Our sweet Charles (Charlie, we are calling him most of the time) arrived at 1:24pm on April 20th, weighing 7lbs 3oz. and 20.5 inches long. And yes, it has taken me thiiiiiis long to update our blog with his birth story! He is just as sweet as can be, but downtime is completely nonexistent with 4 kids. And this baby boy does not like to be put down! It's been a busy (almost) 2 months with spring activities for the girls, but we handled it well. Being a family of 6 is a crazy and beautiful blessing.
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Here is Charlie's birth story:
On Tuesday April 18th, I had my 39+ week check up and was super frustrated to be there. I was the most pregnant I've been since Adalyn (Eloise was 38, 5 and H was 38) and I was still walking around 3cm dilated. My Dr. was surprised to see me and offered to strip my membranes to get things going. The 18th was supposed to be the day of my induction, but since baby was doing well, and my health was still good, we didn't want to do any unnecessary interventions and risk a c-section scenario. Truthfully, I was pretty comfortable for being full term and was definitely not at my breaking point, though I was reallllly hopeful that the membrane stripping would get things going. I scheduled a sitter for that morning so that I could go on a 3 mile walk after the appt. Three miles later and nothing was going on, so I went on with my day. I'd been having mild contractions here and there for weeks, but certainly nothing timeable or with a pattern. Tuesday night, however was a different story. I started to feel true contractions and was starting to be able to time them. They were short, felt mostly in my back, but I didn't care - they were there! At this point, physically I was tolerating them well, but emotionally I was done and really just wanted baby on the outside so I didn't have to be so worried about movement or my placenta clotting (which was the biggest risk to baby the whole pregnancy).
Tuesday night my contractions were anywhere from 10-20 minutes apart and they continued through the morning. Wednesday morning, I drove Adalyn to school, and walked Eloise into her class. My preschool mom friends all asked me how I was feeling, and I was like, "I'm in labor, but feeling good." I really was. I was hopeful and expecting things to pick up quickly.
I decided to join my friends and their little ones at Panera for lunch after preschool. By this time, my contractions were still averaging anywhere from 10-20 minutes apart but were getting stronger and some took my breath away. But they were not getting any longer, and I was soon realizing that I was in uncharted territory for me. My sweet friends took Eloise for an after school playdate, and I took Henry home for a nap. I called my mom and told her that I was in labor, but things were weird and not progressing like it normally does for me. My parents were our child care plan this time, and I guess they did not want to risk anything, because they both showed up at my door 2 hours later. My contractions continued and continued at their annoyingly slow pace until about 4:30pm, and then spaced out even more to 20-30 min apart. Andrew had gotten home from work at this point and I was beyond frustrated and anxious something was wrong, so I suggested that we all go out to dinner so I could try to take my mind off of it all.
At dinner, they were around 5-10 minutes apart, but they were 30 seconds long, at best, and I could definitely feel the pain more in my back. I let my doula and my friend Ute (who was hopefully going to be taking pictures) know that my contractions were FINALLY in the 5 minutes timeframe. We got home from dinner, put the kids to bed, and once again, they spaced out! At this point it had been 24 hours of slow but annoying labor, and I was very frustrated and nervous. I called my Dr.'s office to get their take on it. One of the Dr.s called me back right away and said I could come in for check, but I knew that if I went in with this particular Dr, that I might not be leaving and be forced to labor most of the time at the hospital. As with my other births, I really, really, wanted to be home for most of it. I went in way too early with Henry because my water had broken, and it was miserable and I really didn't want a repeat of that.
I broke out my at home doppler, checked baby's heart rate and since all seemed well, I decided to try and get some rest. I was up most of the night with contractions ranging anywhere from 5 minutes apart to 30 minutes apart and I watched Downton Abbey on Amazon to pass the time. It was so frustrating to not be able to sleep! By 6am, I was D O N E, and told Andrew that I was going to have a baby today. I even sent the girls off to school telling them that they would have a new sibling that day. Nothing had changed at this point except for the contractions getting stronger, but not at all longer and still NO pattern. I told Andrew that I was going to get my hair blown out (seems so silly thinking about that now!) and then I would call my Dr office and tell them I'm coming in. He said I was crazy but didn't dare try to stop me, but at about 8:30am, my contractions started to get pretty strong and I decided I would call the office. I was elated to find out that one of my favorite Drs in the practice was on call, Dr. P, the same Dr who had delivered Adalyn. She told me just to come in and get checked and we would go from there. Andrew had to drive Eloise to school, so I called my Mom and she came over and took me to the hospital. I walked in, and the nurses there were already preparing for me not to leave. "4th baby -these can just fall out you know!" (also laughing about THAT now).
