Charli Michelle West

November 30, 2019

6lbs 6oz  |  19.5 inches long

If you follow along on Instagram, you already know that our beautiful little girl, Charli Michelle West, graced us one week early, which was her original due date! The first date they gave me was Thanksgiving day, then, when I went for the sonogram and they do the measurements, they gave us December 5th as the due date. She graced us at 12:28am on November 30, 2019!

Honestly, I was hoping the whole time that she would come early because I didn’t want to go over the Dec 5th due date and be induced, which was my choice, not doctors orders. I could have gone over the due date if I wanted to.

 

Doula Meeting

In meeting with my doula prior, we chatted about all the natural things I could do to induce labor on my own so I was ready to start those if I hadn’t gone into labor when I did!

Speaking of doulas, let me fill you in on that really quick! I always wanted a doula to help prep me and be there for the birth but I figured it was out of my budget. Then, the lovely Haley Stewart reached out to me via Instagram about The Birth Lounge! I wish I would have found this earlier in my pregnancy because it answered sooooo many questions for me and probably would have helped me better through morning sickness in the first two trimester. It’s an online lounge that takes you through each trimester and has soooooo much info available! It’s great to reference even before pregnancy so you can start prepping! Plus, depends on the tier you join, there are certain perks like ones-on-one calls with Haley. And then there’s a Facebook group with ask the members so you can always ask other mamas for advice. I used this frequently! I’m case you’re not on Instagram, I do have a discount code (MWLOUNGE) that saves you $5 each month.

Using the lounge made me realize the importance of having a doula present in the room with me for birth. Thankfully, a mutual friend saw my Instagram stories about the birth lounge and introduced me to her friend and doula, Aubree Jarrett. We met and hit it off immediately even realizing that she’s related to a family friend that we used to vacation with growing up! Small world! Anyway, for my local girls, I highly HIGHLY recommend hiring her for your pregnancy and birth! She brought all of her essentials to make the labor and delivery as comfortable as possible for me and it was like having my own human Google in the room with me. Basically, I was Drew Brees, Dean was my best running back, and Aubree was our Sean Peyton! You will hear more about her below as I tell you the birth story! Here we go …

One week prior

I was having some crazy contractions the week prior to delivery but they weren’t painful so I didn’t think anything of it. When, Aubree, my doula, came to our home to chat about birth I showed her this pic of this gnarly contraction!

She said that was a good sign and my body would probably go into labor on its own.  She also said, “Please pack your hospital bag like tonight!” lol! (Side note, speaking of hospital bag, I did a blog post, Hospital Bag Essentials, on what we used and didn’t use!).  Besides packing the bag, my other homework was to download a contraction counter app in case they got severe (glad I did that) and to fill out my brith plan, which we worked on during our meeting!

At my doc checkup a few days before that, I was only about .5 cm dilated so I didn’t think anything of the contractions besides they were looking pretty crazy!

Two Days Prior

The next week, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, at my routine checkup, I was still only about .5 or 1 cm dilated – not much progress. But, TMI, I had explained to my doc that I was having a lot of dark-colored discharge so they checked my fluid levels to make sure it wasn’t a leak in my water bag. Fluid levels were fine so I went home and was all good! The next day, Wednesday, the contractions got a little more intense but nothing super painful!

That night, however, the contractions started to get a little stronger and I woke up about 6 – 8 times during the night in some pretty bad pain from them.

Thanksgiving Day

The next day, Thanksgiving Day, we had planned to go to my parents house and keep it chill because we knew I was only a week out from the due date. Needless to say, we decided there would be no travel this holiday season lol. The entire day at my parents house, I kept getting increasingly intense, painful contractions like the ones I had during the night before but they were about 20 – 30 min apart now and getting more painful per each one. I knew it wasn’t enough to go to the hospital yet so, basically, I spent the day struggling through the pain!

Dean and I got home that evening and watched the Saints game while we ate our second round of Thanksgiving food. At this point, the contractions were getting pretty bad on the pain level so I opened my contraction tracker app and they were every 7 – 10 minutes, still not “hospital worthy” as far as numbers but, in my opinion, it was as far as pain level.

Coincidently, I had a checkup at the hospital the next day to check my fluid levels again so I told dean I could stick it out until then but we should bring the hospital bag, etc. with us because I thought they would maybe admit me then. Soooo, I finished my Black Friday blog as best as I could (not my best work), went to pack all the last minute things, and wash my face to try to get some sleep.

