Welcome baby Charlotte!

It's been a very exciting week at the Miller household! We welcomed Charlotte Clara Miller to our family very early on Monday morning (May 17th). She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz - pretty good for a baby born just shy of 37 weeks. I am beyond thrilled that this pregnancy had this happy ending and equally thrilled than it's now done and over with!

Meredith seems to be adjusting fairly well to the new addition. She gets angry at Healy when he sits in the baby's bouncy chair and gets excited every time Charlotte makes a noise. She's been spending a lot of quality time with Grandma these past few days and I think that's been helping.

As for me, I'm definitely more relaxed this time around. My recovery has been quick and I'm feeling pretty good, although a bit tired. Our basement is 95% complete - John and I decided to send the contractors away and finish up the last odds and ends ourselves. So with Grandma's help we're slowly moving things back downstairs and hopefully we'll have a fully functioning house soon!

For those interested, Charlotte's birth story is included after the pictures :)
...

Baby's first bath

All ready to go home!

Sleeping with Grandma Carolyn

Daddy and his girls

4 days old

Sunday, May 16th

I had been leaking fluid for a few days and I wasn't sure if it was just normal pregnancy discharge or amniotic fluid. The midwife said it was unlikely that my membranes has ruptured so I didn't worry too much about it. On Sunday evening we were Skyping with John's family when I had 2 more fairly significant gushes (about 7 pm). Within the hour I had 3 contractions, so I thought it prudent to call the midwife. We decided to head to the hospital and get checked out as it seemed something more significant than just discharge was going on.

Sure enough, a swab proved that the membranes had indeed ruptured. The only question was determining when it actually happened, as generally labour needs to start within 24 hours of water breaking to reduce the risk of infection. We decided that if I didn't go into labour by the following morning I would come back to the hospital and be induced. As I was already having the occasional contraction it looked like I would probably go into labour on my own that night. The midwife sent me home and said to call her when the contractions were 5 minutes apart and I had to concentrate to get through them.

I got home at 9:30 and told John this was probably the real deal. He took Meredith to a friend's house to spend the night and by 11:15 the contractions were strong enough that we headed back to the hospital. At midnight I was checked and was 2.5 cm dilated. The contractions were still bearable but they quickly increased in intensity. At around 1:30 am I was 7 cm and really frustrated that I wasn't progressing more quickly, as I had with Meredith. At this point I was really struggling to maintain control and was totally regretting my choice not to have any pain meds! The midwives calmed me down and I changed positions and 3 contractions later I was 10 cm. I pushed for less than 10 minutes and little Charlotte was born at 2 am. From start to finish labour and delivery was about 7 hours, one hour longer than with Meredith. As Mom and baby were both doing well, the midwives allowed us to go home at 4 am, 2 hours after delivery :)