Finally~ Charles Birth Story

Charles was born 2 weeks ago today (March 16, 2oo9) at 4:30pm.  He weighed 7lbs10oz and is 20.5inches long.  We had to stay 48hrs (from Charles birth time) in the hospital, so we ended up getting home the evening of Wednesday the 18 which was my actual due date.  It has been hectic since then with family coming to visit.  Mother in law was here all last week to visit and help me out around the house.  But today finally everything is back to normal.  Hubby went back to work and it is just me with Maddie and the baby. 

Madeline has been great with Charles, such a sweet and loving big sister.  She likes to give him kisses and hold his hand, and she always wants to help me get him dressed and help with changing his diapers...  She is such a little sweetheart!  :)

But anyway, here is my birth story.  I typed it up when I got home, but didn't have time to post till now.

On monday morning (3-16) I woke a little after 5am, checked on Maddie and went pee. When I got back in bed I started feeling an achyness and crampy feeling, and soon after started having contractions. I laid in bed for about 40min timing them and they were anywhere from 5-7minutes apart. With how quickly I had Maddie I figured I should call my mother to come over, since she was going to watch Maddie for us. So I got up around 6 and started getting Maddies suitcase packed to go with my mother and getting the rest of my bag packed and such.
Then contractions slowed back down to around 10min apart so once my mother arrived David and I went across the street to the golf course and started walking. Walked for about 45min and they were coming every 4 min apart so we went back in and then as soon as I sat on the couch to take a break they slowed back down again.
Then I walked around the house for awhile, went out and walked some more and the finally started coming close together again. Finally at about 11am we checked in to the hospital.
They got me on monitors but as soon as I was in the bed on monitors my contractions slowed back down. The kept me on the monitors for about 30-40min and checked me, I was about 4cm dialated though, and they sent me off walking around the hospital and told me to come back in about an hour.
After walking my contractions were coming every 3-4min, and they checked and I was 5cm, so they monitored me for a little while longer while they got a room ready for me, and my contractions once again slowed down. I was started to get a little annoyed with that....
When we got up and they got me to my room they hooked me up again and gave me an iv, to keep me hydrated and since I was GBS+ (group b strep) I had to have a drip for that. Then I started walking again for a little while. While we were walking one of the nurses stoped to talk to us and as she was talking to us a guy walked by with a massage chair. I guess he works for the hospital and goes around and gives massages, and helps with the rehabilitating and stuff.  So she asked if I wanted a massage and if he could give me one. Of course I wanted a massage, lol. So I got a massage and we went back to the room and since every time I got on the bed the contractions slowed down the nurse asked if I wanted a birthing ball. She brought it to me and it started working quickly. After just a short time my contractions were 2min apart and really strong. I had them check me since I was feeling a LOT of pressure and I was at an 8. They wouldn't break my water though since I hadn't had a full dose of the penicilin yet. The dr wanted me to hold out another hour or more so they could get the second bag of the stuff on my iv. But then I felt the baby move and my water broke on its own, they made me wait a minute for my cervix to get to a 10 which was hard because I wanted to start pushing right away and couldn't hardly stop myself. But then they said it was time to push and I pushed twice and out he came! I did it completely drug free too!!

Here are a few photos: