Life at the Camfferman's: Charlotte Mae Camfferman

She is finally here!!!!!!!! We couldn't be more happy to finally meet our little baby girl Charlotte. She is so unbelievably precious and we couldn't feel more blessed to have her here. We have spent the last few days getting to know her little by little, and sucking up every little moment possible.

As many of you know we went to the hospital early in the morning on Tuesday, February 2nd to have the amniocentesis done. The doctors wanted to be completely sure that Charlotte's lungs were developed. The process of having that test done was not fun. She was moving around so much during the test that the doctors couldn't get a big enough pocket to stick the long needle in. This meant they had to insert the needle four different times. After the test was finally finished the doctor turned to us and asked if we wanted to start the induction early. Of course, we said yes! However, it was soon decided the test needed to be sent off for better testing, which meant we had to wait until 4 or 5 in the evening to get the results.

It was a very long day of waiting. I had been so sick during the last few weeks of the pregnancy, I had begun to loose weight again due to the fact I couldn't keep much food down. The pain from the gall bladder had begun to make life very difficult. I was more then ready not be pregnant anymore. Those hours of waiting were excruciating. Finally, at around 4 PM we got the call we had been waiting for...her lungs were mature!

So, off to the hospital we went! We arrived around 6:30 and the induction was started around 8. They decided to start with a medication that was supposed to ripen the cervix and get everything ready. The actual induction or medication that was supposed to start contractions, was going to be given Wednesday morning.

When we arrived, it was discovered that I was already 2 1/2 centimeters dilated. Once the first dose of medication was administered I went to 4 cm in about four hours. The doctors thought this was great and gave me a second dose. Within a couple of hours I was very uncomfortable. So, bring on the epidural! Once I could feel the medication and the contractions were less intense, I asked the anaesthesiologist if he got many marriage proposals....he blushed! I laughed!

They check me again and I was already at 6cm. About 45 minutes later the nurse came into the room and was watching the monitors with great interest. I could see that Charlotte's heart rate was dropping with every contraction. The contractions were coming really fast, sometimes as close together as every 30 seconds and she wasn't tolerating it well. My water broke a few minutes later and so I was checked again. 9 1/2 cm. Yep, I went from 6 to 9 1/2 in only 45 minutes. That explained the drop in the heart rate. For the remainder of the labor her heart rate was cause for concern. However, she was finally born at 7:41 AM weighing in at 6 lbs 1 oz and 17 1/2 in long.

They placed this very blue/ purple baby on my belly and my heart leaped. She was here, our sweet baby girl was finally here. My joy was soon turned to concern when she didn't cry. The nurses quickly scooped her up and took her to a small table to check her out. It was probably only about 90 seconds, but it was some of the longest 90 seconds of my life. Finally she cried, what a glorious sound it was. The brought this little bundle over to John and I and we both just looked her over in near disbelief that this was the baby we had been waiting to meet. The whole thing felt so surreal, but so unbelievably special all at the same time.

About an hour later, when we were settled into our room the pediatrician came to check out Charlotte. She was making a grunting noise that the doctor didn't like. She explained that it sounded like Charlotte was having trouble breathing so they took our sweet baby off to the nursery to check her out. I was heart broken. Here we finally had our baby and they were taking her away! After a few hours they finally came back and told us she was doing well. Charlotte had a little fluid on her lungs, but was doing much better. They finally brought her back in the late afternoon and neither John nor myself could take our eyes off her.

We ended up staying in the hospital for what was to be one more night, we were expecting to be discharged early Friday. Instead, we were told that Charlotte had jaundice and needed to be placed under special lights. Seeing our baby girl under the lights and not able to hold her was heart breaking. She was under the lights for over 30 hours. We couldn't take her out but 30 minutes at a time to feed. However, after 30 hours she was well enough to come off the lights and we got to bring our little bundle home!

When we left the hospital both John and I commented that it was still surprising they were actually going to let us take this baby home. It has been such a blessing. We have had to take her to the doctor every day to have her levels check, but they are finally going down!!!

She is so incredibly special. Our little miracle that wasn't supposed to be possible is here. We can't stop cuddling her, watching her, and ewing and awing over her. I would have to say we are totally biased of this little one...she is just so darn cute!

Here are a few pictures of our precious baby girl.

Just minutes old.