Love This Girl

it took a second for her to cry when she was born and she still doesn't cry much. charlene mae mckay was born on monday morning just a few minutes after eleven. my membranes were stripped last tuesday, the day before i was 38 weeks pregnant, and i was scheduled for an induction sunday night. i checked into the hospital at eleven pm sunday and after monitoring the baby and myself for a while, my nurse hooked me up to pitocin at 1:40 am. then she told me that i was dilated to a three. i was so mad i had only progressed 1 cm since my membranes were stripped. i called kyle (who dropped me off at the hospital and drove a mile away to my parents home with addison - stinker) to let him know what was going on. then i went to sleep.

remembering that my contractions became painful within 15 to 20 minutes with addison's birth, i wasn't expecting to sleep for very long. it surprised me every time the nurse came in to check on me that i still wasn't in pain. thirty minutes, forty five minutes, and hour and a half passed without any pain. i could feel my stomach tighten every couple minutes, but there was no pain. when i compared that to addy's birth, i knew this labor was going to be longer than hers. at four a.m. i finally started to feel more pressure with each contraction and knew that pain would soon follow. i called kyle and told him to come to the hospital.

but charlene was in no hurry. when kyle got to the hospital, any pain that was starting to build left completely and we both fell back asleep.

dr. huff came in at 7:15 monday morning and broke my water. at that time i was dilated to a four and was upset with how slow i was progressing. i just knew this baby had to come within the hour like addison came 30 minutes after my water broke. this labor couldn't have been more different than addison's. one hour later and i was just starting to get pain with my contractions. i was so excited! gradually that pain became more and more intense and they continued to give me more pitocin. at 10:30 i asked for an epidural and had it at 10:45. my experience with the epidural was much better this time. with addison's birth i had a severe case of the itches for several hours, so when i told the anesthesiologist her answer was to give me less of the drug fentanyl. because of the lower dose of fentanyl, my epidural wasn't as strong and i could partly feel each contraction throughout the rest of the labor. it was perfect because i could feel when to push later on with out being in pain. my nurse checked my progress at 10:50 and told me i was dilated to a 9 1/2. she figured i was probably a seven or eight when i got the epidural.

five minutes later (10:55) she checked me again and told me i was complete! i was so excited. dr. huff came right in and i was pushing at eleven. charlene was born at 11:06. just over five minutes of pushing, it was so fast! i got that epidural at the perfect time. i wasn't in as much shock as i was with addison, but i remember right before i saw her i couldn't imagine what she could possibly look like except for exactly like addison. it was a shock to see how different she was.

she came perfect with all her finger and toes and i got to hold her right away. charly has a sweet bunch of long hair on the crown of her head. her ears lie straight back (thank goodness). she has adorable chubbiness tucked away in every little crevice possible. charly is completely her own person and looks nothing like addison or any of the mckay's except for her slight dimples. when looking at baby pictures, she shares similarities with my sister kenna and me.

interesting thing i learned from dr. huff about big babies: they mature slower than small babies and are happy to stay in the womb while small babies are under stress and mature quicker so they can come out sooner. so i have happy, healthy babies! as delivery approaches, babies shed their coating of vernix, but charlene was born with a thick coating if the creamy vernix all over, indicating that she hadn't started to plan her exit yet. if she had come on her due date (dec 15), she would've weighed about the same as addison (9 lb 7 oz); and if she would've gone four days overdue like addy, charlene would have been around 10 lb 1 oz! thank goodness i was induced!
quick facts:
name: charlene mae mckay
born: december 6th, 2010 at: 11:06 a.m.
weight: 8 lbs 14 oz height: 21 1/4 inches
hair: long and dark

note: even though she weighed less than addison, she measured bigger. addison was 21 inches long and charly was 1/4 of an inch longer. addy's head and chest were both 12 inches while charly's head was 14 1/2 inches and chest was 12 inches. i had three deep tears with addison and no tears with charly. healing has been a night and day difference so far. i wrote with addy's story that my recovery was great, and now i wonder why i said that. it was horrible; this recovery has been great!
charlene was named after her great grandma charlene brown (the one that was recently married) and her great-great grandma ella mae mccleve. we fell in love with that name a few months back when i realized that by naming her after grandma charlene and calling her charly, we could pay tribute both to my grandma and my late grandpa charles. how many people can do that?!

charlene is a beautiful baby, hugged and kissed to death by big sister addison who loves everything about her. two beautiful girls. i am completely happy!