Clara Jane's Birth Story

So, in my last post, I said I was having some contractions, and they were timeable, but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be the day. Afterall, it was 10 days before my due date and I wasn't ready. There was so much I had planned to do the week of January 3rd once Jenna was back in day care. So much to do to prep for the baby, to have a little down time to myself. To enjoy being pregnant for the last time. The pregnancy was treating me well, I wasn't miserable. I needed a pedicure. :)

At 3am on January 3rd, I woke up with pregnancy insomnia. Pretty typical. I waited a half hour in bed and decided to get up to get some work done. Payroll was due the next day and I wanted to get the time sheets prepped. I went to log into my work computer (remotely) and I couldn't get in for some reason. Hence, the blogging. I was just awake.

About 4am, I noted some contractions. Not painful, but I did recognize there was a pattern to them. So I started writing down the start times. 4 minutes apart. Hmmm... My last labor progressed really quickly, so I definitely was paying attention. I was starving all the sudden, so I went to make a bowl of oatmeal (the frozen stuff from TJ's is awesome, btw) at about 5:00. The contractions were progressively becoming more painful and I had to start breathing through them a bit. In between each contraction, I was doing great. I went back to bed at 5:30 in hopes of slowing the contractions down. It did that, but it also made them stronger. They were 6 minutes apart but I had to really go to my happy, calm, labor place to get through them. I did visualization with my last delivery, and I had been reviewing the materials periodically through this pregnancy. I was much more calm this time around, and I think that helped in the long run.

I decided I would wake Nick at 6:30, 20 minutes before Jenna wakes up to tell him I was in labor and this was most likely it. I sat and thought about the January 3rd birthday that this baby girl would likely have. I thought about all I hoped and planned to do with this week, while Jenna was at day care, Nick was at work and I was going to put my feet up, read, shop and relax before the baby comes. Of course, that all went out the window. I continued to breath through the contractions.

I remembered last time I was rather violent with each contraction... Yelling, groaning, in pain, voicing that pain for all to hear. This time, I realized the less I 'fought' each contraction, the easier they passed. They were still painful but I was able to focus to get through them. I knew they would end soon, I could feel them ramp up, peak and fade out. It helped that they were 3-5 minutes apart, so I had time to collect my thoughts, talk to Nick or do whatever I needed to do in between.

So I woke Nick up, told him and no less than 10 seconds after I told him, Jenna got up early for the day. We sent her back to her bed, told her to wait for her alarm clock to turn green. Nick got in the shower, I laid back down for 10 minutes before Jenna got up for good for the day (6:55 am). I got her dressed, she didn't question my brief pauses as I worked through each contraction. Thoughts flew through my head of 'what if this isn't really it? We would have called all the grandparents to come down for nothing' but another contraction would hit, and I knew this baby was coming.

I got in the shower while Nick called his parents and my parents. At 7:30 I called Labor & Delivery and told them the contractions varied from 3-5 minutes apart, but that they were definitely painful and my first labor progressed quickly. They said it was time to come in and they would be expecting me. I let them know that we would be awhile as we had to drop my daughter off first.

I was still in denial. We took our time packing up the car and getting Jenna ready to get in the car. We finally arrived at Uncle Mike and Aunt Heidi's at around 8:30. It took Nick a bit of time to get the car seat out and Jenna's items in their house. I remember watching them walk up the stairs to the house thinking this was the last time our family would only have 3 members. Jenna looked so big and was so excited to hang out with Uncle Mike. She practically kicked us out.

On the way to the hospital, I was still starving. I asked Nick if we could stop to get something to eat, and he said we should probably just get to the hospital. I knew I was stalling. Still in denial. She was early. 10 days early. I wasn't really ready to deliver, I wasn't done being pregnant.

We arrived at the hospital, I was doing really well in between contractions. Nick actually wasn't sure if this was really it because I was doing so well with the contractions, joking with him in between them. When we went to admitting, there was already a couple sitting there. We stood in the hall and the couple kept offering me their chair but I told them it was worse if I sat. Another couple came in about 5 minutes after us, so there were 3 of us that needed to be admitted. The nurses went a little nuts and called for all backups. We were taken down to the surgery center to be admitted, and just in time, we ended up getting into triage fairly quickly. When we got there, there was a woman that was just being checked in the bed next to us, she was 7 cm and her water had broken without her knowledge. Yikes.

They finally checked me and I was 5 cm. Just like last time. I was being patient, apparently everyone had come in to deliver at the same time. During a contraction, I heard someone talk to Nick, and when I opened my eyes, it was the nurse that helped deliver my niece. She went to school with Nick and Mike and announced to the triage nurse that she would be taking us. We then walked to the Labor Suite and that fired the contractions up again once more.

