The Birth Story

I have finally gotten around to blogging. It is so difficult to believe that Chloe is almost two months old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I know that a lot of it has to due with the fact that it is the holiday season and that always seems so fast. I finally have a rainy day at home and both children are asleep. I have not had a day like this in a very long time.

Chloe was due on October 6th. Two days earlier I was having several contractions and was very uncomfortable. Charlie come home from work early to go with me to my doctor's appointment in case they thought I was going into labor. Well, after our appointment I have to say I was pretty disappointed because the contractions I had had all day did not make any difference on my progress. Since it was not my due date, I thought it was not really a big deal. We scheduled my next appointment the following Tuesday and at that appointment we would talk about what we wanted to do.

From the very beginning of this pregnancy I had decided that I did not want to be induced. I was induced with Jack and my labor was extrememly intense. I had heard that that can happen when you are induced. Well, about a week before I was due I found out that my dad was leaving on a business trip coming up and there was a chance that he would miss the birth. I really did not want that to happen. As my Tuesday appointment we decided to induce the next morning.

Tuesday night we had dinner with my parents and then Charlie and I left Jack to spend the night and we went home to enjoy the evening together. We relaxed and just spent some time together. It was a great way to prepare for the birth of another child.

Wednesday we woke up and before leaving for the hospital we had an amazing time of prayer and just asking for God's protection over the day. I was really nervous about the entire process. By the time we left for the hospital God had given me a great amount of peace. It was a very special time with my amazing husband.

At 9am the doctor induced me. It was an even smaller dose than they had done with Jack. It took about 2 hours for my contractions to start, but they were really mild. It seemed as though the induction had not worked. By 4pm I had not really progressed at all. I was really discouraged. The doctor was trying to decided whether or not to increase the medication or just send me home. We thought we would wait another hour and see what happened. By 5 my contractions started getting much more intense. At 5 I was still at 4. THey doctor left to prepare for me to get more medication. Then all the sudden labor hit. Between 5:30 and 6:30 I went from a 4 to an 8. It was the most painful hour. By 7 I was able to get a walking epidural and then I was pushing by 8:30 and Chloe was born at 9:07pm. It was pretty crazy starting at 5, but the overall experience was so much better than with Jack. I felt that this time I got to experience what labor should really be like, without being induced. Also, my walking epidural was more mild so I was competely coherent during labor and I did not having any side effects. I think that this time was a much better experience and I was not in as much pain the days following her delivery.

We spent two full days in the hospital so they could monitor Chloe and we were home by Friday evening. Charlie took two weeks off and we adjusted pretty well. It took the entire two weeks for Jack to get use to Chloe and when Charlie went back to work Jack had to readjust, but he is doing wonderful now. He absolutley loves his little sister and I am love having a little girl. It is fun to be a family of four.

We have been fairly busy, so I think there are times that we still are in disbelief that we have an infant in our home. It has been great to have so much family come and visit us. My sister was here with her daughter for the first two weeks of November. THen my brother and his fiance came for Thanksgiving. This week Charlie's mom is out visiting. Maybe after Christmas things will slow down. We will see. It has been so much fun.

I will have to do a few more posts to keep everyone updated on our life as a family of four.