When I had Braxton, I did a birth story and love being able to look back on it and remember the details of everything because lets be honest..it is hard to remember everything that happens during birth, let alone I can barely remember what happened yesterday! So I knew I wanted to do the same thing for Charleigh Fae and so while I was in labor, I would write down things so I could specifically remember times so that if we have a third (I am HOPING for one), I can look back and compare and contrast! But anyways..lets back up a little..Since I was induced with Braxton (you can read his birth story here), I was hoping that I would go into labor naturally with Charleigh so I could experience what that feels like. I was induced with Braxton due to high blood pressure and so since the beginning of my pregnancy with Charleigh, the doctor told me to take a baby aspirin every single day (which I honestly probably did a total of 15 times..whoops!) and that should help my blood pressure stay down. Every single check up until 37 weeks, my blood pressure was great..then at my 37 week appointment, it was a little elevated but then by my 38 week appointment, it was back down again so I figured I was in the clear. Then at my 39 week appointment on Tuesday, January 29, my blood pressure was slightly elevated again (140/73) and so the doctor told me he wanted to induce me the very next day because it most likely was only going to get higher. My mom had already scheduled her flight to come out from California that very next day so I thought it might work out perfectly since she was at the birth of Braxton and all of her other grand children. Well, as soon as I left the doctors office, I called Adam and started crying that they were going to induce me the next morning..I think the reality of it and how close labor was really set in! I remember with Braxton I was excited about labor and was so curious to what it felt like but with Charleigh, I was soooo nervous for labor because I KNEW what it felt like! I then proceeded to call my parents and my sisters and cried to each of them because I was soo scared and knew my life was about to change with two kids!

Although I was hoping to not get induced with Charleigh Fae, I was also relieved because I was able to plan better and that night took a nice long shower, packed my bag and knew that the next morning, we would head to the hospital to have our Charleigh girl. I surprisingly slept well that night and woke up at 5:30 to get ready and head to the hospital for our check in time of 6:30. We checked in right on time and by 7:15, I was hooked up to all of the monitors and had my IV in! At 7:45 the nurse started the pitocin and I started feeling contractions at 8:30 although there was no pain associated with them. At 10:15 I was at 4cm and started feeling a little bit of pain but they were completely manageable. At around 10:45 the nurse had to do an ultrasound on me because all of a sudden there was a giant lump near the top of my stomach and we were worried Charleigh flipped the wrong directions but turns out it was just a pocket of fluid and there was nothing to worry about! At 11:15 my contractions were about a minute to minute and a half a part so the nurse turned down the pitocin some. at 1:20 my doctor came in and broke my water and that is when the “fun” started happening..my contractions almost immediately started intensifying SOOO much more and I could not handle the pain so at 2:00 I asked for the epidural knowing that it takes awhile to even get. The anesthesiologist came in at 2:30 and started what I swear was the longest epidural process EVER! I had to sit up for him to give me my epidural and it was sooo hard to sit still during my contractions which were now less than a minute a part! He took his sweet time and commented on how I have the biggest back he has ever worked on..uhhh thank you? He finally was done and left at 2:55 and I was still in pain and my nurse suggested I lay on my left side so I turned over and after about 5 minutes, I was in so much pain that I started crying out. All of a sudden I felt like I could not hold Charleigh in any longer and the doctor and nurses ran in and I have never seen people move so fast but it was time to push and less than a minute later, Charleigh Fae Beasley was born at 3:15pm weighing 8lbs 12 ounces of chunky goodness and was 21 inches long!! Since things progressed SOO fast after my water broke, my epidural was pointless and also my mom missed the birth and was about 30 minutes away from landing in Raleigh when she got the text from Adam that Charleigh was born! Since it was flu season and my sweet Braxton was not allowed to come visit, we really pushed for us to go home after 24 hours and everything checked out and they let us and it was the best feeling to be home as a family of 4 so soon!

My last bump picture! And the nurse said she saw my shirt when we were getting taken to our room and called dibs on taking care of us because she loved it haha

The cord was wrapped around Charleigh’s neck twice when she was born but as soon as they unwrapped it, they set her on my chest and she was good!

The picture on the left was from when Braxton was born so we HAD to do the same thing for Charleigh on the right 🙂

And OF COURSE I had to take some pictures on my good camera!