incoming...Charlotte Ocean

What seemed like a normal wednesday morning quickly turned into a journey of meeting our daughter.

I woke up early Wednesday around 7:00am with some mild cramping. My regular doctor's appointment was scheduled at 9:00am in Beaverton. Nate took the morning off to go with me even though work was busy. He felt like it would be good to be at the last few appointments. 

My cramps started to increase while I was getting ready in the bathroom. I thought that was strange, but wasn't concerned. I had actually just added a contraction ap to my i-pod touch, so I was excited to practice using it on my cramps (because of course this wasn't the real thing....). 

On our drive to the doctor's office I mentioned to Nate that I was timing my cramps and they were coming consistently about every 5-6 minutes. I thought that was strange. He seemed to think this could be something more than cramps. Why would cramps come and go so consistently? =) 

My doctor did her routing exam. She of course checked internally to see how much progress I had made in the last week. Surprised, she said "wow, you're already 4cm!" Nate and I were both shocked! How could I not feel that happening? She then quickly recommended that we stick around the hospital and not go home. She said this is it and you are going to have your baby tonight! I think both Nate and I were still trying to process what just happened. What I thought was some mild cramping was actually early labor. 

Having forgotten our bags at home (of course) we quickly drove back trying to come up with a game plan. Do we go to the hospital or do we stay home and watch the World Cup soccer game? ....it was unanimous...Soccer game! 

I labored at home for the next 2 hours, taking a nice soaking bath, walking around the house, straightening things, finishing up my packing, watching the game... it was really all still so surreal. 

By about 12:30pm I told Nate, these contractions are coming every 3-4 minutes and they are really starting to hurt. I couldn't talk through them anymore and I just had visions of the soaking tub at the hospital. I wanted to soak!!! Get ye to the soaking tub! 

All packed up, we headed out into lunch traffic with our windows down (it was a scorcher!!). Nate drove very carefully (thank you!!) as we drove the long 1hr. drive to Sunnyside Hospital in Clackamas. 

By the time we got there I was really feeling the contractions and so thankful that I didn't try to go to work that day (that would have been miserable). Nate dropped me off at the entrance while he went to park the car. I made the long trek down the hallway at a pace of a snail. The ladies at the front desk were staring at me the whole time with looks of concern. I thought to myself "can you help a girl out with a wheel chair?" but to no avail I made it there on my own. They quickly checked us in.

I was led to an exam room to make sure we were far enough along in labor to stay at the hospital. I was hoping we had made more progress. My midwife came in to check on me. She was shocked! She said, "wow you're already 7cm!!" Welcome to transition labor....

After about an hour of getting me hooked up to all these do-dads I was led to the room with the soaking tub. THANK GOD! I finally had my wish. For the next 3 hours I sat there just soaking and dreaming of laying on the warm Oregon coast beach watching the waves roll in. I tried to make it as much of a spa like experience as possible. =)

Around 5:30pm my midwife came back in to check on progress. I was starting to feel the urge to push. She helped me get out of the tub and told me I wasn't quite ready to push yet....."not ready to push! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??" For the next 15 minutes the nurses did their best to coach me through NOT PUSHING. Oh my gosh that's like telling a chocoholic to hold onto a huge candy bar and forget it's there....impossible!

Finally around the same time as the shift change for my midwife, I started to push. It was Nate, myself and the lone nurse in the room. Nate told me he could see Charlotte's head and she had a lot of dark hair. That was enough motivation to push her out! I couldn't wait for the new midwife to show up. I pushed her out and the surprised nurse quickly made the call to get a doctor to the room. Should have done that earlier, I thought. 

Charlotte Ocean Forbes was born at 6:02pm at 7lbs 12oz. She did have a lot of dark hair and great big eyes! She didn't fuss very much at all when she was born. I think she was just trying to adapt to the new surroundings.

We were both so overwhelmed and excited to actually SEE our daughter. 

Nate was just so excited! We were both just in awe of how perfect she is. I was super proud of Nate for handling the delivery so well. He didn't pass out, he watched her through the whole delivery process and he even cut the umbilical cord! He did such a great job! 

After a few seconds of holding her I could tell something wasn't right downstairs. I asked the midwife if I had torn. She said I tore from the front to the back....they call that a 3rd degree tare. 

After enduring an unmedicated birth (which was my original goal) I ended up with a highly medicated recovery. 

2 hours in the operating room, a spinal, and a whole lot of stitches later, I was back with my little family in the recovery room.

We spent the next 3 days at the hospital in recovery. I was in bed hooked up to an IV and catheter. I had lost too much blood to move on my own, so they recommended a blood transfusion. 

At first I refused, but after passing out on my way to the bathroom a few times and not able to get out of bed on my own for a few days, it was clear something had to happen. A hospital is not a place we wanted to be for long. I needed to get home to recover. And Nate was not getting any sleep at all because he was so worried about both Charlotte and I. 

Finally on the last day there, we ended up doing the blood transfusion. Afterwards I had enough energy to get to the bathroom on my own...at a slow pace, but it was enough to give us the green light to come home. 

We are now back home and taking it easy. Charlotte is just fantastic! We are all in love with her already. So far she sleeps A TON and makes some of the best facial expressions. It's been hard to sleep, not because she's fussy, but because she's just so cute. =) 

Here are some pictures of her...