He's Here!

I went into labor with this little guy on Inauguration Day, just as I had wished...

But the official arrival of Charles Benjamin was on Wednesday, January 21st at 12:45 a.m. weighing 8 lb, 2 oz and measuring 21 inches. I was shocked he was that big!

He was very alert when he was born. We think he definitely looks like Eli did as a newborn, but has slightly rounder cheeks.
Here's Charlie with my favorite OB, Dr. Miller:
Labor Story (feel free to skip this and just look at pictures)
The night before (so Monday night) was a rough one for me and I didn't sleep well because I was cramping and feeling gross. I had some contractions on Tuesday morning, but they were 10-20 min. apart and not very regular. I called my friend Lindsay, and we went to lunch at our favorite Mexican place with the hope that some spicy salsa would get things going... and it did!


That afternoon I had more contractions, and they got more intense and closer together from 3-4 p.m. I realized they were about 5-7 minutes apart and stopped being in denial that I was really in labor - I called Ben and he hopped on the train to come home from work, which would get in a little before 5 p.m. I talked to my OB's nurse, and she recommended I go in to the hospital pretty fast, so Lindsay and her daughter came over to be with Eli (my mom was coming, but wouldn't get there until a little later), and my friend Maraley drove me to the hospital. Ben arrived soon after that (he walked from the train stop to the hospital).


I was really happy that my OB was on call at the hospital that day, so he checked me and I was 5cm dilated. I labored for a few more hours, trying to wait to have the epidural so things could progress as much as possible. I asked for the epidural at 8 p.m, but the anesthesiologist was tied up in a surgery until almost 9 - that was not a happy hour waiting for it! Then when he did come, he tried the first time and the needle went in the right spot, but the catheter didn't go in well. So he had to REDO the epidural and the whole thing took forever. And didn't feel so great. A little while later, I was still feeling the cramping and contractions, so he gave me more through the IV (but this left me numb until 5 a.m. the next morning).


Right before the pushing, I had a really long, hard contraction that caused the baby's heart rate to drop and stayed low for a little while. It was pretty unsettling since this happened many times in Eli's delivery (and caused the emergency c-section), but it didn't happen again.

Also, the baby was posterior for a while, which is why I once again had awful back labor, but he finally turned the right way. I pushed for an hour and 15 min., and then he was here! I was SO happy to have a successful VBAC. I had second-degree tearing, so that hasn't been fun, but it's still a much better recovery than with the c-section. Here's a shot of the three of us just after he was born.

The next morning, my parents brought Eli over to meet Charlie!
Eli wore his Big Brother t-shirt :)

This is my favorite shot of the two boys:

Eli was (and has been) very sweet with Charlie. He is very curious about the baby and likes identifying things that are for the baby.

My mom with Charlie:

He already has chubby cheeks and thighs. His cheeks have at least two dimples, which are pretty cute.

My dad with Charlie:

We had visits from Carrie, Rebekeh, and Lindsay, which was really nice. It was fun to have them hold my brand new baby!

We left the hospital yesterday (Thursday) afternoon. I could have stayed until this morning, but the floor was completely full and it seemed pointless because we were getting zero help from the nurses by that point - I was ready to come home.

We were welcomed home with this cute sign from Carrie:

Eli was excited to show the baby his favorite things, like froggy:

Overall, we're doing well. It's definitely different healing from this delivery... by the end of last night, I couldn't sit down because it hurt too much. Hopefully that will get better soon.

And you know I was tired because I didn't have the energy to do this blog post when I came home yesterday :) We're so happy to have Charlie here and think he is such a sweet little guy!