Hello Charlie

On Wednesday afternoon Rian and I dropped the kids off at my parents to head to my 38-week appointment. My doctor ordered an ultrasound before leaving because I was measuring a little small. She said she’d call my cell if the fluids looked low. Rian and I headed out to Bluewater Grill to enjoy a child-free night at happy hour. My cell stayed out on the table, but we had no reception the whole time. Didn’t think it was a big deal, until walking out to our car I had 4 missed calls from Dr. Hamilton. She said my fluids are low, she wants to induce, get to the hospital. And here, the night began. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve. We went home, gathered some things, dropped some stuff for the kids off, and headed to Kaiser Permanente in Irvine. They checked my fluids again to make sure we needed to induce and also found that I was already 4 cm dilated and this baby was ready to meet the world. Pitocin drip started at 11:30pm, epidural kicked in, then a couple pushes and at 3:23am Charlie was born. 6 pounds 12 ounces, 19.5 inches long. All on April 14, the date I was praying to deliver. God does care about the little details…

Riding out the contractions and a foot massage from my mom. From the look on my face I’m telling a story about something very exciting.

My midwife, Nancy. She was SO great.

Rian got to pull Charlie out. He was the first to see that we were getting another son and announce that it’s a boy. Juliana got an amazing picture of this and some other shots that tell Charlie's birth story so well. I will gladly show anyone... I'm just not brave enough to post them online.

Leaving to come home, friday at noon. My parents had the kids until Sunday night. It was a quiet retreat-like weekend we enjoyed before the chaos began.

What did they do while we were gone? They went fishing, made pinecone bird feeders, took long walks, went on shopping trips... The kids were in heaven.

Wednesday afternoon before my appointment, my dad wanted to take a picture of my belly. I’m so glad, because I was behind on my belly shots. So this is the last one taken… 12 hours later, Charlie was born.