So one post after I posted about what it was like to have three children, I am now posting about our FOURTH child. Miss CharliJo Marie Childs, September 17, 2016, 7lbs 8 oz, 20 inches!
So I guess I will just write about the day she joined our family. The week before she was born we found out little miss had flipped into the breech position--stinker--so for the entire week I did voodoo poses trying to flip this baby back into the head down position. I have had our boys using hypnobirthing and although it isn't pain free I've really enjoyed those labors and the recovery. So, the idea of the baby staying breech was not a fun idea for me.
Well, Friday the 16th I went to my weekly appointment and to my disappointment she had
engaged in the breech position. So my midwife scheduled a version to flip the baby for Tuesday the 20th. I went home pretty upset, not about the breech, honestly I never felt good about the idea of doing a version on the baby. The placenta was anterior and I was worried something could potentially put the baby at risk. Many people tried to put my mind at ease and shared their experiences with the easy successful versions they had, but for some reason I still couldn't shake the uneasiness. Friday night I asked Derek for a blessing to help me make the decision if we should do the version or not. I felt at ease and knew I would know the right thing to do after the blessing was over. So Friday I went to sleep feeling a lot better about the situation.
I can imagine miss CharliJo laughing inside me for worrying about the upcoming Tuesday at this point. 4:30, Saturday morning September 17th I woke up with such a bad pain on my left side, radiating from my back to my hip. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for several weeks, but the pain seemed to aggravate them and I began to notice they actually were coming consistently every 15 minutes or so. Around 5:30 I got up and got in the shower, hoping it would help the back pain. That lasted about 2 minutes because I felt like I couldn't stand. The back pain was constant and whenever a contraction hit it got even worse.
I told Derek I was going to get into the tub and explained what was going on. We had been lazy the night before and left dishes in the sink, he laughs now, but that was the thing I asked him to do. I didn't want his help with my pain but I needed those dishes done. So he went downstairs around 5:45 to do my dishes and I filled up our tub with my hypnobirthing headphones on hoping I could get some relief from the pains.
The night before I had a pain in my back as well, but it went away so I still was thinking at this point I was having one heck of a Charlie horse that was bringing on some Braxton Hicks. So I tried to do my breathing to relax my muscles. To my surprise and not excitement every time I used my hypnobirthing breathing the contractions relaxed, but the back pain increased! If I held my breath the back pain eased up, but the contractions increased! Vicious cycle. I was in the tub for maybe 5-10 minutes and suddenly felt really nauseous. I had to jump out and throw up, at this point I knew something was happening, and I knew it was different than I'd experienced before. My previous babies were very normal early labor. I easily could work through the contractions, but this one I had already thought the thoughts "I need an epidural, NOW!"
She called my midwife and they said they were going to monitor me and try and stop the contractions so they hopefully could make it to the version on Tuesday or have a chance to flip the baby. They checked me for a bladder/kidney infection because of the back pain but that came back clean. So they told me to stay in the bed, ouch. And they also said they were going to give me morphine since it can sometimes stop contractions. My midwife had arrived at this point and they wanted to give me 10ccs of morphine, but I warned them I didn't always respond to hard medications well, so they cut it in half...and still oh my what a cocktail. I got a little loopy, but we had to wait for four hours while the morphine ran it's course. If the contractions kept going or I progressed any more then we would not be able to flip the baby and it would be a C-section.
Fast forward four hours, contractions didn't stop, I progressed to a three and I was told that we needed to go do an emergency C-section. It was thankfully a chill emergency, but since I started labor and had not planned a C-section they classify it as emergency. Once they said it, I got really nervous. By this point my mom had come, my brothers and sister-in laws and everyone was ready to help me calm down. Derek put on his jump suit and once the OB was there my midwife and nurses wheeled me off to the OR.
I was getting more nervous inside, but I tried to only admit it to Derek. I have to say I was so impressed with the Nurse anesthetist she walked me through every step and medication that was going in to my IV. The nurses were fantastic, my midwife was there and hilarious and the OB was awesome. They warned me it would feel strange, and it truly is the strangest sensation having your baby pulled out of you while you have a no real feeling. CharliJo was born at 5:10 pm, no exaggeration about 4 minutes after they made the first incision. Briefly, I got to see her before they took her out to the nursery people. Derek followed her from there. The rest of the time was all about getting me put back together. I couldn't believe how quick she was out. I started getting really sleepy because I got another crazy cocktail in my IV, and the rest of the night my brain was a little foggy.
CharliJo couldn't come back in while I was getting sewn up because her sugars were a little low so they had to get some formula in her. So I didn't get my skin to skin I love and it was strange to go back to the recovery room without my husband and baby and just wait. About 20 minutes after I'd been in recovery they brought her in to me! I snatched her so fast from Derek and just snuggled her. It didn't matter I didn't have that immediate touch after birth all the good feels came instantly as I held her. I couldn't believe her dark hair, her SMALL head (our first time not having a giant headed baby) her dark skin. She was/is perfect. I was still in shock that she was here. It was three weeks early and I still had so much to do at home I thought before the baby was going to come. Good thing I had packed my hospital bag the week before, that was at least ready.
While in the recovery room of course everyone starts asking what we're going to name her and that was where her name was first mentioned. Derek was the one who said it first. Now, from the second I found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted Jo or Joseph in my baby's name. Derek's grandpa, who he had never met was named Joseph. I don't know why I felt so strongly to include the name, but I did. Derek's mom's middle name is also Jo. But since CharliJo is our final baby I really wanted my mom in there somehow too, I wanted her to have both grandma's a part of her name. So Derek was the one who suggested at first to combine Charlie, a name we had wanted, with Jo and then do Marie (my mom's middle name) for the middle name.
We didn't decide until the next day, but I told Derek early Sunday morning that while I fed her in the night I knew that was her name. It just felt right. Then we found out the meaning which is even better. The name CharliJo literally means small beauty from God. So that was it.
She is a perfect baby! She is quite small and isn't gaining her birth weight back as fast as they'd like but she eats like a champ, poops like a champ, and sleeps like a champ. The recovery has been pretty sore but we are surrounded by wonderful neighbors, friends, and family who have really taken care of all of us.
The kids love her, they are surprised how much she sleeps, but we've explained she'll get a little more awake as she gets older. Andrew was really mad at us for a few days because he insisted we name her Penny. He truly was mad, and it was adorably hilarious. Linnea is going to be such an amazing sister to her little sister and Jarom follows me everywhere with her saying how cute she is over and over and over.
We haven't figured out our routine quite yet, I spend a lot of time in my room feeding her and avoiding carrying things up and down the stairs so I get a little stir crazy sometimes, but for the most part we are doing great and couldn't ask for a sweeter baby to complete our family with!
