Charlie's Birth Story

And our time at the hospital

I’ve never been one to read birth stories. For most of my life, it was because I was afraid of giving birth and didn’t want to add to my anxiety. Then I got pregnant and tried really hard to be brave and manifest a smooth delivery. This baby was coming no matter what - might as well try my best to think positively, right?!

Well, my manifesting didn’t work 🤣 So if you get anxious or triggered by this kind of thing, feel free to skip this post. If not, let’s finally unpack it all.

I guess we’ll start with my 38 week appointment. Everything was looking great - his head was down and I was starting to dilate. I had also been seeing a chiropractor who made sure my hips were in alignment, I was eating a ton of dates, drinking raspberry leaf tea, walking a lot… I honestly still felt good.

Sure, I was getting uncomfortable sometimes, but once I got into the 2nd trimester, my pregnancy had been so special that I was kind of sad that it was ending. (I was also sad about not being pregnant anymore a lot that first week - I’m a weirdo, I know!) Needless to say, I was not one of those women who said “get this baby out of me” all the time.

So when my doctor asked if I wanted to schedule a 39 week induction, I considered it (it removes doubt about when he would arrive and there is a study that shows it could lower the chance of needing a c-section) but I ultimately turned it down. I had heard about both good and bad experiences with that choice and I figured I’d give my body a little more time to do its thing naturally. There was talk of doing a cervical sweep at my next appointment and that felt like a great option for me, too.

But when I went to that 39 week appointment, they told me I hadn’t progressed, they couldn’t do the sweep, and we couldn’t schedule an induction until after a 40 week appointment now.

So Adam and I went from being convinced he was coming early to finally getting induced at 40 weeks and 5 days. LOL at all the times we said “we just hope he stays put until after Christmas!” 🤣

JANUARY 11th, 2025

We were scheduled for an induction at 3:30am. Yes, 3:30am.

We got to our room, got settled and prepped, and then the balloon was inserted around 6am. This is used to help dilate your cervix to prepare for labor.

They told me that this portion would probably take at least 4 hours and I started counting down the minutes. The contractions came on strong and quick and I did my best to stay as calm as possible with deep breaths and a stress ball. I distinctly remember saying “this SUCKS” to Adam which made him laugh. At one point, he helped me get up to pee and that’s when I realized that standing and swaying weirdly felt better for me, so I turned on Folklore and Evermore and swayed through it. Thanks Tay 😜

Finally, my doctor came in and the balloon basically just slipped out. That’s when she told us that I had dilated from 1.5cm all the way to 7! My nurse was shocked when she said that number and was so excited for me.

Since I wanted an epidural, they suggested that we do that and break my water because at this rate, he was coming soon! YAY!!

At this point, I was feeling really confident. I was afraid of the balloon - that was done. I was afraid of the epidural - that was done. They broke my water, people were telling me I was doing great, and I kept repeating “I can do this. I can do this.” For the first time in my life, I was almost excited to push. We were going to meet our baby soon!!

And then everything took a turn.

(Because this is such a personal post, I am reserving the rest for paid subscribers. If you don’t want to pay monthly or annually, you can also claim your first post for free!)