In doing that, the contractions got super intense and were about four minutes apart now lasting one minute each – hospital worthy!! Plus, my app was now saying get ready to go to the hospital but I thought I was still barely dilated so I was still going to try to stick it out till the morning because I didn’t want to go and get sent home because I wasn’t dilated enough. It was now around 2am and I tried to lay down to sleep and the pain was more and more intense so I looked at Dean and said, “I think we need to get our assess to the hospital!”

He saw the amount of pain I was in all day so he immediately got up and was like let’s go! I called our dog sitter to be on stand by because I wasn’t sure the hospital was going to keep me or not but was hoping they would. Side note, poor Deano was nauseous so this was just epic timing lol. May have been a mix of being too full from dinner and maybe some nerves by this point.

Go To The Hospital

On the way to the hospital, I continued keeping track of my contractions and it eventually said “Go To The Hospital” so I had more hope that they would admit me and deliver Charli!

Walking out the door, I could barely stand up, so, when we parked, I barely made to the floor with the wheelchair but I wasn’t staying in the car by myself so I powered through. We made it to the wheelchair and Dean hauled butt through the hospital. It was around 3 am at this point so we had to ring in emergency from the hallway. It was so cute because when they said, “how can I help you?”, Dean responded, “Ummm, my wife’s gonna have our Baby!” lol!

Emergency Room

They let us in and started monitoring me and Charli immediately. The first cervix check was not fun. I don’t know if the doctor was just new or I was in a bad position but, might be TMI, we nicknamed her cactus fingers. Not funny at the time tho because that cervix check hurt so bad I literally started balling and was doing the gasping for air breathing/crying. Tears rolling down my face and poor Deano just wanted to make it go away but couldn’t do anything. After they left the room, he leaned down and said, “One kid is fine, I never want to see you hurt like that again.” Heart melted! He was freaking amazing throughout this entire process. Take notes coming up, men! And more about that on this Instagram post!

So cactus fingers “couldn’t find” the cervix. I don’t know if that’s what she meant or she just couldn’t tell how many cm I was dilated. Another doc came in after her to check, which was way more comfy, and I was only about 3 cm but since they were tracking my contractions, the doc said, “ok, we’re going to admit you so let’s go have this Baby!” A sigh of relief for sure because not only were they admitting me but o was also prob about to get the epidural soon lol.

In The Delivery Room

While they got me transferred to a room, we notified family and Aubree, who was there in a heartbeat. We told family to wait till the morning since I was only 3cm.

Thankfully, anesthesia came immediately to give me the epidural. For a little while, I thought about going the natural route but, with those contractions, I was over it and didn’t want to feel anymore of that pain. Dean and Aubree had to leave the room for the epidural administration but it was quick and, honestly, didn’t hurt at all compared to the contractions. After the epidural set in, wowza, I felt like a new woman! I couldn’t eat, which sucked, but we’ll get to that.

At this point, it’s about 530am and I’m finally starting to relax. The nurses and doc were going to let me be for a bit to see if I dilated anymore on my own, which was in my favor because I was not wanting pitocin, the induction drug that strengthens contractions and progresses labor, unless it was last resort.

Thankfully, the epidural was so good, I was able to take nap, which was a big help because I hadn’t slept at all yet. Dean got to also but he was in a fold out sofa so he probably didn’t sleep much at all with his back pain. At least his nausea went away in all this lol. When I woke up later, they did another cervix check and I was still only 3cm so the doctor on call had said they would come in and start pitocin soon. While I said “ok”, I was really not ok with it so thank goodness for Aubree and Dean in the room because she had mentioned to Dean to remind me of what we chatted about, which was using some natural remedies to help dilation first. The doc said it was no problem to let us wait and try but said there was no medical research behind essential oils, etc. She’s right and we knew that but I rather try than go to pitocin when we’ve only been there about 6 hours at this point. Being my first time, I didn’t think this was going to be a very fast process!

