A few weeks before Christmas last year, I took a few pregnancy tests. Pregnancy test from the dollar store. If I remember correct, I took 4. They were all negative. Did you know sometimes pregnancy tests lie? I do now. Sometimes four in a row lie. The week before Christmas I took one on a whim, and left the bathroom. I didn't come back for a while, because I was sure it was negative again. Surprise! I didn't know what to do other than text DJ a picture. We had no idea how far along we were, so we decided to keep it a secret from everyone until after Christmas. Except, I was sick. So miserably sick, and on Christmas Eve I was just surviving. My parents were over, and I asked DJ if we could tell them. It was a fun surprise to tell them the day before Christmas. :)
I really wanted to try for a natural birth this time around. I talked with my doctor and she was on board. I had a dula lined up, but the funds sent aside needed to be used elsewhere. I talked with a few friends who had natural births, and decided that my determination would get me through it. That having a natural birth was the only option...because that is the way my brain works. I knew I had to take the idea of pain meds off the table. A friend told me "women were made to have babies-and babies were made to be born." It really stuck with me, and I repeated it to myself whenever I got a little nervous.
Fast forward 9 months...
On August 25, I was 2 days over due. I hadn't slept more than an hour that night. DJ woke up to me pacing the living room, and sobbing. I was exhausted and miserable. He called my Mom, who ended up taking the day off to come watch the kids, so I could rest. That afternoon, a bad storm came through and our house was struck by lightening. We ended up calling 911, ran to the neighbors, the fire department came. So much stress and commotion, and still I went to bed still pregnant that night.
On August 27, I woke up with irregular contractions. I called DJ and my Mom and gave them a heads up. At 11, my Mom headed over, so she could have some time with the kids before we left. At this point, I hadn't said anything to Kars or Ellary yet. DJ came home soon after.
When we left for the hospital, we had a company here giving us a quote on a new well. I was putting off leaving for the hospital, because I didn't want to get there too early. When I had a contraction while talking to Ellary, and couldn't get through it without her noticing something was wrong, I told DJ he needed to send the well guy away. It made me laugh a little. We got to the hospital, and after getting lost in the parking garage, we were brought to triage. I made clear that I didn't want an iv, did not want to be hooked to monitors, and wanted to labor without being checked. I dislike confrontation, and I guess my nerves about my requests got the best of me and my blood pressure went way up. That landed me in bed with monitors, for about 20 minutes. I was 4 cm, and my water broke. When I paged the nurses to let them know we heard them all cheering at the desk. Once I could get up and walk around, I was much more comfortable. My contractions were a minute apart, and pretty intense. I remember having to go to the bathroom, but not being able to get to and from the bathroom between contractions. Each time I had a contraction I talked myself into to an epidural, and in between, I talked myself back out.
I paged the nurses and asked when I could go up to labor and delivery- they told me it was based on priority for delivery and I wasn't close. (They were wrong:))
In about a 3 minute time span:
I was asked if I wanted to go in the whirl pool-I said no way!
They said they would bring me the birthing ball to sit on-that it would really help. I had been laboring upright the entire time. I had one contraction sitting on the ball and I completely panicked. So much pain. I screamed and sobbed that I wanted up to labor and delivery-and I wanted an epidural-NOW.
In a 10 minute time span:
They brought a wheel chair to bring me up. I was not nice. The nurse was so calm and sweet and walked so.incredibly.slow. I yelled at her to RUN. Except for during a contraction, in which case I expected her to read my mind and not move. Or talk. Moving and talking were not allowed. She informed me she couldn't read my mind. I yelled at her. I begged for an epidural. I yelled at the lady asking me exactly 1 million questions that "I do not know...epidural now!" The sweet nurse checked me and I was complete. They also discovered baby had a bowel movement, and the room was immediately swarmed with a thousand people from NICU. I know she told me-but I was pretty unaware of that because I was too busy yelling "EPIDURAL NOW!" I had one contraction that wasn't as bad. Then another I could feel my body pushing on its own and it felt like a relief from the pain. I didn't say anything, I remember thinking how amazing it was that my body was doing it on its own, and I didn't want to miss it. I remember thinking "I can do this now...I don't need an epidural...I don't want to miss this...women were made to have babies. Babies were made to be born." My doctor wasn't there yet. A doctor (who looked like he was 10) said we were going to wait for her. I yelled "we are not waiting...I have to push NOW." The nurse started going on about how "you don't have time for an epidural-I know that isn't what you planned..." I remember looking at her and saying "good-I didn't 'really' want one." I only pushed through one contraction. They put her on my chest, and DJ said "we have another girl!" I distenctly remember blocking everything out around me--just being thankful the pain was done and my baby was on my chest. But I heard him, and it took a minute to sink in. My exact words were "oh gosh...I totally forgot I didn't know." My doctor walked in, NICU left...I have no idea what else happened. I was on cloud nine with our healthy girl. Relieved it was done, and proud I had done it. Even if I did completely panic for a minute
Charleigh Jeanne Lynnae was born at 3:12pm on August 27, 2014. She was 8 lbs 8 oz and 21 inches long.
Charleigh would have been Charleigh whether she was a boy or girl. (Charlie for a boy.) We talked about the name Charleigh for Ellary but wanted to save it.
Jeanne is Ellary's first middle name. It is also my Mom's middle name and my middle name.
Lynnae comes from DJ's Mom & sister's middle names. Their middle names are all Lynn. Because we were using a traditionally boy name as her first name, we wanted something very feminine for her middle names. My Mom came up with the idea of using Lynnae and I loved it. In fact had Charleigh been a boy, we probably would have used Lynnae in the future as a first name if we ever have another girl.
