Our Baby Story :)

Soo I came across this blog the other day about someone who had just had a baby and she had her baby's story into this world which gave me the idea to do our story, because I think its the most incredible, amazing thing Ive ever been a part of!

So here we go!

1.11.11 This is me in my Pretty Pusher I got from a girlfriend! I show up at the hospital dilated at 5 cm and the nurse tells me to quickly get my gown on and she goes to hand me a gown, and I respond "Oh I actually have my own" If you could have seen her face ;) "Oh, welllll Okay then..."

Soo Anyway 1.10.11 I had my 39 week appointment at the doctors office only to find out that I was ONE cm!! ONE! I left the doctors office and started to cry, hubs assured me it was alright, as he was gettin pretttty amazing at dealing with my random bawl baby hormonal spurts :) We went to moms for dinner, like we always did when we came to town for our baby appointments and I went to my weekly aquatics class. That is from 7-8. I came back to get the hubs and he was tired and quite honestly I as too, so we decided to stay at moms (We live about an hour away) We went to sleep around 10 or 11 and I woke up around midnight or so with a few contractions. Now, through my entire pregnancy I had Braxton hicks one day, thats it and it was like nothing little cramping, no biggie! So when I woke up with contractions I was like nooo way! After my 1 cm breakdown here I was possibly in labor!? So I went back to sleep :) Haha...I was in and out of sleep for a couple hours then I got in the shower & got in the bath too at one point. I woke the hubs up told him I was having some contractions but no big deal "these things take a while" I told him. HA! I also woke up my mom and told her she said to just try and get some sleep. I laid in bed for a little while, got my hubby's phone for the contraction counter and laid in bed in and out of sleep while counting my contractions on his phone (There's an app for that! ;)) Then finally I decided this was it, it was definitely going to be the day. By now mom was getting up for work, it was 430-5 She told me to wake up Josh but I didn't want to make him panic and I told her that maybe he could go to work and i could just let him know when things start to progress. When I finally woke him up we decided maybe that wasn't the best idea! He did have to go up to the house and take care of the dogs though soo around 630-7 or so he headed to our house. I was left with my 15 year old brother who was probably pretty freaked out haha. He doesn't go to school until 830 so he helped me count contractions with his Ipad...He was pretty funny I would start to feel a contraction come on and hed be like okay now!??? Then it would slowly start to come back down...'Stop now??!" He took his job very seriously ;) Then he left for school, so I plugged in the hot rollers, and started to put my face on. By now the contractions were coming pretty good so I figured id give the doc a call. I told them Ive been having contractions since midnight, but they were never consistent some would be 2 minutes apart and some would be 10 but they were getting stronger. They told me to come in whenever Josh got home..That was around 9. Josh was on his way back by now I told him to stop and grab something to eat for himself in case we were in there a while before I gave birth and I told him to grab me an oatmeal. When he was about 20 minutes away the contractions were rollin pretty good so I text him and told him "Hurry" He got back to Moms he ate and I ate some of my oatmeal o my birthing ball...Packed up and headed to our doctors!

We got to the doctors office right around 10am then my contractions were pretty strong, and the last thing I wanted to do was sit still in the doctors office...it was a full office and I kept getting up and walking out of the waiting room and walking the hallways during contractions while Josh waited for them to call me! FINALLY like over an hour later they called me back!  The nurse asked my husband how close they were together because I kept contracting and couldn't really carry on a conversation. He told her now they were about 2 minutes apart she hurried off and got the midwife and they went to check me and see how dilated I was and I was contracting right there on the table...Finally she checked and said I was about 5-6 cm that I needed to go to the hospital like  NOW. This was all happening so fast I got so overwhelmed I started crying, but luckily I have the greatest husband and birthing partner around and he reminded me that everything was happening just how I wanted & that I was doing so great...he couldn't believe I was 5-6cm already! He reminded me everything was happening just how I wanted...I labored mostly at my moms, I was feeling pretty good and thus far I was going through this naturally! I calmed down and we were off to the hospital, which luckily is only about half a mile from our doctors! I called my mom and she could tell I was a little panicky I think so she said she was coming. Josh called everyone else and with me only being 5-6 cm everyone was in no rush to get there thinking I would be a while yet!

