Baby Charlie Has Arrived!!!

Sorry for the lack of posting. I've been busy with the newest member of our family!

Charlie decided he was going to make us force him to come out as he was definitely too cozy. So, January 19th was our scheduled induction date. Believe it or not, I actually did sleep the night before, probably because I skipped my nap on the 18th in the hopes I'd be able to sleep some that night. I got up at 4:45am, and we were due at the hospital by 6:30. We left our house at 5:45am, and arrived at L&D at 6:15. We were ready to go! To be honest, I didn't expect them to really do much besides a set of vitals and put in an IV before shift change at 7am, but they were working on us right through shift change, it was awesome! They started my IV, did a set of vitals, put me on my side (thanks to the high blood pressure in any position but on my side), rechecked my stats, and hooked me up to the monitor.

Charlie's heartrate was fine, but was only riding in the low 100's-110's. This had me slightly curious given the fact that his norm was 140's. I thought maybe he was sleeping until it continued. They were ok with it, and kept telling each nurse and doc that came in that it was his baseline. I don't know about that, but I do know that any heart rate greater than 100 is normal, so I wasn't too concerned. One of the nurse practitioners checked me and I was 3cm and still about 50% effaced. On the monitor they saw that I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart, so they said they couldn't start me on pitocin yet. It's funny, I thought they were braxton hicks, I mean, they're not any different than what I'd been feeling the last few weeks of my pregnancy, and they didn't hurt. They were talking about maybe breaking my water, but they didn't want to do it until they spoke with my doctor because with the polyhydramnios, sometimes the docs wanted to be there in case there was a problem. At 7:15am, they broke my water. I was a little concerned because it was really bloody, but evidently if they rupture your membranes for you, that's normal. It did eventually turn clear. By this point my contractions had spaced out so they started me on Pitocin.

Evidently, I respond really well to pitocin. They started it, and then they had to back it down because the contractions were coming closer than they'd like. Then they'd slow down and they'd have to kick the pitocin back up, and we went back and forth like this all day. In the meantime, Charlie was deciding to drop his heartrate at times, lower than my heart rate, during contractions. This bothered me as it seemed like FOREVER before he'd come back up, and the nurse would stand there at times, holding her breath. No one really liked that he was doing this, and the thought was that his cord was wrapped around something and during contractions it was being compressed. They continued to watch me closely. He'd drop his heartrate and they'd come in and have me change positions. This happened frequently and I spent most of my time on my left side. By 11:30am I was 6cm and 90% effaced, had my epidural in, and by 1:30pm when they next checked me I was 7cm. I was worried we were slowing down since I'd had that big jump between 7:30 and 11:30 and then two hours later had only changed by 1cm, but at least I was progressing. The poor lady in the room next to me had also been an induction and they were preparing to send her home because it wasn't progressing. I felt awful for her, at least I knew I was having that baby soon.

They checked me next around 3:10pm and I was 9cm during a contraction, so a little less when I wasn't contracting. Charlie continued to elude the monitor and have drops in his heart rate so they put in a scalp electrode to monitor his heart rate. At 4pm, I asked when they were going to check me again. I was told I'd be checked when my doc finished her office hours and came over. I was comfortable with the epidural, so this was fine. My doc came over around 5 and checked me and told me it was time to have this baby! Yes!!! We kicked my father-in-law and Jack out. My mom got the job of holding my one leg, and Archie the other. My mother-in-law was up by my head behind my husband, but after a couple of pushes, and me feeling like I was going to pass out and throw up all at once, she got the job of fanning me with magazines and a barf bucket. I'm sure she was just praying I wouldn't throw up on her.

I pushed for about 10 minutes and my doctor told me that two more pushes, he'd be out. I gave it all I had for one more push, and Charlie dropped his heart rate to the 60's and wasn't coming back up. At that point, my doctor made the decision to use the vacuum to get him out. This is something I wasn't entirely comfortable with until the night before my induction. I had told my nurse that if it came down to him needing to be assisted out, I would prefer the vacuum over forceps delivery. I gave him one more push while the doc applied the vacuum, and at 5:16pm, Charlie was born! He weighed 8 pounds 0.4 ounces. He is not chubby at all, as a matter of fact, he's rather scrawny looking-probably because he's also a long boy, measuring in at 21.75 inches!!! He has a full head of hair, and looks JUST LIKE JACK did as a baby. Which basically means he looks like Archie, LOL. I was told for the first year of Jack's life that I obviously had nothing to do with his conception since he looked nothing like me!

I am so in love with this little guy. My little family feels complete. Jack absolutely loves him. He always wants to kiss him, hug him, and touch him. I've included a few pictures for you guys.