Charlotte Lee: A Birth Story

Charlotte turns one month tonight, and I can't believe how fast time has flown by. I've wanted to capture her birth story before it gets lost in this mushy, sleep deprived brain of mine, and I figured today would be a great day to do so! 

I woke up on my due date with some contractions around 3 or 4 in the morning, but they weren't timeable and weren't getting stronger. I spent the day with my mom, running errands at Babies R Us and going for a nice long walk. I got really irritable, thinking that our peanut should be arriving on said due date! Hubs had to deal with some attitude that day, but it was safe to say that getting frustrated wasn't going to make her arrive any sooner.

Monday morning, I woke up again with some mild contractions, but they were around 15 minutes apart. I was able to sleep through them, so I didn't think much of it. Hubs got up and went to work, and around 8:00 am, I woke up due to the contractions again. My mom had asked me to paint some tumbler cups for her teachers at work, so I decided I'd work on them to make the morning go by fast before my doctor's appointment at 1:00.

Last bump pic! 40 weeks

Around 11, I texted Hubs that the contractions were getting stronger, and that I was going to start timing them. The contractions stayed around 10 minutes apart, so I told him to stay at work and wait to see what the Doctor said. 

My mom picked me up for my appointment, and off we went. The nurse weighed me (total weight gain was 26 pounds), took my BP, and asked me to change for the internal exam. 

As she left the room, I got up to change, and I felt a gush of water! I looked at my mom, who was pulling the curtain shut, and said "I think my water broke!" She was as calm as a cucumber, and she opened the door to let the nurse know. 

I ran across the hall to the bathroom, and noticed some meconium in my amniotic fluid, so I went into a panic. 

Our nameless princess :)

My doctor came in and did the internal exam, and I was measuring 2.5 cm. He said to call Hubs and head to the hospital! I never thought he'd have me go right away, but I gave Hubs the call, and he was on his way! It was baby time!! :)

After stopping at McDonald's for an ice cream cone and PNC Bank (I know, I know, judge me...) we got home and finished packing our bags. I took a deep breath as we left, knowing that the next time we would be coming home we'd finally have our princess with us. 

We got to the hospital around 3:00, and to our surprise, we were considered a direct admit, so we had to wait in the waiting room for a room in the L&D ward to open up. I was happy I didn't have to go through triage before getting a room, but as we waited almost 1.5 hours, my contractions started coming 3-4 minutes apart. 

Side story: As I was sitting there, leaning on Hubs, breathing through contractions, this elderly woman asked me: " Are you in labor?"

Me: "Yes..."

Her: "Oh my! You barely look 6 months pregnant!" 

Me: " Oh well...I am..."

It's funny looking back, but asking someone if they're in labor when they clearly are isn't exactly helpful!

My parents came down and we were finally admitted to the room around 4:30. We got situated, and the contractions were coming faster and stronger, and I was practically sweating through them. 

The Doctor came in around  5:00 and I was measuring at 3.5 cm. I looked at Hubs and told him there was no way I could make it 6.5 more without an epidural. I knew it'd be a long night of pain and if I'd only progressed 1 cm in almost 4 hours, I couldn't handle it. After a long discussion, I decided to get the epidural. 

The pain continued to get worse and the anesthesiologist finally arrived around 6:15. I never realized how long it would take to get everything moving, so I was glad that I asked for it when I did! I was trying so hard to breath through the contractions and to stay still, but the pain was excruciating. I could also tell that (TMI!) I was having the bloody show, which was good because it meant I was progressing, but also told me the pain was going to get worse. 

The epidural was in and the first dose of that pain reducing juice started to kick in around 7-7:15. My family arrived back in the room and I started to feel less pain. I asked my RN if I should be feeling contractions, and she said some people do, some don't. 

After her first bath!

I chalked it up to the epidural, and decided the pain was much less than before so what did it matter?

Around 8:15, the RN asked my family to leave so she could empty my bladder. She decided to do an internal check to make sure that the epidural didn't slow down my progression, and much to our surprise, she told Hubs and I that she could feel Baby Girl's head (and tons of hair!!) and couldn't find my cervix- it was time to PUSH! I wasn't feeling any pressure in my butt to push, but obviously I was feeling contractions with the epidural because it was go time!

The doctor came in to verify, and while Hubs ran to get my mom, said he thought Baby Girl would be here by 9:15-9:30. I told him I thought first time moms can push for hours, and he said "not you!"

Now, in good Italian family fashion, my family had just left to grab dinner down the street, thinking we'd have a long night ahead of us, so when Hubs ran to the waiting room to let them know that it was baby time, it was panic mode. My mom ran into the room, out of breath and said "Are you okay?!' I think the quick progression had us all thrown for a loop! 

The RN coached me on how to push, and after pushing through 2 contractions, she yelled at me to stop so they could get the OB and the Pediatricians (because of the meconium) in the room before she was delivered. 

Once everyone arrived in the room, I pushed through 1 more contraction and our princess was born. 

8:47 pm, May 6, 2013, our life changed forever!

I wasn't able to see or hold her right away because of the meconium, and it killed me to watch her in the mirror above me knowing I was so close to finally meeting her. The RN's yelled "does she have a name?" and Hubs and I looked at each other and said "Oh, uh....no? We still haven't decided!" Haha! We knew our family would be ticked to wait longer but we needed to see her first.

Within 10-15 minutes, they finally brought her to me, and I was in complete shock. This little peanut was finally in my arms, and was more beautiful than I ever imagined. To this day, I can't get over the amount of hair that she has. I was convinced she'd be a bald baby, since I had no heartburn whatsoever, but she's got a full head of brunette hair. 

We invited all of our family in to see her, 4 at a time, and it was such a surreal, amazing experience to see our loved ones with her. My grandma, our parents (minus Grandma Brine, who will be meeting her soon!), siblings, cousins....it was simply amazing. Once we were moved from L&D to recovery, visiting hours changed, so it was just Hubs and I from about 10:30 on. 

We could barely sleep, and just took turns staring at her and soaking her in. We waited such a long time for her and wanted to enjoy every moment. Our RN came in around 1:30-2 am to give Charlotte her first bath. We were amazed at her hair (again!) once it was clean and dry. 

All in all I will say I was blessed with a super low key pregnancy and delivery. In fact, I turned to Hubs just minutes after delivering and said "I'd have 10 more if they were all like this!" 

Looking back, had I know how quickly I was progressing, I would've just breathed through the pain and opted out of the epidural. I really only had about 1.5 hours of contractions after the epidural kicked in, which seems so doable!