Charlie Benjamin

On September 11, I quite quickly went from this:

35 weeks pregnant

To this:

Little baby Charlie Benjamin was born, weighing 5 lbs 8 oz

with my doula, Tara

Here's the quick version of the birth story without too many gory details:  I went into labor while at orientation day at Andrew's preschool.  It was about 2:30 pm that I decided to sit down and take it easy and write down the times of my contractions.  They were about 3 minutes apart(!), but not so strong that it was clear that I was in labor.  Once preschool was over at 2:45 we drove home and I called Paul and told him to come home from work, just in case.  I sent Andrew to a friends house to play, and I called my doula, Tara, at 4 pm and asked her to please come over.  While she was on her way, Paul packed for the hospital while I told him what to pack from my position in bed.  Per Tara's instructions, I was lying in bed on my side with one knee up to try to intensify the contractions and make them longer (a plan which didn't sound at all appealing to me, but I did as I was told).  Intense they were, and I'm sure all the neighbors who were home that day heard me screaming.  Tara arrived shortly after 5 pm and massaged my back through just 2 or 3 contractions before my water broke with a pop during a contraction.  We headed into the bathroom, at which point, I felt like I needed to start pushing.  We quickly decided that driving to the hospital my OB delivers at 16 miles away in rush hour traffic on the freeway was not a good idea, so Paul, Tara, and I got in the car together and headed to the nearest hospital.  The drive to the hospital was pretty scary and uncomfortable.  Tara was in the back seat with me, who was on all fours with my butt in the air so as not to push the baby out while in the car.  She coached me through every contraction to blow through it and not push.  Once we got to the hospital, we signed a few papers, got into a delivery room, and I was finally able to push.  I pushed about 20 minutes and then Charlie was born at 5:46 pm.  He came out crying, pink, and perfect.  I'm so happy that I was able to have a completely natural birth.  It was pretty much the best birth I could hope for.

Andrew got to come to the hospital to meet his new baby brother just 4 hours after he was born.  Andrew is very happy to finally be a big brother.

Despite being born 4 1/2 weeks early, Charlie was healthy and able to come home with us after my 2-night stay in the hospital.  

Andrew's already teaching Charlie how to play x-box