Charlotte's Birth Story

I finally have a second to write down how Charlotte made her way into the world. Here it goes....

I woke up at 3:30am on friday morning with terrible back pain and nausea. I had the chills but really wasn't cold so I thought I was just coming down with the flu. I tried and tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't. Finally I decided to take a bath. That didn't help either. By then, it was 6am and Remie was up for work. I told him what was going on and he didn't seem concerned. Neither one of us actually thought that this was labor, I still had three weeks left! While Remie was showering something made me start reading in my labor books to see if this was prelabor symtoms. It didn't sound like anything I was reading but I decided to call my dr anyway. Unforunately. my dr was out for a morning run and didn't get my numerous calls until it was too late. About 6:30am I started having contractions. They weren't regular but we decided to go to the hospital anyway because I delivered Remie after only 4.5 hours of labor and I didn't want to deliver this kid in the car! We got to the hospital, they checked me and I was already 4cm dilated! Then everyone started rushing around and poking me because Charlotte's heartrate was over 200bpm. They cancelled the pending C section because they thought that they were going to have to do an emergency c-section on me. Finally, after much attention, Charlotte decided to calm down and they just monitored me very closely. At first I wasn't even feeling the contractions. I had back pain but it was tollerable. I remember saying to myself "wow, the 2nd kid really does come out easier!" Then the pain hit! UHHH between the back labor and the terrible contractions (the contrax were 10 times worse than with Remie) I thought I was going to die. I figured that I was in transition because I was really hot and doubting my abilities to go natural (all signs of transitiion). My OB checked me and I was only 6cm! ARGH!! I was losing control and not able to focus. FInally Remie popped my MP3 player in my ears and I was able to focus through each contraction. It hurt like hell but I was at least calm. FInally my OB checked me and said I was 9cm and she was just waiting for me to feel the urge to push. I didn't feel the urge for a little while but when I did, it was crazy. I didn't push at all, my body did it all completely for me, it was really strange. After only 15 minutes of pushing, Charlotte popped out! Dr. Gilbert told us that it was a girl and placed Charlotte on my chest. It was the best thing ever to have my little girl placed right on me like that!