Without Further Ado

Erik and I would like to introduce the newest member of our family, our sweet daughter, Charlotte Eleanore. She is lovely little girl, who has spent most of her time on earth thus far sleeping. (I'm not sure why the pictures aren't working, but if you click on them, you can see the whole picture.)

8lbs


Charlotte with Aunt Catherine


Our Family of Four


Sleeping


The Birth Story
This birth experience was much different than the first time around. For starters I actually had contractions on my own this time! With Amelia my water broke and then nothing happened, so I ended up having to have pitocin induced contractions, which are horrible! I started having contractions Friday night around 11pm, but they weren't really painful or regular, and they stalled out around 4am. Saturday around 11am, I started having some contractions again, and had them on and off all day, but again, they weren't all that painful or regular. Around 11pm they stopped, and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep before they started up again around 1am. This time they seemed more regular and they started getting painful. Erik woke up around 2am, and kept me company.

About 3am, I figured out I probably wasn't going to get any more sleep and I decided that if this was happening, I was going to do what I could to get things going. I broke out my electric pump, and did 20 minutes of pumping and 20 minutes of walking. I had read this was a good contraction picker upper. After two rounds of this my contractions were much more intense and starting to get pretty regular. When the contractions were 8 minutes apart and lasting 45 to 60 seconds (around 4:45am) , we started making phone calls. First we called Erik's mom, who would be staying with Amelia, and then my mom and sister.

We were at the hospital by 6:30am, and much to my amazement and delight, I was 4cm and 80% effaced. Go me! I gratefully received my epidural. The doctor broke my water around 11:30am and pronounced me 7 to 8cm and I we were all thinking we'd have a baby in the next few hours. Well, of course it didn't work that way. My contractions started slowing and pretty much stalled out between 1 and 2pm. By four o'clock I asked for some pitocin to get things going. It started working, but slowly. About 4:45pm I was pronounced fully dilated and effaced and we started making predictions on when the baby would be born. Catherine, optimistically guessed 5:05, my mom said 5:15, I said 5:35, and Erik said 6:15. I looked at him and said, "6:15?!, You better not be right." Well, like I said, things were progressing slowly. I didn't even start pushing until 5:45, and lo and behold, Charlotte popped out exactly at 6:15pm. I guess Erik's guessing skills are being honed - I mean he did win the candy contest at the Library.

By the time I had delivered I was starving, and as much as I was happy to have my baby, I was truly delighted when the nurse brought me my dinner tray. Erik's mom brought Amelia, and she was none to impressed with what turned out to be baby sister. All in all, things have been going well and I'm not even too sleep deprived yet. We'll try to keep everyone updated and thanks for all the congratulations!

Dinner!