Side note, my doctor was out of town. We were actually joking at the appointment that Tuesday before because we figured I wouldn’t go into labor that early and I told her I would do all the natural induction things starting Saturday when I knew she was back lol. A few of those include: clary sage oil on ankles (must be after 38 weeks), walking, red raspberry tea, and, the one everyone swore by, sex! Please consult your doctor before using/doing any of this. My doctor gave me a thumbs up, which is why I was ok with moving forward with it if I wouldn’t have gone into labor on my own.

So after the doc on call gave us a thumbs up to try the natural remedies, we busted out the clary sage oil, the peanut ball, and started alternating laying on my back and sides. Also, just being intimate with your partner has a huge effect, so Aubree cleared the room often so Dean and I could have some alone time and not only was that wonderful, per usual, but very soothing and calming for me! Dean was freaking awesome applying and massaging the clary sage oil into my ankles and wrists every 15 min, getting me water, holding my hand, making me laugh (per usual) and the list goes on!

The doctors had a shift change around the start of this and the new doctor, who was freaking amazing and the one to deliver Charli, said she would give us about four hours before even considering pitocin – Amen sister! If my doc, Dr. Wax, couldn’t be there, I’m so glad this is the doc, Dr. Urego, that ended up being on call!

When they came back to check 4 hrs later, I was about 4 cm dilated. I was hoping for more but progress is progress! She did suggest we start pitocin at this point so I asked if she could give me a sec to chat it over with Dean and Aubree and she was all about it. For pitocin, they start you off at the lowest dosage and increase at certain time periods based on the dilation. We started at 2 and it helped but later we had to go to to 4 but I didn’t have to go above 4, thankfully, because it can go to to 20, yikes – can’t even imagine those contractions!

During the pitocin two things happened! 1. One of the nurses, who was super sweet, had flu symptoms and was wearing a mask. I’m a fan of the precaution but I’m pregnant and going to have a newborn in the room sometime soon. I wasn’t ok with this so Dean chatted with her and she kind of took offense. Soooo, we had Aubree go get the doc and we chatted with her about it! She was so understanding and awesome about it and switched nurses immediately! Again, it was nothing against the other one but she would have literally been within two feet of me holding one leg during labor and I didn’t want me or Charli around anyone sick. 2. There was one spot on my lower right pelvic region that the epidural wasn’t hitting and it wasn’t just a little pain, but it felt like ALL the other pain that I wasn’t feeling was localizing in that spot and it was super painful. This is known as a “hot spot”. Not fun to experience! They called anesthesia in and he had me lay on the right side to see if that would help and it did for a bit. Later, he administered a more dense dose through the epidural and, wowza, that did the trick! I knew I needed that again before pushing!

At the next check, between the pitocin and I like to consider the clary sage oil also, we got to 5 or 6 cm!! Side note, I was freaking starving because last I ate was 9 pm the night before. I asked if there was anything I could have and they said popsicles or jello so I asked for both lol. The popsicle was legit – the red white and blue torpedo one, yum! The jello was sugary and not great, but I was so dang hungry that it was the best worst jello ever. I ate it and got more later. I was also allowed apple juice and got that as well for energy!

During all this time, I ended up dozing from time to time and Aubree suggested it was slowing labor so we focused on keeping me up and alternating sides to keep the progress, which ended up helping a lot!

Btw, this whole time, the only people in the room were Dean (obvi), Aubree, my parents, and my birth photographer (highly recommended). My team was amazing! My parents went into the waiting room for pushing at the end.

10 cm!!!!! Let’s Have A Baby!

Finally, around 10pm, I hit 10 cm!!! I felt so damn accomplished lol! Then, another girl in labor was also 10 cm so doc had to see who was further along to see who she would deliver first. Turns out, that baby’s head was almost poking out so she got to go first, ugh, lol! Soooo, I was looking at about an hour before pushing. I requested anesthesia to come back and give me the stronger dose of epidural for pushing because I was afraid that hot spot would kick back in before that and I did NOT want to feel any pain for that!

At this point, Aubree said she has her clients do a little interview for the baby if we were interested. Of course we were but I was also in pain at this point because anesthesia was on their way with that stronger dose for the hot spot so, if I wasn’t in pain, that interview would have gone something like this:

“Charli, it’s been you and me for the past nine months and I got to learn so much about you but now I’m so excited to introduce you to the world and share your beauty with them! It’s been a long and hard nine months, but you’re worth every dang second of it and we are so excited and cannot wait for you to be on the earth side here with us in just a short amount of time! This is so surreal and is going to be such a beautiful moment!” 

