Charlie is here!

Looking back on the last two weeks of my pregnancy, I laugh at how impatient I was to meet Charlie. If I had only know how perfectly everything was going to work out, I definitely wouldn’t have complained as much as I did about why he hadn’t come out to meet us yet! He was just getting us ready for the most unexpected, amazing, mind blowing day of our lives.

(warning- if you can’t handle details about child birth, you may want to stop reading now)

----excuse the spelling/grammar errors- sleep deprivation is in full force!

I couldn’t understand why I had not been feeling any signs of oncoming labor. I had no clue what a contraction felt like and as far as I was concerned, I would be pregnant forever. Dennis and I spent all day on Friday cleaning and getting the house ready for his parents arrival on Monday. We went to bed Friday night with plans to finish everything we needed to do on Saturday.

Saturday Morning July 31st-40 weeks and 6 days pregnant

I woke up at 7:30 am and went to the bathroom. I crawled back in bed and felt what I thought was a cramp. When it went away about a minute later I forced myself not to get excited that something could potentially be happening. I felt another one 6 minutes later and started timing them to see if there was a pattern. After feeling 6 in a row, I woke up Dennis and told him that I thought I was having contractions so we got up and started moving around to see if they continued. Within about an hour I started feeling them anywhere from 2-4 minutes apart. They were uncomfortable but not painful so I figured we had a long day and night ahead of us even though I thought it was strange that they became so close together so quickly. Around 12:30 pm they started slightly more intense so I paged the midwife at the hospital to let her know what was going on and to see when she thought we should come in. I told her I wasn’t in too much pain so she told me that it didn’t sound like I was anywhere near ready to come to the hospital and to just lay down, count fetal movements and page her if I didn’t feel any movement or if anything changed.

Dennis and I went upstairs and tried to take a nap and after about an hour of laying down, contractions were still consistently about 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about a minute and a half. When I got up I felt one that floored me and knew that things were starting to happen. I had been saying all day that we wouldn’t go to the hospital until he got so bad I cried (not thinking that would actually happen) but when I got hit with a contraction that had me doubled over in tears I told Dennis that maybe we should go in just to get checked. It had only been 7 hours since feeling the first twinge of a contraction so I expected to go in and have the midwife tell me that I was still only dilated to maybe a 2 and that we needed to go back home. Subconsciously, I think my body knew that we needed to get the hospital soon.

Dennis and I drove to the hospital and I had 3 more pretty intense contractions just in the short time it took us to walk from the parking lot to the L&D ward. They took me back to triage to start monitoring my contractions and Charlie’s heart rate. The midwife came in and checked me and said “WOW…you’re already dilated to a 5-6.” It was 3:30 pm and they told me they were going to admit me and put us in one of the labor and delivery rooms. We were introduced to our nurse, Yvette, who we found out had a lot of experience with natural /drug free child birth and I knew that I’d be in good hands. Little did we know, just how amazing she would be during this whole experience.

Never once were drugs mentioned to me and the anesthesiologist didn’t even come close to our room. In my birth plan I said that I only wanted to be intermittently monitored unless absolutely necessary and when we got to the room, I was told that Charlie’s heart rate had been having some decelerations with each contraction so I would need to be consistently monitored for awhile. They just wanted to keep an eye on things in case the cord was wrapped around him somewhere and if things evened out, I would be allowed to move around as I wanted to. I quickly realized that every little detail of my birth plan meant absolutely nothing to me when it came to the health and safety of our baby and I was ok with staying strapped to the bed as long as possible, but Yvette went ahead filled up the jetted tub so I could use it when and if I was allowed off of the monitor.

I already knew that the midwife on duty would be leaving at 6pm and that I would end up being delivered by an OB which at this point I had absolutely no problem with. The doctor came in the room and introduced himself and apologized that he was not a midwife and I told him that it didn’t matter, as long as someone was there to catch the baby. (Little did I know just how true that statement would become.) It turns out, he was sitting at the admissions desk when we walked in where I had made the horrible hospital mistake of saying “It’s quiet in here!” I knew better than to ever say that in a hospital because it never fails, things start to get crazy afterwards. He informed me that shortly after we went back to Triage they started getting slammed and that it was my fault for using the Q word. He seemed to have a great personality so I had a feeling once again, that we would still be in good hands.

