The Ostwalt's Front Porch: The Birth Day!

What a day! (And night). For those of you who have not heard the story of how Miss Charlotte finally decided to come into this world, I will try to give you the short version.

Charlotte's due date was officially Friday, April 23rd. We were pretty excited about this date because my insurance deductible year turned over on May 1st, so we were hoping we would be in and out of the hospital by May 1st......but alas, Charlotte was not ready to come until May 1st. Oh well! She is starting out expensive! April 23rd was the day the President Obama came to visit Asheville, and I thought for a while that I would go into labor and get stuck in the presidential motorcade on my way to the hospital. But the Obamas came and went, and Charlotte still did not come. I think she did not want her big day to be overshadowed by a president!

The week between April 23rd and May 1st was easily the LOOONNGGESTTTT week of my life. Just of few things I tried....2 accupuncture sessions, spicy food of every type(jamaican, mexican, hot wings), lots of walking (including a midnight stroll during the full moon), eggplant, and finally an "induction massage" by the most wonderful massage therapist, Trish Harwood at Clay Salon in Weaverville. When I went, she said she has never had anyone go over 40 hours before going into labor. 30 hours later, Charlotte decided to make her grand entrance.

We had gone over to our good friends Cary and Bryan Luhn's house for dinner that night to get my mind off of everything. After great homemade pizza, and the boys played 18 holes of Tiger Woods golf on the Wii and we headed home. I had been having what I thought were cramps all evening long, so on the way home we decided to start timing them to see if they were actually contractions. They were seven minutes apart and by the time we pulled up to the house at 11:30pm, my water finally broke and we knew Charlotte was officially on her way. I labored at the house for about 3 hours, and we finally got to the hospital around 4am Saturday morning. I was 4 cm dilated. After laboring in the big tub at the hospital until 7am ( my contractions were around 2-3 minutes apart), I finally gave in and decided to get an epidural. After the epidural, my contractions started to slow down....and the doctor came in and told me Charlotte's heart rate was dropping and she was not getting enough oxygen. So, after trying to do everything to get her heart rate back to normal......I ended up having to have a C-Section to get her out safely. Healthy baby and healthy mama! So at 10:01am on Saturday morning, the most wonderful little person was born! How happy and exhausted we were!