Charlotte Louise Leonte

Lily has a little sister: Charlotte born on Dec 9!! Charlotte came in 3 weeks early at 37 weeks on the day. I guess she was eager to meet us! She totally surprised me who was not prepared for her early arrival, especially with work, but I am now SO happy to have her...and it was great having her around for the holidays.

How she came to us: It was the night of Wednesday Dec 8 when I woke up feeling like I was peeing on myself around 11:30pm shortly after having gone to bed...I rushed to the bathroom and I remember feeling like: Oh my god! this can't be it!! it's so early but I quickly dismissed it and thought, ok, she's coming, let's get ready! After the initial first gush came out, I went downstairs to tell Lucian who couldn't believe me at first and we started to talk about what to do...calling my doc was the first thing I did, while at the same time preparing some food for Lily for the next couple of days...I was feeling fine, no contractions...a midwife from the doc's office finally got back to me and told me I could wait at home until the contractions were close given i wasn't at a risk for infection (I tested negative for strep B bacteria) ...So I continued preparing Lily's meals, put my bag together for the hospital and sent a few work emails to let people know what was happening...then I went to bed. It was probably around 1am, something like that. I was hoping I could make it until the next morning so we wouldn't have to wake up Lily in the middle of the night and could simply drop her off at daycare...and that's what happened....The contractions came through the night and I worked through them, breathing, trying to use the techniques I learned in the hypnobirthing sessions I attended...I was trying to sleep but I was way too excited and busy keeping track of the time between contractions...eventually they were closer and stronger and by morning time, probably around 7am it was time to go...Lucian went to wake up Lily while I got ready, went to prepare some breakfast...by now the contractions were about 5 minutes apart and very painful. I had to go lay down on the couch to get through them...We rushed Lily a bit and got in the car. By that time I was in pain, strong pain and it was hard holding my screams not to scare Lily...I managed though and I remember dropping her off at Brigid's and saying goodbye. Then we sped up to get to the hospital. I was screaming and holding on to Lucian's arm in the car. He was freaking out but still tried to reassure me...Finally we got there, got a wheelchair and I was brought up to the room, all the while trying to get through the contractions. Once in the room things went really fast. I remember the nurse telling me I was probably a "6" to which I responded I was hoping for an "8"... as it turns out I was closer to the truth as Megan, the midwife told me I was pretty much all ready!! So I began pushing...laying down initially but I didn't like that position and I knew it didn't work for me with Lily so we tried having me squat...and that worked a lot better. By then the doctor was there too and everyone was encouraging me. After a few pushes squatting they asked me to go back to the laying down position but I pushed against the bars on the side with my legs...shortly after baby girl came out. The pain was excrutiating but not long and she was there!! I couldn't believe it. All together it was around 30 minutes since we had entered the hospital. Everyone congratulated me and told me how great of a job I did...I was just overwhelmed. I felt like everything had gone so quickly!! They put her on my chest and I felt so much joy. She was so small, she was perfect!

I'm proud to have been able to have a totally natural birth -- that was my goal. I didn't have a "hypnobirth" as I definitely wasn't silent during the contractions, at least not toward the end but I did what I had to do to get through them! And the delivery was SO much easier than the first time! incredible how different the experience was! And I didn't have to disrupt Lily during the night, she was able to go to daycare as usual which was great.