Welcoming...

Charlotte Olivia Wampler

Charlotte was born at 7:47 pm on Monday March 25, 2013. She weighed in at 7 pounds even and measured 19.5 inches long. Her length is the same as Ivan when he was born! She's absolutely perfect! 

So here's all the details. If you don't want to know, stop reading now. :]

I started having contractions a couple weeks ago, I'd say the beginning of March. I would feel one or two when I went walking or did the stairs. I was determined I was gonna get to meet this little girl early. I did a lot of exercise, mostly to get things going sooner but partly because I have a soccer season that starts up the first week of June and I wanna be ready for it. At my doctor's appointment on March 7, I was already dilated to 1 cm and 50% effaced. On March 21, I had progressed to a 2.5 and was 70% effaced. After that appointment I walked a couple miles and did the stairs and felt a few contractions, but nothing promising. I did all I could over the weekend to get things going. I helped someone move, I sang a song with the church choir (with some super high notes, you know, to break my water), and I walked a bunch of stairs. Saturday and Sunday night I didn't sleep well, too much pressure on my bladder and I kept hearing weird noises and having random contractions. Monday I felt weird all day, my stomach was a little upset and I didn't have a whole lot of energy. Noon rolls around and I felt like my water had broken. There wasn't a gush or a pop like everyone had told me and when they broke my water with Ivan there was so little fluid that I didn't actually feel anything. So I steadily trickled fluid all the rest of the day. I told Michael that I thought my water broke around 12:30 but that I wasn't having any contractions so not to worry about it. By 3 I was still having a few random contractions but nothing regular. At 3:30 I told Michael, who was still in class (a chemistry lab at that), that my contractions were about 15 minutes apart. He said he would hurry with lab and come home as soon as he was done. I made arrangements for Ivan to stay with a friend for the night and made sure we had everything packed for the hospital and for Ivan. By 4:30 my contractions were easily 5 minutes apart and a minute long. I was doing a really good job of being relaxed and I really think that's what helped labor progress so fast. Michael came home shortly after that, we dropped Ivan off and rushed to the hospital. When we checked in, the lady at the counter said she had just admitted 2 moms right before I got there, busy day I guess. We got settled to our room, asked a billion questions and they checked my dilation. I was at a 4. Then shift change is at 6 and at some point there was a miscommunication and the new nurse thought that this was my first baby which led her to believe things would go a lot more slowly than what actually happened. I let the nurse know that I was doing the hypnobirthing thing, my exact words, and she was absolutely wonderful at letting me labor on my own and not interrupting my contractions and relaxation. She brought me a birthing ball to sit on, which I really thought would help, but the ball is bigger than I am so instead of a 90 degree angle for my knees it was a 160 degree angle. I was practically standing. I got a hep-lock instead of the permanent IV, which was great cuz I could move around however I wanted. Getting the hep-lock in place was a bit difficult though. The nurse I had was having a difficult time finding a vein, so she got another nurse to help so she wouldn't have to poke me twice. By now it's about 6:15 and they still hadn't placed the IV. I was having contractions every 2 minutes or so and it was getting really frustrating to be stuck in bed while they were trying to poke me. Finally they just put the hep-lock in and we were done. I got really nauseous a couple times, which never happened with Ivan. At 7 the nurse checked me again and I was at a 7 so she told me to let her know when I felt I needed to push. 7:10 comes around and I called the nurse in and said I need to push. She rushed in and set everything up and called my doctor. Apparently she didn't tell the doctor to come in right away but just informed her on my "station". At 7:20 I started pushing. I couldn't help myself, my body just took over. The nurses told me not to push and they told my doctor to come in. Normally this wouldn't be an issue for the doc to get there soon, but she lives in Rigby which is about 20 minutes away. I panted through all my contractions as best I could, to try and avoid pushing but that has got to be the hardest thing I've ever done. At one point I remember asking, how do I not push?! I did pretty well with the pain side of things until about 6:45. I was following the hypnobirthing relaxation techniques, which is what made everything happen so fast, and trying hard to focus on the scripts Michael was reading. I was a little freaked out that things were happening so fast and because of that wasn't able to get back into relax mode. I did end up getting some IV pain meds and I was very impatient about them kicking in. After laboring a little longer, I felt I couldn't take it anymore and asked for the epidural. The nurse paged the anesthesiologist then I told her I needed to push so she checked my status and the baby was crowning. No epidural for me! That's what I really wanted, was as drug free a delivery as I could manage. So it's 7:40 and they're telling me not to push. Michael had been holding a warm wet rag on my junk to try and loosen things up so I wouldn't tear and to help me focus on what part of my body I needed to relax. He pretty much held the baby in so we could wait for the doctor to show up for the delivery. Charlotte's heart rate dropped to about 90 ( it was 140 the whole rest of the time we'd been there) and the nurses stopped telling me not to push. The charge nurse and my nurse were the only ones in there besides me and Michael when Charlotte was born. I felt only pressure when she came out, I was really surprised by that. I definitely thought that would be the most painful part but she numbed everything and just slid right out. I don't even remember pushing to get her out, it just happened. They didn't even have time to take the bed apart and catch her, she just came out on the bed. She was so alert and so was I. I can't even begin to explain the overpowering joy I felt when I saw her for the first time. I was so proud of myself for not getting an epidural and so impressed at how fast the delivery was. She was born at 7:47 and my doctor got there at 7:53. She just barely missed it. Charlotte nursed right away and was wide awake for a couple hours after she was born. She was super chill and just took in all her surroundings. I felt really amazing after I had her. I was hungry within minutes and super excited for my first shower. I got up and walked around just fine and loved seeing my toes again! I did tear a little, not near as bad as with Ivan though. Dr Spaulding said it was a second degree tear and when she was sewing me up she apologized for how long it was taking her but she thought I could have a promising career as a porn star after she was done. She's the best doctor I've ever had, just really gets our sense of humor! At one point, Dr Spaulding said there was this weird crescent moon shaped piece that she couldn't tell where it went, just goes to show how great a job my previous doctor had done. That's Charlotte's birth story. I tried really hard with all the hypnobirthing and feel like that did the most to help labor progress quickly and for me to stay strong enough for long enough to not get an epidural, even if I asked for one. I feel great. I feel more emotionally attached to this little girl than I did to Ivan for weeks. I'm so happy with how things went that I want a billion more kids and I want everyone to be able to experience birth this way. In the future, I will not be getting an epidural and will make sure to let Michael know that he isn't allowed to let me get one, no matter what. My recovery is already a hundred times better than the first time, mostly because of the degree of tear but I think it has a lot to do with my state of mind too. I was so hopped up on adrenaline Monday that I only got about an hour of sleep that night. I was just so dang excited and proud of myself. I cannot believe how amazing that experience was. Charlotte didn't have a single bit of jaundice, she's super pink, has a great heart, and clear lungs. Her eyes are really dark still, just like Ivan's. She has the cutest little button nose and a sweet little dimple. She has really long toes and is absolutely perfect. Ivan loves her. He lets me know whenever she makes any noise and likes to pet her hair. He's really soft with her and pretty much doesn't care that she's here to stay. He has been doing great with the transition. We got him a thing of playdough and he loves playing with the little tupperwares they came in. He's still going to bed on time and sleeping through the night. I'm super impressed with how well he's handling it. More updates soon to come!