Merrill Family: Charleigh's Birth Story

For several weeks now, I have been meaning to sit down & blog the story of Charleigh's birth and now she's a month old & I have no idea where the time went! With your first baby, it's euphoric...slow days full of "sleep when your baby sleeps" and time to just sit and stare at that sweet little face for hours. It's a little different with number 2...sleep is an afterthought, I have to wake up early just to shower, or I just can't get to it! In all seriousness life as a mother of two has been wonderfully rewarding, I am loving every minute with my girls:)

So here goes it (the "Cliffnotes" version) of Charleigh's birth....

After months of contractions the day was FINALLY here, Dave and I were convinced we were in for a smooth delivery and quick hospital stay with our "full term" baby, boy were we wrong! I checked into the hospital at 3pm on August 2nd, even though I was having contractions 2 minutes apart, the nurse said I wasn't quite dialated 5 centemters (which is required to be admitted) so she suggested a brisk walk around the hospital for an hour. Dave literally pulling me around the hospital for an hour did the trick (did he not remember I was on bedrest for 12 weeks!:)) and we were admitted.

The nurses started the epidural and pitocin right away to speed things along. It was a slow process, but I was progressing nicely, at around 11 pm my water finally broke, and within 40 minutes it was time to start pushing. Another epidural (since the first wore off) and 2 and a half hours of pushing later, and Charleigh still wasn't budging! The doctor suggested an emergency c-section and I was wheeled back to the OR.

At 3:41 Charleigh Rose was born, the doctor said she was "doing acrobats" in my belly, the cord was wrapped around her neck arm and leg, she was also "sunny side up" (face up), that along with a "small pelvis" was sited as the reason I couldn't deliver naturally. I was so exhausted I could hardly open my eyes, but Dave said she was perfect they were just worried about abrasions on her head from the vacum they used when they tried to deliver her. The abrasions would eventually heal nicely, but gave us a scare when Charleigh's biliruben levels spiked and she had to be admitted to the NICU for photo-therapy. We ended up staying at the hospital for a week, and our "simple full-term baby delivery" was not so simple after all.