Dr. P checked me and I was in complete shock that I was already 6cm, but not shocked that baby was OP (posterior). I had a feeling that's what was up, because I felt a lot in my back and everything was still pretty irregular. She said I could go home, but knowing how fast my transition from 7-10 has been, I decided to stay put and told Andrew, my doula, and my friend Ute that this was it. Checked in and ready to go, I put my game face on....and started to take few pictures. ;)
(birth photos by www.utechristinphotography.com)
Dr. P offered to strip my membranes again and I answered with an emphatic YES. Again, I was DONE and things were starting to get pretty painful. It was around 10:15am at this point and I was just working though contractions as I normally did and maybe at this point starting to use my hypnobirthing that gave me 2 unmedicated births with Eloise and Henry.
Having dealt with Pitocin and no epidural with Henry, I was feeling very confident about handling the pain.
Around 11am, Dr. P asked if I wanted her to break my water to get things moving even faster (she knew I was exhausted and so done). I told her to please come back in an hour, because I needed to have some jello (didn't pack snacks to sneak) and try to mentally prepare for the speed of labor that I knew would come from the breaking of my water. True to her word, she came back at noon and checked me and I was 8cm. She broke my water and things really sped up from there. There was a little meconium in the fluid so I knew that someone from Peds would also be in the room at my delivery.
Looking back, red jello was a really bad idea, because like I usually do, I vomited about 7 times as I progressed to 10cm. I had my usual freak out of "I can't do this, I can't do this", but knew I was almost there. I had the most incredible nurse who was completely supportive of whatever I wanted to do, and did the intermittent monitoring of baby's heart rate in whatever position I was in, never making me move or change, or stand if I didn't want to.
I'm not sure how much time had passed, but I felt baby move into the birth canal and let my nurse know. I remember saying "baby is coming out" and before I knew it, I was on my back and Dr. P was right there. The Peds Dr also came in the room and was all set up just in case baby was in distress from the meconium.
My mom's face here cracks me up!
I was completely expecting baby to come out with little effort. Eloise pushed out on her own at this point, and Henry was 3 pushes, with one pause to remove the cord from around his neck. But thiiiiiiiis baby, had other plans. Typically at the end, my contractions are right on top of each other and my body involuntarily starts pushing, but that did not happen. This time, I had to be coached on how and when to push and it felt like baby wasn't budging. I was starting to freak out that something was wrong, even though no one in the room gave me any indication that there was. I guess I wasn't breathing properly because at one point, the room turned black and I felt like I had passed out for a second. Thankfully, a little oxygen mask went a long way and I even remember laughing about how I thought I passed out.
There was a very odd pause in the pushing phase where Charlie's head was hanging out of me and I had to wait at least a whole minute for another contraction in order to push out his body. His head probably took 5 or 6 pushes and his body was about 3. Dr. P even had time to have a conversation with Andrew about him announcing whether it was a boy or a girl. I have a super awesome photo of Charlie's head hanging out of me, but I plan on leaving that one off of the Internet!
Anyway, after the relief of his shoulders passing through, I saw his "manly parts" and then immediately Andrew looked at me with an awesome surprised expression and said, "it's a boy, it's a boy". I think we were both completely shocked and then fell immediately in love.
Dr. P said that baby was crying fine and asked the Pediatrician if he could go right on my chest instead of being evaluated due to the meconium and the Dr said yes. Charlie rooted all on his own and just nursed on me while I delivered the placenta. I was completely shocked that there was no tearing because I was convinced his head had done some damage. haha. All in all, I felt really great after delivery, and was just excited for him to meet his siblings. He remained nameless for about 2-3 hours, but we finally settled on Charles and now know he couldn't be anything else!
After settling in on the maternity side, the kids came to visit. Henry was like a pinball in the room and apparently didn't nap well that day, so they didn't stay long, but I will remember the time that we became a family of 6 forever!
Our final morning in the hospital was a super emotional one for me. I literally sobbed walking out the door, knowing that this would be the last time we would walk through those doors with a new baby. True to tradition, we had our champagne brunch, took our last photos, and headed home!
My parents were pretty worn out after 2 nights of childcare, so we had dinner at home together for the first time as a family.
We had both studio newborn photos (www.utechristinphotography.com) and in-home lifestyle photos (www.maria-alexa.com) taken. Here are just a few!
This journey to Charlie has been incredible and such a lesson in faith for me. More to come on his first 8 weeks, but I've got to nurse a hungry almost 12 lb baby right now!
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