At around 5:30, I asked Dennis if he would go get the bags out of the car so we could have our camera. Yvette told him he needed to hurry because my contractions were getting more and more intense and that we’d probably be having a baby soon. We had joked earlier about having him before she finished her shift at 7 but I was convinced that we were going to be there for the long haul and that we’d have to meet another nurse. She was absolutely amazing at keeping me focused while Dennis ran out to the car. Contractions go t so bad that I physically could not catch my breath, and having her there to take over for Dennis was exactly what I needed. When Dennis came back to the room, she checked me and I was already dilated to an 8-9 and 100% effaced. Things were happening way faster than I expected them too. She said to call her if I needed anything and that she’d check on me in a little while. Within seconds after her leaving the room, I was hit with a contraction that made me feel like I had to push. I panicked and told Dennis to get Yvette back NOW because something was happening. I knew that when it felt like you had to poop that it was time to start pushing and that is exactly what my body was trying to do. Yvette came back in and told me to just breathe and that it wasn’t time to start pushing because she had JUST checked me but I felt it in every inch of my body that I needed to do otherwise. She checked me quickly and sure enough my water bag was right there. The pain was so bad during one contraction that I couldn’t help but reach down and could literally feel what felt like a water balloon between my legs. Within seconds an entire team of doctors and nurses filled our room and I was told that they were going to go ahead and break my waterbag- (otherwise I probably would have pushed Charlie out still intact in the bag.) The doctor broke my water and I was told that Charlie had made a bowel movement in the water and that I probably wouldn’t hear him cry when it came out because they didn’t want him to take a breath until they cleared the meconium out of his airways. Yvette told me to make absolutely no noise and to push HARD and instantly I felt every inch of his body fly out. He literally exploded out like a cannon ball with ONE PUSH. The doctor that I had joked with earlier about being there to catch our baby ended up having to do just that! He came out so fast that he still had the water bag wrapped around his head and the doctor had to peel it off. Charlie had different ideas about not crying because he let out a big cry before the doctors could even get him over to the newborn station to check him out. Fortunately, he didn’t inhale any meconium (although he was covered in it) and was absolutely perfect. Unfortunately we hadn’t been able to let the umbilical cord pulsate like we originally wanted to and Dennis couldn’t even cut it initially because they had to take him away so fast but he was able to assist with cutting the rest of it after they’d cleaned him off.



While Dennis was watching them check Charlie out, Yvette came over to my side, grabbed my hand and said “Congratulations mama!” I was still so incredibly in shock that I just stared at her like a deer caught in the headlights. Everything happened so fast that I really couldn’t comprehend it. The child that I had been (im)patiently waiting for so long had just sky rocketed into this world quicker than I ever imagined possible and I was having a hard time taking it all in! Yvette took our camera and started taking so many pictures and I am so thankful she did! It’s so awesome to be able to look at them and see what was going on around me and I’m so glad that she was able to capture those moments for us! Her compassion and support for us played such a huge part in making our child birth experience so incredible that I will always be thankful that we were blessed with such an amazing L&D nurse. I can’t even imagine bringing Charlie into this world without her! (and only minutes before her shift ended for the night!) It took awhile for the placenta to be expelled and then they had to repair a tear (that I had actually felt happen when Charlie came out) so I wasn’t able to hold him and at the moment, here was no way I physically could have. Dennis brought the camera over and showed me his picture and he was absolutely beautiful. Once they wrapped him up and handed him to Dennis, I was finally able to see him!


I still couldn’t believe that our amazingly incredible little boy was actually here! Once the doctors were finished with me I was able to hold him and nurse him for a few minutes before Dennis helped give him his first bath. What an incredible bonding experience that was for all of of us!




We eventually got settled into our room for the night and at that point I realized that I still had the most intense natural high that I could have imagined. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that I had planned for so long to have a drug free birth and that I actually accomplished it! I kicked childbirth’s butt!! I also couldn’t stop staring at our perfect, beautiful little boy. Charlie is so alert and I have never seen so many funny facial expressions on a baby! He looks JUST like Dennis and is already proving to have Dennis’ laid back personality. I think that his entrance into the world proves that he has a little of my fiery, impatient personality too and because of that, I can’t wait to see what kind of crazy rollercoaster ride he is going to put us on for the rest of our lives!

(Charlie had to spend 12 hours under the bili lights and was definitely NOT happy about it.)

A time of reflection.

I am now over 40 weeks pregnant with no sign of labor in sight and I am officially playing the waiting game. I’ve finished every project that I started to help make time go by a little faster. The house is clean and all of the baby laundry is done and put away. I have absolutely nothing else to do but wait. Lately, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on the past year and it has definitely been a crazy one! There are so many things that I am thankful for so I thought I’d mention them now.

This time last year, Dennis was in Afghanistan and it felt like my world was turned upside down. I have never experienced a more stressful time in my life and lived on pins in needles for the entire 6 months he was gone. Dennis’ battalion lost so many amazing men and my heart still breaks and will continue to break for their families. Each of those men will never be forgotten for the rest of our lives. There are also so many that are still dealing with the injuries they received on that deployment. It’s so easy to get caught up in our daily lives and forget that there are people who 10 months later are still going through surgery after surgery to repair body parts that were injured in an IED blast. Please continue to pray for those men. There are also many that are dealing with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a very real thing and the men and their families that have to experience it are also in my prayers. Fortunately, Dennis has never had to deal with anything like that... my husband returned home to me completely untouched by this war and I will forever give thanks to God for that.

Shortly after Dennis’ return home we received the exciting news that we were pregnant. In the beginning, we had scare after scare and God continually proved to us that He had everything under control. Here we are 9 months later waiting for our amazing little miracle to make his appearance into this world.

