Little Charlie's Birth Story 👶🏼

Four Mondays ago I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy Little Charlie,

I alluded to a rough labor & delivery in my wehadababyitsaboy announcement post,

and decided to share some photos and details of Little Charlie's birth story, 

DISCLAIMER: if birth stories & this sort of thing does not interest you 

or you get grossed out easily, this post may not be for you.

Like I mentioned in the announcement post,

on Friday May 20th I had a routine doctors appointment to see how things were progressing 

as I neared the end of my pregnancy and the due date approached.

A week prior I was told by my doctor that I had started dilating (about 1.5 cm)

and was advised to stop commuting and take it easy. 

At that appointment I also had a very slight increase to my blood pressure 

that they wanted to recheck the next day.

The midwife did a "cervical sweep" to help induce labor

(you can look it up if you want the details but it HURT LIKE HELL)

At this appointment I still had a slightly elevated blood pressure.

The midwife recommended that we go home, eat, get ready 

and head to the hospital to be induced.

We were so excited to get the green light, went home ate, and packed the car.

{Also took the last pregnant outfit pic}

On the way to the hospital I said,

 "I can't believe I'm being induced, I hope this doesn't mean I am in labor for three days."

Talk about a jinx.

**Spoiler Alert**

So here is Little Charlie's long birth story:

📸 #1: One of the last photos of my bump

📸 #2: The waiting game begins, at least the view was beautiful

📸 #3: By the end of this journey this board would be filled with information. So many nurses and practitioners names would be written here as they shifts and days went on. We started Cytotec medication to help "ripen" the cervix- half a pill every 4 hours, did not do anything 🤷🏻‍♀️

📸 #1: Started Pitocin which meant now I had to go to the bathroom with my new bestie, the IV poll. I also had a "Foley Bulb" inserted into my cervix, which is essentially a balloon that they insert on both sides of the cervix to help mechanically open the cervix. This was also very painful and left me with cramping and dangling attachments between my legs. I had this in for 12+ hours and it was suppose to fall out when I was 3+ cm dilated but it did not so the whole time I was worried that it wasn't working and the pain was not going to be worth it.

📸 #2: Contractions started getting intense (the pink line), the monitors were like thick disks that were put on my stomach using a belly band. They did not stay in place and stopped working frequently. I was barely getting "credit" for my contractions leading to issues later on. I had IV pain meds and went on a t.r.i.p. all I know was it was the most "drunk" I've ever felt and I was imagining my mom and hubby's heads floating around with hieroglyphics. Slept like a baby for 4 hours.

📸 #3: Balloon was removed and I was at 4 cm. I started The Miles Circuit exercises to try and move Charlie into position. Finally it was time for an epidural! After an epidural you can't get out of bed or eat any solid food, so that's fun. I also spiked a fever and the baby had a decelerated heart beat for 2 mins which was horrifying (may have been the monitors that would not stay in place). I was started on a course of antibiotics in my IV and increased the Pitocin to speed up labor.

📸 #4: Ironically, we were watching The Office and it was the episode where Pam is going into labor, and the baby in that episode has the same baby blankets that our hospital uses.

📸 #5: At least the view is nice.

📸 #1: I finally went into active labor on Sunday night at 12:40 am and started pushing. My contractions were 10 mins apart so there was a lot of waiting. So when Little Charlie finally came out at 2:02 am his head was very spherical, thank god it rounded out quickly. When I was pushing the midwife exclaimed "oh he is a blondie!" and she said that a coif of blonde hair popped out. My last push my mom said, "we can see his ears!" and that gave me the guttural motivation to push. I did feel his head as it was coming out and there was a mirror so I got the whole experience. 

📸 #2: I wanted to include this picture because you can see the nurses start to push on my abdomen because my placenta wouldn't come out. Every time they pushed it felt like she was pushing straight through my body onto the bed and blood would spray out.

📸 #3: I started bleeding a lot at this point, I can tell from these pictures that I am starting to fade.

📸 #4, 5, 6: Look at this little cherub, this is the first time burping him after breastfeeding for the first time. He is perfect, 10 fingers, 10 toes, weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces. Just like his dad and his grandfather, must be a Charlie requirement.

📸 #7: Charlie's first time holding Little Charlie, not pictured is me bleeding out in front of him. He also watched me get stitches in three places, a big needle in my leg to stop the bleeding with medication in it that the nurse looked me dead in the eye and said "this will give you diarrhea" which it did. In a bed pan since I still couldn't get out of bed. Oh yeah and some violent vomiting. I lost a couple liters of blood and was anemic after labor.

Needless to say he is traumatized from the experience.

📸 #8: Admiring my work 😉 

📸 #1: Finally heading to the postpartum side! I required two more IV bags of Pitocin to continue to get my uterus to contract back.

📸 #2: Some more skin to skin with Charlie, you can see his exhaustion from worrying. 

📸 #3: Mom holding her first grand baby! I am so happy that my mom was able to be one of my two support people in the labor room. Especially when I was not doing well and she wad able to hold my hand and reassure me that everything was okay.

📸 #4: My sister and dad brought me my favorite sushi from Nassau Sushi and YES it was as amazing as I remember. God I missed this so much over the last 9+ months.

📸 #5: Little Charlie's hearing test, and this is still one of my favorite photos of him. I can't handle it.

📸 #6: So anemic, look at the bags under my eyes

📸 #7: So tired, but so happy with my little babe

Little Charlie is already so loved!

📸 #1: Last day of this view

📸 #2: Starting my breastfeeding journey, despite blood loss and exhaustion

📸 #3: Two days postpartum, I am so proud of my body. It is so weird to feel the emptiness where the baby lived inside you for 9+ months. 

📸 #4: Little Charlie finally ready to go home!

Could not wait to go home and settle into our new life with our little bean

Barry meeting Little Charlie for the first time!

🥰

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