Charlotte's Birth Story

Disclosure that personal information follows...
On the 2nd I went to the doctor for an appointment. They told me, again, that I was close to labor and wouldn't see my due date.  However, my blood pressure was 150/90. Extremely high since it had been under 120/80 for my entire pregnancy.  Obviously the doctor was concerned, and sent me for lab work, and told me to quit working.  I agreed to the lab work, but begged to see my 11 o'clock patient.  After some convincing she told me to see the patient and then go straight home.  I got my blood work and my 24 hour pee bucket and went back to work.  I was really upset.  I wanted as little intervention as possible for my birth and I wanted to work up until I popped the baby out.  I felt so disappointed, but went back to work to tie things up.  I extracted a tooth on my patient then went and told my boss (still crying) that I had to be finished working.  I went home (with my 24 hour pee bucket) and started to see the silver lining.  I figured that since I was only 38 weeks I had a least 1 week of total freedom until I would fight induction at 39 weeks.  I didn't even bother nesting that day because I had at least 1 more week to finish everything.

The next day I woke up and used my modified bed rest as an excuse to forgo the gym.  I got ready for the day and at noon got in the car to meet my brother for his birthday lunch.  Then I got a call from my doctor's office saying to head straight to the hospital. The poor nurse who had seen my breakdown the day before was the one who had to deliver the news.  Embarrassing.  Since I had used my favor to finish work the day before, I didn't argue much.  However, the moment I hung up the tears returned.  I felt my liberal birth plan was out the window.  The one thing I was opposed to was induction.  I called Austin and somehow he figured out to head home even through my crying. My house, which had been clean everyday in preparation for our departure, was a mess, but we grabbed what we needed and left it behind.  We got to the hospital and everyone was congratulating us on being induced.  They were oblivious to the fact that I looked like I was heading to a funeral. Looking back I don't know why I felt like I did, but I was so upset about having to be induced.  The doctor walked in and all I said was, I don't want a c-section.  He thought I was crazy and tried to talk me down.  With some convincing I held him off on starting the blood pressure medicine because I didn't want to slow labor and he applied prostaglandins topically to start things going.  Within the hour my contractions were every 2 minutes. They came in 2 hours later and checked me.  I was at a 4 so they broke my water.  I should have gotten the epidural before this because it made labor unbearable.  I couldn't move from my bed and by the time the anesthesiologist reached me I had lost control.  My saving grace was eating popsicles and tootsie roll suckers.  The epidural was great.  It didn't ever take away the full extent of the pain, but took the edge off and allowed me to breath through contractions.  They kept asking if I wanted the doctor to check it, but to me it was a good amount of pain.  Within an hour I felt pressure, but didn't believe I could have dilated so quickly so I didn't tell anyone.  I told my mom to go home for a little bit because I thought it would be a while.  The doctor came and checked me 2 hours later and was very surprised that I was fully dilated.  He had me practice push and I must have done a poor job because he then said he was going to be back in a while.  An hour later a nurse came and told me that he was going to do a c-section and would be back in an hour.  So I sat fully dilated for at least 3 hours.  He came in and I pushed for 20 minutes and then the most perfect being I have ever seen was placed in my arms!

Austin was my lifeline during my hospital stay.  I never changed a diaper and he handled the recovery grossness better than me.  I realized how fun it is to live by family because it was so great having a steady stream of visitors.  We kept telling Charlotte how loved she is because if it wasn't visitors coming in it was flowers! I was scared to leave the hospital because of how poor I still felt, but between my mom and Austin it was so nice to be out of there! I am so grateful for them and couldn't have survived without them.  More about our first weeks soon, but until then... hospital pics.

Charlotte Diane Johnson

February 3, 2015

6 pounds 3 ounces

18.5 inches long