If our delivery nurse, Claire, hadn’t taken photos of it happening, I would have to replay in my mind & constantly remind myself that this gorgeous little girl waved at me as she came to my chest, having just exited my body. Graphic? perhaps, but to have a “spontaneous” pregnancy (one without medical intervention) make it out of 1st trimester for us hasn’t happened until her. . . . She is a fighting, surreal, miracle. Her middle name holds a lot of meaning: a “renown warrior”, is my mother’s middle name & is a nod to the Greek word for “redemption” (“lutroo”) since she redeems our 3rd and most recent loss in 2018.

Charlotte “Lottie” Louise Krupke
born, July 15th, 2022 @1:33pm
7lbs, 7.6oz; 19.5 inches

She is not only the ONLY spontaneous pregnancy to make it out of the 1st trimester for us, she’s also the largest by virtually TWO POUNDS! Her siblings were 5lbs, 9oz and 5lbs 12oz, so, to deliver a child that comes with a double chin and rolls is so foreign (& fun!).

I had 3 requests for my Birth Plan:

epidural
no fentanyl
hand sweep

A quick run-down of the day:

7am-check in to the maternity center and try to choke on the tears because it was a “pinch me” moment of reality

7:45am-IV was in to start fluids & draw labs

8:15am-pitocin started

10:00am-after a lengthy discussion and digging into my medical record, the anesthesiologist figured out which epidural to give me that was without fentanyl to honor my “no fentanyl” request on our birth plan. They dug into Loch’s delivery almost exactly 6 years prior to find it. I’m so glad I continued to gently advocate for them to look it up because it was a different epidural than he had in his hand to administer. It was worth the digging and the wait! The anesthesiologist was awesome: great sense of humor, compassionate and happy to do the digging.

11:05am-cranked Pitocin to a 10, eventually up to a 12.

12:30pm-OB broke my water

1:24pm-I started to feel pressure which indicated that Baby’s head was engaged and close to arrival. Everyone suited up. Gerard held one of my legs (I delivered on my side per my physical therapist’s recommendation). I thanked him for his assistance in the matter by spraying amniotic fluid onto his shirt, somehow missing the OB while he caught Charlotte. :)

1:33pm-after 6 minutes of pushing, she was here!! There was one round of pushing that I felt the pressure abate and I asked, “Did she just go back up?!” Yes, apparently it’s common for babies to rethink their decision to exit and go back up the canal for a moment. The next two contractions convinced her that Mom gets the veto power and out she came. :) My OB conducted a hand sweep to ensure all remnants of conception were cleared out, lessening my risk of hemorrhage, infection and a complicated recovery like I had with Laidy. (hand sweep: 5 stars, highly recommend)

When a baby is in the birthing canal, the squeeze of contractions forces amniotic fluid out of the baby’s stomach (at least this is my understanding of what we experienced). Because Lottie was in the canal for such a short period of time, she had a good amount of fluid still in her tummy and she came out with a more subdued cry. We are so accustomed to our other two children being operatic criers that I was instantly worried and wondering why she wasn’t crying much. It took a lot of suctioning and eventually, her first night, they did suction her stomach in the nursery. This helped her to feel hunger and want to nurse more often. Honestly, the fluid keeping her from being hungry helped me for the first night because my after-birth contractions were so excruciating, that to nurse her every 2 hours would have been incomprehensible to me as I sit and type this.

Every subsequent delivery, these after birth contractions get progressively stronger. One nurse described it as “your uterus is in an Olympic sporting event” and if that’s the case, then mine would’ve easily earned the gold medal. While this was our 3rd delivery, the nurse did reference that it was my 6th pregnancy, so my uterus was acting accordingly. The pain had me emitting such loud and never-before-used sounds that a nurse not assigned to our room, knocked on our door and asked, “How can I help you?” because our assigned nurse was working with another patient at the time. It was worse than any pain I’ve felt in labor (a solid NINE if not TEN on the 1-10 scale they constantly asked me about) and it took quite a bit of doing to get the pain meds to match the management I needed. By morning, we decided I needed perkoset (spelling?) which is usually a drug reserved for c-section patients. But, by Discharge Day, I was down to ibuprofen & Tylenol. Is Lottie worth it? Yes.

Our delivery nurse, Claire, was so wonderful. She was well versed in Spinning Babies, which is a technique that kept me moving positions every 20-30 minutes to keep Baby moving closer to her exit. Every time we increased my epidural med, I’d have a wave of emotion hit and Claire would massage my hands to help me relax. My teeth would chatter, my anxiety would spike, but Claire breathed with me through all of it. My epidural was a gentle one-allowing me to still feel and have control of my legs so that I could help Gerard & Claire move my positioning, but taking away the pain. (Shout out to Dr. Peterson for that!) On our second morning, when Claire walked into the room, we both cheered outloud because we were so happy to see her again. She was everything I prayed for in a nurse as we walked onto the maternity floor the morning of our delivery.

Charlotte’s first bath, feet prints and nursing all went smoothly. Lactation visited a few times as did the pediatrician and her nurse. Charlotte is our first “daytime” baby so we got a lengthier stay than our 11:12pm and 7:09pm deliveries with Laidy & Loch. By Discharge Day, we were ready to go. My only hesitation was my pain level-I didn’t want our kids to hear me be in that much pain. Thankfully, my mom and Gerard were great buffers, keeping them occupied and I was able to swallow it for the most part. Now, Day 5, I’m walking better (tailbone & hip pain are still present, but that’s what chiro and PT are for!) and the after birth pains have largely abated. (phew!)

Now, time to thoroughly enjoy the snuggles!!

She's Here!