It's a...

GIRL!! And I'm still in shock. Charlotte Anne Prochaska was born on Thursday, May 19th at 5:09pm (a whole week before her due date). She weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 20 3/4 inches long!
Wasn't I just complaining about being pregnant forever? That seems like a long time ago, but I guess our little girl got the message. Around 6:30am Thursday morning, I woke up to my water breaking. It was probably the weirdest experience of my life, but it made me so giddy because I knew we would be meeting our baby soon. Jason and I both finished packing our bags and got everything ready to go for the hospital. I started having contractions in the car, but luckily the ride was only about 10-15 minutes. The labor and delivery unit was super slow that morning, so I was given some extra special attention.

I got into my room around 8am (already dilated to 3cm). After a couple of hours of contractions that were getting really close together and stronger, I asked the nurse to check me. She said I was at 5cm, and immediately I asked for an epidural. My goal was to make it to a 5, and I did, so that was great. I got the epidural, but my right side wasn't taking to it as good as the left. Finally, I started feeling relief and before we knew it I was dilated to 9 3/4 cm. This was around 1pm, and my mom and Jason's mom had just gotten to the hospital. Pretty soon, I was ready to start pushing. I pushed for a couple of hours and nothing was really happening. My doctor showed up and noticed that my heartbeat was really high and the baby's was not doing so good when I was pushing. She did an ultrasound and determined that the baby was sunny side up. She gave me two options - keep pushing for a few hours and maybe have to end up with a c-section or go straight to the c-section. My first thought was to keep pushing, but my epidural was wearing off of my right side and I was throwing up from the pain. They said I couldn't have more medicine because they needed to save up for the c-section that was probably inevitable. I didn't want to put the baby at jeopardy since the heartbeat was getting so low, so we opted for the c-section. I was really hurting by this point, but the nurses and doctors were really fast at getting me back there. I think we got back there around 4:45, and Charlotte made her debut at 5:09. Jason got to announce to me that we in fact had a little girl, and I just started crying because I could not believe it and I was so happy to hear her cry. My doctor told me after, that the baby's head was pretty big and I probably would have not been able to push her out. So I was content with my decision to do a c-section.

I didn't get back to the room until close to 6pm. By this time, the nurses and Jason had given Charlotte a bath and cleaned her up so they immediately gave her to me, and I was in love. I could not believe she was our's and that she was so perfect. At this point, our moms were still in the waiting room and had no idea if we had a boy or a girl. So I told Jason he needed to go tell them the good news. He did and they were so thrilled, they immediately left to go buy clothes (of course). Jason came back so we could have our little honeymoon period with Charlotte. Then it was time for her first visitors - our moms, Garrett, and Kassie. They did not get to stay very long because it was already getting pretty late, but I was glad they were there.

I have so much more to write, but I wanted to get Charlotte's birth story on here.

 Brand new!

Proud daddy!

The grandmas!