L & D - Part 3!!

Part 3 - L & D

April 5 (yes, I made it past April 1st!! woohoo) I was having my usual ramen noodles (I lived off of those things practically) and daily dose of delivery shows whenever I started having lower back pain. I didn't think anything of it except that I had been laying in bed, wayyyy to long. My Mom called on her way home and asked if I wanted to ride with her to the grocery store since I hadn't been out of bed in such a long time.


As we headed there Mom joked around making the comment that we would walk the baby, we both just laughed it off and never thought anything of it since the doctor said if I made it past 34 weeks he was going to take me off bed rest. As we were leaving the cashier asked me what my due date was and I let him know. He laughed and told me his birthday was April 6th, and maybe I would go into labor.


I continued having the pressure in my lower back, but thought Charli Beth was just dropping some more and it was going to be some normal pains. Until later that night around 8 I started having contractions that were irregular, not really hurting, just enough to feel something was going on. We started timing these and seen they were all lasting 5-6 minutes apart, to 8-10, so they were definitely irregular. Mom feel asleep and I stayed awake with anticipation and continued to time until around midnight. I ended up sleeping with Mom that night and woke around 4 with cramping pains, woke Mom and let her know that I was having pretty bad pains so I was going to get a shower just to ease the pain. By the time that I got out of the shower I knew for sure that I was in labor. The Dr. was called to let him know what was going on, and he said for us to go ahead and get checked out that it could possibly be time or it could be another scare.


I'll never forget that Mom did not believe me. We left out around 7:15 to head towards the hospital. After about 8 miles and me trying to throw up (not sure why I was trying to throw up? But remember I cannot throw up! It's just an AWFUL sound) my Mom then finally believed me. Shew! (at least we laugh about it now, haha!) She called all of our relatives so they could go ahead and head to the hospital. Whenever I walked into Labor and Delivery around 8 am, all of the beds were full so I had to sit in triage while they checked my cervix; I was a 3-4 cm and in labor! I asked the nurse if I would be transporting to Nashville since I was early, but it was going to be left up to the doctor.
The nurses thankfully doped me up =) Woohoo for that! I slept for the longest time, until the doctor came in at 5 centimeters to break my water. After my water was broke and I was given my epidural I went from 5 centimeters to ten within an hour. The nurses told me to go ahead and inform everyone that I wanted in the delivery home to come on in and for the others to leave. I knew for sure that my Mom, my sister Ashley and my Aunt Nicki could stay in there. My step-grandmother Faye and Dad were in the room at that time, so we had to inform Faye that she was to leave and tell Nicki to come in. But it took so long for everyone to make up their minds of who was staying that the surgical tech nurse smarted off and told everyone that they had to hurry. Oh boy...So Faye had to leave just to be fair to everyone. BTW, this has never been forgotten and is brought up at every family gathering. We also had a wonderful nurse Patrica in the room that my family has known forever, we still are in close contact with her, which is wonderful!


I pushed for about 30 minutes, while Dr. Dobson was telling me she had bright red hair, bowing his head to pray while I was pushing (scaring my parents to death, because they thought he had fell asleep) and then this arrived....
at 4 lbs 17 1/4 inches and not needing any oxygen.!She was perfect, even with her squished in nose from being in the birth canal to long was beautiful! I was truly head over heels in love for the first time at this very moment.

My sister was the one that I asked to cut Charli Beth's umbilical cord, only because she was scared to death of it and always said that she would not do it even if I asked! She was such a trooper and did a perfect job!

Charli never had to transfer to the NICU since she was doing so wonderful, because of this we were allowed to go home after the normal 48 hours. Once we got home, her weight did drop down to 3 lbs 8 oz but soon afterwards it picked right up and she started growing like a weed!

Naughty girl....yes she is showing off that middle finger!!!! ----This is the outfit that we brought her home in. My Mom drove us back and we napped the entire way. I never thought that one little girl could bring so much happiness into my life. Now I know why the Lord decided to not call me home that day in August for I am here to be a Mommy to the most silly and best kiddo ever =)