I was re-reading Shannon’s story this morning, and realized that I posted it three days after she was born. Totally dropped the ball this time. 
Charlotte’s birth story is actually pretty boring. The months leading up to her arrival had me begging my midwife to please, PLEASE just get her OUT. I had a really hard pregnancy with her, from extreme morning sickness that went undiagnosed as hyperemisis to crippling ligament pain to three due date changes this go ’round was NOTHING like what I went through with Shannon.
My daily pill line up.
To add to the stress, we weren’t quite sure who was going to be taking care of Shannon when I went into labor. My mom had been scheduled to fly down about two weeks before my due date, since my midwife was talking about inducing me early, given all the problems that I’d been having. We ended up finding the right combination of medications to allow Charlotte to bake as long as possible. Since my mom had already bought her ticket based on the fact that they HAD wanted to deliver Char early, we didn’t think that she would be able to be here. The plan was for Mike to drop me off at the hospital when I went into labor and stay at the post hotel with Shannon until I had her. A delivery room is, in my opinion, no place for a curious toddler.
I explained all my concerns with my midwife at a weigh in appointment, and she was able to schedule an induction for me at 39 weeks and 1 day. Mom was then able to extend her ticket. I think I cried once everything fell into place, honestly.
Mike and I were up at 430 on that Wednesday morning, so that I could shower and we could get to the hospital by 6 to get the ball rolling with Char’s eviction. It was really nice to be able to take a shower, pack our bags, and not forget anything! I know that inductions are somewhat controversial, but given the history of this pregnancy and our situation with childcare, this was the best option for us. I’m 100% happy with how things worked out. I was a bit nervous, though!
We got to the hospital and got settled into our room. I got the pleasure of doing twelve thousand pages of paperwork. I was the only induction scheduled for that day, so things went pretty quickly. After an hour of paperwork, my midwife walked in and checked me, then we discussed the plan.
I had been sitting at between 4-5 cm for two weeks, and having regular contractions, so my midwife wanted to give me my epidural ( I knew the second the stick turned blue that I wanted one) and then break my water. When I had Shannon, breaking my water was the trick to getting me to a 10, so she wanted to do that first this time, and hopefully avoid having to add pitocin into the mix.
The nurse started my IV and the anesthesiologist showed up by 9. Let me tell you, the whole epidural experience is a little bit different when you aren’t in screaming pain. I may or may not have nailed Mike right in the man bits (sorry babe!) when he was making sure that I didn’t fling myself off the bed. I may have peeked at the needle. Ladies, don’t peek at the needle.
In hindsight, it was very much worth it, but at the time I wasn’t so sure.
After that was all over with, my midwife broke my water and we waited. For a long time.
My goal was to be all done by lunch time. I hadn’t had breakfast, and I was planning on using the promise of lunch meeting my baby to motivate my pushing attempts.
So we waited. And waited. And waited some more.
My face became extremely puffy from the amount of fluid that was getting pumped into me. Birthing human beings is so dang attractive!
My midwife came back for another check, and alas… nothing had changed. So she gave my nurse (who was totally kick ass, by the way) the thumbs up to start the pitocin at 11.
And then we waited some more. They came back at 1… and yay! 8! Almost there.
Mike and I went back to watching American Pickers (hello History Channel marathon!) and teasing me about my fat face.
Watching contractions on the monitor… “did you feel that one?” and “oh that was a BIG one!”… kept homeboy entertained for HOURS!
At 2 my midwife came back and said that we had just a litttttle bit left to go, and then we could start pushing. She decided to get geared up, and by 2:20 we were test pushing.
Miss Charlotte showed up at 2:47! I pushed about a dozen times and she was FINALLY freakin’ outta there! Mike and I fist bumped and he did a little butt wiggle around the room while I loved on my new girl!
We had a pretty quick hospital stay, and we were on our way home by 4 the next afternoon! I had exactly no tearing, which made the whole recovery thing a breeze, unlike Shannon where I was blessed with an almost 3rd degree tear and some serious soreness. I’m 100% back to normal and ready to go!
After such a PITA pregnancy, I’m SO thankful that this delivery was so easy and uneventful. I’m so grateful for my whole support team, Mike, my midwife, nurse, and midwifey (the student that accompanied the midwife) at the hospital and my kick ass Mom at home. It wouldn’t have gone so smoothly without them! No way!
Shannon is adjusting pretty well to having a new sister, and we’re loving being a family of 4!