11:45-12ish Josh offered to drop me off out front so I didn't have to walk but I didn't want to leave him so we parked and my contractions were strong now so we walked about 10 feet and I ended up squatting in the parking lot haha Luckily a security car swung by and picked us up. He escorted us to admissions (which btw, I had happened to pre-register just the night before thankfully!!) Then another officer escorted us to Labor & Delivery! How nice was that? guess I looked like I needed it! He asked if I wanted a wheelchair but the last thing I wanted to do was sit when my contractions were so bad so I said No..He reminded me halfway there when i was squatting again haha (And when we got discharged "Hey, there's miss no Wheelchair!") My office hadn't called yet and apparently it was a busy day for the Delivery unit we went to our room and a nurse came in and asked why we were there. My husband said "We just came from the doctors office shes about 5 or 6 cm" The nurse kind of laughed turned to the desk in the hallway and said "Shes 5 cm just walked right in here.." Haha They hooked me up quick to check on Charley Bear and she was doing great then took everything off so I was free to labor :) They got me a birthing ball since I didn't bring mine and that thing is AMAZIIINNG! Mom and my grandma showed up thinking I was going to be laboring a while and when they got there things got crazy. My contractions were maybe a minute apart and I was fading fast. Mom got grandma out because apparently I had a few choice words to say when my contractions were coming on strong. This is a bit blurry I was on my ball on the side of the bed (see pic up top lol) I remember just calling for my hubby and he came over and was holding my hand, someone came in and took my blood and I can really barely remember that (normally I am TERRIFIED of needles) I do remember just moaning and moaning and I thought that was funny because whenever I watched birth stories on TV or anything the women would just moan and moan and I always thought that was weird...but when my midwife came in she said that's how she knew I was ready to push. About 2 minutes before my midwife came in I was yelling "get me something!! I need something!!" (Ie. drugs) I also read that when your screaming for drugs its too late and your ready to push but obviously I wasn't thinking about these facts at the time. ;)

It was a little after 12 and my midwife came in to check me and she said okay your going to push. People came rolling in all these nurses and she said okay whenever your ready...Push. Its quite possible the entire hospital heard me first 2 pushes. I was Screaming. I'm not going to lie that pain was pretty severe, but you forget don't worry :)Once my hubs and Midwife reminded me screaming would do nothing and to focus that energy into pushing everything went pretty smooth. It was very relaxed, no one was counting my pushing I was free to push when I felt the need. My mom ended up being in there too, which wasn't planned but everything went by so fast and she didn't want to leave me. Poor mom was so worked up she was crying and saying that she wished it was her not me. Aww momma! She kept walking away from the bed, at one point my midwife asked if she was alright. It was great to have her there though she was very helpful.

My hubby was phenomenal! He was so calm and kept telling me what a great job I was doing and was telling me to breath. I could not have asked for a better crew in there with me!! I promised I would never say "Just get her out!" but I did as everyone does I think! I think its because you are giving it your all and trying so hard to push your bay out and every push you think  This is the one...annnnd its not...but eventually it IS! ;)

12:43pm Miss Charlotte Mae arrives!! Every cliche anyone ever tells you about the love & devotion you immediately feel towards your child is so true! And you can never explain it to someone who doesn't have a child, because I never understood it up until 12:43 on 1.11.11 :) Your emotions are just so overwhelming, the first few days sometimes I would just cry because the love you feel is just unreal. (Okay some of it is probably hormones too!) You just want to wrap them up in a little bubble and never let anything or anyone hurt them. EVER.By giving birth naturally I felt SO empowered! I was on such a natural high after Charlotte came out, not only because our baby was HERE and HEALTHY but because I did it!!!

 So thats our story! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful pregnancy, labor, delivery and most of all a healthy baby!! I actually cant wait to go through it again! :)

<3 7lbs 10.5 oz 21 inches long 12:43 1.11.11 <3