And it was, one I will never ever forget! You were worth every moment of the nine months and I would do it all again for you! Cheers to a lot of fun that we’re about to have! And I never understood it when people said, “you will experience a love like no other” then I held you in my arms and every bit of that made complete sense, all was right in the world!!! I love you more than I will ever, ever be able to explain in this lifetime but I’ll do everything in my power to try to show you with every breath I take!

Back to delivery! The delivery team and doc started prepping the room around 11pm so it was time!! Charli was about to be here! I couldn’t feel anything below my belly button at this point, which was good! At 11:20 pm we started pushing so we were all debating on if she was going to be a Nov 29th or 30th baby! Dean was on my right side and the nurse on my left, each holding a leg. Both were awesome but, for the dads like Dean, I have to give credit where it’s due – he we freaking remarkable! The dads don’t get enough credit for all they do to support, if you have a supportive one of course! Again, I talked a lot shot this in this Instagram post! He was rubbing my back, coaching my breathing/pushing, and kept reassuring me that I was doing an amazing job and would let me know how close Charli was with each contraction/push! I don’t know how some women do this alone but, if that’s you, you are a true superhero!

After pushing for an hour and eight minutes, I was on the last push for that contraction leaning forward with my eyes closed because I was pushing with every ounce of energy I had and doc said, “open your eyes” and with the last breath for that round, I open them and said “Ohhhh shit!” as I released that breath because there was this beautiful little life right in front of me that Dean and I created and she was finally here!! Doc handed her to me at 12:28am, 6 lbs 6 oz, 19.5 inches long, and at that moment I found a love that I had never known and would never know without her! I will NEVER forget that moment as long as I live, it was just magical!

She was covered in poop but was still here lol. FYI, not my poop, her own. She had a bowel movement in utero so they had NICU check her lungs immediately just to be safe and all was good! With that said, they handed her right to me for an hour of skin to skin time and it was freaking magical!! Skin to skin time is still my fav and she’s three weeks old! It’s just such good bonding time!

We did it!  Labor and delivery was originally what I was most scared of and it ended up being of the easiest stages!

After The Fact

After some skin to skin time, my family was all there in the waiting room to come meet little Miss Charli! Dean’s family came after we got home from the hospital because they live four hours away but the rest of them get to meet her at Christmas! Everyone complimented how beautiful and perfect she was as well as how beautiful and alert her eyes were, as you can see in the pic where she’s staring at Dean and that’s just an hour after she was born. She really is just perfect!!

I finally got to eat, which was a broccoli salad that I requested my mom to make, I know, health nut! It’s soooooo good though! Granted I was a little nauseas from the birth so I was only able to eat a few bites and had to ease my stomach back in!

The Next Few Days

We stayed in that room for a few hours then were transferred to the mother baby unit, where we stayed the remainder of our stay. The rooms at Ochsner were really nice and the staff was great as well! We stayed in the hospital until Monday afternoon and took full advantage of learning from the staff as far as bathing, feeding, latching, swaddling (Dean mastered that), etc.

We finally made our way home with Charli that Monday afternoon, December 2nd, and I, of course, sat with her in the backseat the whole ride home and we drove like old people lol!  Seven weeks later, I’m still a mama bear riding in the back seat, not sure when I will graduate back to the front lol!

The pups did great! Roxie was just excited to see me, Kajun wanted her to throw a toy and was like what is this, and Bernie was obsessed and still is – he follows us everywhere with her and waits in her room for her lol. Kaj and Bernie are opposite of what we thought they would be and Roxie is her home girl, which is a complete surprise to us but we love it! We sent some of Charli’s swaddles home for them to smell and lay on so they would be familiar with her when we got home.  This is Roxie and Bernie below with them and Kajun is in the video!

I cannot go without the biggest Thank You to our dear friend and birth photographer, Caleb Wright (@lefthandphotography), for staying for the entire labor and delivery process and capturing all of these beautiful moments for us.  I will absolutely cherish these forever and I cannot even explain how much they mean to us!  Love you, friend … more like family!

I hope you all enjoyed Charli’s birth story and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to answer them!  For more Charli goodness, follow all of us on Instagram – @thecharliwest, @themichellewest, and @thedeanwest!

XOXO,

Michelle

 

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