In February, Dennis was in a horrible accident here in Hawaii. To this day I still can’t comprehend how he was flipped multiple times in the open back of a humvee on the highway, was ejected from it and he as well as the 3 other people involved still had no life threatening injuries. To add on to that, after Dennis returned home from Afghanistan last October, I prayed and prayed and prayed that he would not have to go back to Afghanistan…especially know that he’d be leaving only weeks after Charlie was born. I completely give full credit to God and like to think that this humvee accident was His way of answering my prayers in the most creative way possible. Because of the injuries Dennis received during this accident, he will not be deploying this time around.

I am also thankful for the amazing family and friends that Dennis and I both have at home. They have all shown us so much love during this pregnancy. From a “baby shower in a box” from my mom and Grandma to an amazing “webcam baby shower” thrown by Dennis’ mom and family, and all of the wonderful gifts we’ve received from our amazing friends the last few months, We are so incredibly blessed to have them all in our lives.

I absolutely cannot wait to start this next chapter of our lives…. and hopefully Charlie decides to start that chapter soon!

40 weeks.

I'm still pregnant.

38 weeks

Enough Said.


These last few weeks have gone by slower than I ever thought possible. Sleepless nights filled with wonderful pregnancy induced Carpal Tunnel, Sciatica, Restless Leg Syndrome, and constantly having to get up to pee. The 3rd Trimester is definitely a wonderful thing!

Riiiiiiiiiight.

Charlie is still an active little wiggle worm. I'm anxious to see if that continues when he's here. We may have our hands full! I can finally say that we are officially prepared for his arrival.... and I never thought we would be! We've spent the past couple of weeks getting the house ready and purchasing the last few items we need. Plus- we had an AMAZING webcam baby shower thrown for us by Dennis' mom in Louisiana that I will post about once we receive everything! I am so incredibly grateful for all of our family and friends who have shown us so much love. Charlie is definitely going to be a lucky little man to have so many wonderful people in his life from the start!

We have our 38 week appointment on Wednesday... hopefully we'll find out that he's made some progress and will be making his appearance sooner than later!

Combat Monkey

When I was looking through pictures that Dennis had sent me from Afghanistan, I noticed a little black and white stuffed animal in a few of them. I asked him what it was and he told me that it was "combat monkey." While in Afghanistan, one of Dennis' marines named Michael received a care package full of stuffed animals. I'm not sure what the reason was, maybe to give to the local children... Either way, Combat Monkey was adopted and went on every patrol that Dennis and Michael went on. He either stayed in Dennis' pocket, his backpack, in Michael's pocket or on the dashboard of the humvee. He was their 'good luck charm.' Seeing something like a monkey beanie baby pop up in pictures here and there made laugh, which definitely helped a little knowing that even though Dennis was in a combat zone there was still time for fun.

A few weeks ago, I asked Dennis if Combat Monkey had made it back to Hawaii. He asked Michael, and sure enough Michael still had him. I couldn't help but think how fitting it would be to have Combat Monkey in our post-Afghanistan-deployment-baby's-monkey-themed-nursery. Today, Michael brought Combat Monkey to our house and he has now taken his place on Charlie's shelf. One day we'll tell Charlie all about his daddy's time in Afghanistan and how that monkey was with him on the other side of the world.

34 weeks

Dennis got behind the camera and took a few more maternity pictures for me. Here's what he came up with:

32 Weeks

This morning we had an ultrasound to check on Charlie's growth. They wanted to make sure that the septum in my uterus wasn't putting any growth restrictions on him or affecting his ability to turn head down. Turns out, the ultrasound tech couldn't even find the septum so apparently it's been pushed or stretched out of the way and is having no affect on the pregnancy. Charlie looks perfect...he's currently head down and is growing like crazy! One of my biggest fears was that he wouldn't be able to turn and I wouldn't be able to have the natural birth that Dennis and I have been preparing ourselves for. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that now! For the past few weeks I really thought that he was in a transverse position. If I pushed in on both sides of my stomach I would feel a solid lump on each side. It turns out that on my right side is his butt and on my left side, what I thought was his head is really his giant feet! The ultrasound tech told us that his feet are only a centimeter short of 3 inches right now!

She also said he has a big head which is going to be oh so fun for my drug free birth plan!
In our 4d ultrasound pictures I thought that Charlie looks alot like me when I was a baby. In this profile picture, the shape of his face really resembles Dennis. I know that when you're pregnant you see what you want to see but I really think his nose and lips totally resemble Dennis' profile!

We also got an estimate of what he weighs right now. The ultrasound tech told us that he's weighing in at about 4lbs 8 oz. Most babies gain about a half of a pound a week from here on out so if that's the case Charlie will at the very least weigh 8 and a half pounds! Dennis and I were both big babies and I've had multiple dreams that he will weigh 10lbs so this definitely doesn't surprise me! I really can't believe that we only have about 8 weeks left before we meet our little man.

He gave us another little wave today as if to say "See you soon mom and dad!"