The Birth Story

I woke up last Thursday feeling more then uncomfortable as I made my way out of bed. There was a crazy amount of pressure in my lower stomach, and to be quite honest it felt like the baby was already trying to make her way out of me.

I hadn't had a single contraction, so I went about my day as usual. When things got to the point where I felt like I couldn't walk anymore, I would make my way over to the sofa to try and ease the pressure. Throughout the day, I kept wondering "maybe today is it?" but I didn't get too excited seeing as I had just had a Dr. appointment the day before and she had told me I hadn't made much progress. Well actually...2 weeks ago she told me I was dilated to a 3...and then when I went back a week later she said I was only a 1 or 1-1/2! (Doctors scare me sometimes!).

Although I wasn't feeling well, I had a fairly productive day. I cleaned up the house, finished sewing some curtains for our spare bedroom, and helped Abe clean out the car so we could put in the 2nd car seat.

That night, before I went to bed, I was doing my usual blog stocking (actually, Abe and I were stalking Laurel's new boy friend on FB) while positioned on all 4's and typing at the computer at the foot of our bed. I felt a little "pop" in my lower stomach area, but attributed it to digestion issues and kept typing. Then, when I decided it was time to call it quits and go to bed, I came up to a kneeling position and felt a large gush of fluids escape my body (sorry if that's a little graphic).

I let a out a big "uh oh," looked at Abe with horror and said..."I think my water just broke." He said something like... "why did you say "uh-oh" like that, I thought there was a huge spider or something." I started scrambling to get my things ready and confirmed my suspicions about my water breaking as I glanced down at the puddles on the floor.

Abe made a call to a friend to have her come stay the night with Nolan and as soon as she arrived we were off to the hospital.

The drive was luckily only about 5 or 10 min. but I started to get super worried and over anxious in the car. By the time we I got checked into the hospital I was so nervous my whole body was shaking. I'm not sure exactly what I was so worried about, I had done this all before but there were a million "what if's" going through my head. Plus, the fact that I was about to give birth was incredibly overwhelming.

The nurse took my blood pressure and told me it was very high... she asked me to "try and calm down," as she went through a whole list of medical/personal questions with me. The fact that she told me I needed to calm down made me even more nervous.

Soon after, the nurse hooked me up to an I.V. and had me on the basic fluids + a special penicillin antibiotic since I had tested positive for Strep B a few weeks earlier. I layed in the bed and tried to control my shaking with a little breathing exercise, but it didn't seem to be helping. In fact, I suddenly felt short of breath and I thought I was feeling a weird twitch in my eye. At this point I thought to myself, "Ok, I seriously have some major anxiety issues, and I'm telling myself I have symptoms that aren't even there."

A few min. later, I got up to use the bathroom. As I looked into the bathroom mirror, I noticed my right eye looked a little funny. I stepped closer and found that my eye was just about swollen shut and there was some weird large welt on my eyelid. Totally freaked out at this point, I immediately called for the nurse and she concluded that I must have had some sort of allergic reaction to the penicillin. She then gave me some Benadryl and switched my antibiotic to a different type. I was relived that I had not in fact been "imagining" my crazy symptoms but the whole situation was a little scary.

After being in labor for about 3 hrs, I was dilated to a 5 and had been having some pretty major contractions. I asked the nurse if they could call the anesthesiologist (who was at home at the time) so we could get moving on the whole epidural thing. About 45min. later, I had the big scary epidural shot and of course once again, things got a little scary.

After reciving the epidural, I was still feeling my contractions but only on 1 side of my body. The nurse had me switch positions so I was laying on the side that was still in pain. She said that the epidural works with gravity so being in this position should help it move to the other side.

I have to admit, I totally doubted her and began to think about all of the crazy epidural horror stories I had heard and thought "great, my story is going to be added to the list." Luckily however, after about 20 min. the numbness did indeed move over to the other side and lets just say I was more then relieved!

Over the next 2 hours I was thankfully able to rest a bit and my blood pressure even went down a little. Being able to calm my body down must have really gotten the labor moving because when the nurse came back in to check on me, I was fully dilated and ready to have a baby!

The nurse had me push a little and then stopped me after just 2 rounds (I was beginning to feel the epidural wear off at this point, but I wasn't in too much pain). She said I would have to hold on a min. because the doctor was still on her way to the hospital and she was afraid if I even pushed just 1 more time the baby would be out.

So we literally sat there and waited over 30 min. for the doctor to arrive. Meanwhile, the epidural was wearing off more and more with each contraction. I thought to myself, "this is ridiculous, I could have had a pain free delivery but we have to sit here and wait for the doctor (who was apparently just crawling out of bed) and all she has to do is catch the baby!"

When the doctor arrived I was in a fairly good amount of pain, but it was luckily short lived because it only took 1 more push to get the baby out!

I heard my baby cry almost immediately (such a relief) and after the nurses cleaned her off they placed her in my arms. First off, I couldn't believe how big she was! I mean, she was average sized (7lbs 4oz) but it just amazed me that she could even fit in my stomach. Abe and I suddenly realized we hadn't officially decided on a name but we quickly narrowed our list down to Olive or Charlotte. It took up until the afternoon to finally make a decision, but we finally decided on "Charlotte Rose." (Charlotte was simply a name we both liked and comes from one of Nolan's favorite movies "The Princess & The Frog", and Rose is a name that comes from both sides of our family).

The next 24 hrs at the hospital were sort of relaxing, although I think I only slept about an hour. The thing I hate most about hospitals is the nurses telling you to get some rest, but then they come in every 30 min. to check your vitals or run tests on the baby. Abe went home that afternoon to take care of Nolan but they both came back later that evening for a visit.

I was anxious to see how Nolan would react to the new baby. When he walked into the hospital room and saw me laying on the bed with the baby in my arms he was a little hesitant. I had him come sit on the bed next to me and I immediately started crying. I had been missing him all day and as I held him at my side, I realized how big he actually was and I wondered where the time had gone.

Our friends came to visit not too long after and they graciously took Nolan home with them so Abe could stay with me and the baby just a little longer. After Abe left, it was just me and Charlotte for the night, which I was a little nervous about, but everything ended up being just fine. It was actually nice to get to spend a little one on one time with her, especially since I knew once I went home those moments would be few and far between.

Charlotte has been such a wonderful and perfect addition to our family. She really has been a pretty relaxed baby so far, and I am so excited to see what the future will bring!