The whole story

I've been getting a lot of questions on how everything went and I've finally got a chance to tell! :) So here it is!

October 28th:
We go into the Doctor's Office for a regular appointment and the doctor wants me to go into the hospital to monitor the baby's heartbeat and see how things are going (considering it was my due date and all). And if things are normal then I'd come back in a few days and be monitored again. So we head across the street and they strap me in and we sit for an hour. Then the nurse comes in looks at the results and leaves without saying a word...interesting...and then my doctor comes in and takes a look himself and says "Yup! You're staying here!" Come to find out that the baby's heart rate dropped briefly twice while they were monitoring. Nothing dangerous but enough to make the doctor want to get things going as soon as possible. So they threw me in one of those fabulous gowns and got me in a room. The problem was nothing was happening so they had to give me some medicine to get my body going for the whole labor thing before they could induce me. So the night consisted of lots of uncomfortable cramping and poor Bill having to be my leaning post because the only way I was comfortable was to be sitting up and I had to lean on Bill sitting on the end of the bed in order to sleep. He was a trooper though and I got a little bit of sleep.

October 29th:
At about 3am they induced me and that's when all the fun began! The contractions started and quickly escalated! Bill was right by my side the whole time though and by about 8am the contractions were coming every two minutes or so and they were crazy painful!! I held out as looong as I could but by about 11am I couldn't take it anymore and I was exhausted and being only at 4cm I knew I had a long way to go so I decided to have the epidural for the pain. I had always wanted to avoid having an epidural but then again I never thought I'd be induced and that things would be SO crazy so quickly! And actually after I got it I found that it really wasn't as scary as I made it out in my head. The pain subsided, and actually I wasn't completely numb in my legs, I still had a little feeling, which was nice. And I got a chance to get some sleep!! At about 4pm or so they checked me again and to our surprise I had jumped to 8cm!! So by about 5pm the nurse called the doctor and they said they were going to get me ready to push!! The pushing went really smoothly and I had feeling but no pain which was great!! And by 6:29 Charlie was born at 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long!

Surprisingly the birthmark you see on his forehead is the same birthmark that I have myself! It looked just the same as Charlie's when I was born and has faded a lot over the years. I never knew you could pass down a birthmark! Charlie definitely has Bill's eyes and my cheeks, mouth, chin and some of my expressions :)

So that's the story of Charlie's debut into the world! It wasn't what we expected at all, we've been surprised at every turn and we've loved every minute of it! We're home now, doing well and enjoying every minute with Charlie and learning all of his adorable quirks and mannerisms.

More pictures are coming soon!

~Karen