazing what the body can do! I do think that the pain would have been eased if I could have moved around and walked some. Since my water had broken they wanted me to stay in the bed.

Comparing Charlie and Harrison's births - H's being with pain free, I didn't feel any pain at all and was really able to enjoy the birthing process and take it all in and really savor the first few minutes with him. C's was so fast and painful that I almost couldn't enjoy the process and even right after he was born I was so overwhelmed with everything that it took a few moments for it to sink in that it was over and he was here (and I was shaking so bad I was worried that I would drop him!). Nathan looked at me after he was born and saw that I had burst many blood vessels in my face, eyes, neck and chest - I looked pretty beat up! But after he was born and the doctor was finished, the nurses all left and let us have Charlie with us for a couple of hours to love and look at and nurse a couple of times. I loved those couple of hours! We called our friends and family and told them the news (we thought we would be calling everyone at that time to tell them we were in the hospital, but we were calling to tell them he was born!).

Both Charlie and I were looking a little better at this point.

Meeting big brother

We assumed that C would be very similar to H in the first few days, but he let us know quickly that he didn't like the swaddler that H did, but preferred to be swaddled in a blanket.

He's been a pretty mellow baby, sleeping pretty well and eating very well.
At his two week check up he already weighed 10 pounds and seems to be gaining more!

We are already in love with you!