Late afternoon on January 16th 2020 I decided to take a nap.
I woke up around 3 hours later and realized my water had broke!
I decided to make sure I had everything packed up and sat around for just a bit because my mom was making me cupcakes and I knew once I got to the hospital I wouldn’t be allowed to eat.
After about an hour, I decided to call my mom and tell her my water had broke but, not to come to the house until the cupcakes were done.
Next thing I knew, she showed up with a plate of cupcakes and I was rushing out the door.
It was raining and cold that evening, so the drive to Shawnee was tiring. We got to the hospital and the nurses got me all situated and the waiting started.
After a while my mom, brother, and Kelsey were there too. We waited forever. Sometime the next day the nurses ended up having to put me on oxygen. Charlee’s heart rate dropped and I started to get nervous.
I was already nervous because she wasn’t supposed to come for another 5 weeks.
After a while, I dozed off and woke up to machines going off again telling us that Charlee’s heart rate had dropped again.
By this point, I was very uncomfortable and worried about my baby. The next time my doctor came in he asked if I wanted to talk about a C-section yet.
This time I said yes instead of the insistent no I had been saying. After talking with him I decided to go back for the C-section. I was super scared but didn’t want to cry, because at that point my mom was already crying.
They wheeled me back to the operating room and I remember being very scared and cold. I had just went from a room full of my people to a room full of strangers.
The nurse that sat me up and held me in position while they did my spinal block was super nice.
I remember she had on a beautiful dragonfly necklace. I stared at her necklace the whole time they were giving me that spinal block.
She laid me down and within 30 minutes they said, “she’s here”.
I didn’t hear a cry and I instantly became more terrified than I ever have been in my life.
After what seemed like forever, there was a small shriek. Relief flooded over me and I was so ready to hold her.
They then told me she needed to go to the nursery, because she needed a little help breathing.
I was so sad I didn’t get to hold her but so thankful for the nurses that held her up so I could at least see her.
She was 4 pounds 7 ounces born at 7:31 p.m.
Charlee was gorgeous, so small and perfect. My whole world changed that day and what an adventure it’s been ever since.