Once in the room, I was debating getting an epidural or not. Last time I didn't have the opportunity, things just progressed too quickly. I emailed my work to let them know I was in labor, and wouldn't be able to submit payroll. That yielded a bunch of texts (and maybe phone calls, I don't remember) back and forth and finally I realized if I waited much longer, I likely wouldn't get the epidural. So I asked for it. Our nurse said she would go get an anesthesiologist as quickly as possible if I wanted one but offered to check my progress to see if things had progressed (to help firm up my decision if need be). I sat down and turned and my water broke. I knew things were about to progress very quickly and when she checked me, I was between 6&7 cm.

She got the IV started, and the anesthesiologist was in the room in a matter of minutes. She gave me the epidural, which wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be (WAY better than a natural childbirth!!) and my nurse said the baby just had to turn and things would move along quickly. This was around 11:30. She had me lay on my side, told me to close my eyes for a bit, let the epidural settle in and call her when I felt pressure.

She said that women who rest tend to have a quicker birth than those that don't. I wasn't sure what to expect. I popped on twitter and/or facebook, then closed my eyes for about a half hour. Suddenly, I felt the urge. I called the nurse, someone else came in. Our nurse was just finishing up lunch and was told to be called when I did. She came in a few minutes later. She checked me and I was fully dilated. I said I feel like I have to push she said 'Go ahead'. I'm pretty sure my eyes bugged out of my head. I gave a push, she watched the progress, called for the midwife and said 'We've got a good pusher'. That was a relief. Last time pushing took so long I was sore for days. I didn't want that again.

The midwife came in (also the same midwife that delivered my niece) and we had to wait for a contraction. So she's there, staring at me. I pushed at about 1pm and her head came out. We had to sit and wait for another contraction to deliver the shoulders and body. At 1:07 pm, Clara Jane was born. I can't believe it took only 2 pushes. She was perfect. And didn't look like Jenna to me at all. That's what I was expecting. But perfect. Beautiful, serene.

She hung out on my chest for awhile and we stared at her. They were cleaning up below. We got an anatomy lesson on the placenta which was more fascinating than gross (believe it or not) and we just watched her. I nursed her a bit, then they took her to be weighted. The nurse was shocked at her weight and actually had to weigh her again. She thought she must weigh more than 6 lbs. 9 oz. but both times, that's what the scale said. She was well proportioned, but small in weight. She immediately earned the name 'peanut'. She was 19.5 inches long. Her hair was curly at delivery (and continues to be curly if wet, but straight when it's dry).

Enough jabber... on to pictures...

Introducing her to her sister:

Nick saved this shirt for 'Labor Day'. It was inspiring :)

First photo as a family of 4

Jenna was so excited to come and meet baby 'Tula'.

And she promptly ate my whole lunch once Clara had moved on to Grandma

Here's her first little photo shoot:

I love her. She's absolutely perfect. Our family feels so complete now. I don't feel like we've taken anything away from Jenna, I feel like we've added more love to our little nest. Jenna adores her, looks after her, loves to give hugs and kisses. She helps with diapers, brings me water when I'm nursing and has done fabulous all around.

My heart is really complete with the addition of Clara Jane to our family.

Birth Story

So, I woke up at 12:48 to a contraction. It's actually a pretty common occurrence around these parts (or, at least it had been at this point). I laid in bed for an hour (also normal for my middle of the night awakenings) before getting up and heading to the living room.

By now it's roughly 2am and I was timing the contractions. During the first hour, they were 10 minutes apart. When I was in the living room, they quickly progressed to 7 minutes apart then down to every 5 minutes. At 3:30am, I realized this wasn't a false labor episode and I needed help getting through the contractions. I went and got Nick and he did a fantastic job. The contractions at this point were down to every 4 minutes, and lasting ~90 seconds each. We waited the requisite hour before calling L&D and when we did, they said "Since it's her first baby, it will still be awhile, have her get in the shower and labor for another hour, then call back"

So I went to get in the shower. Nick continued to time the contractions which were less than 3 minutes apart at this point and finally at 5 am, we called back (30 minutes after first call) and they said to come in. My parents were staying with us, too, so they drove separately to the hospital at the same time.

Once we arrived, it was 2 contractions before I could make the short walk from the elevator to the admitting desk at L&D. Luckily, there was an awesome hospital employee that took down my MR number and got the paperwork started for me. Once in triage, they checked me right away and I was measuring 5 cm. OK, good. But they were really getting tough. I kept waffling about asking for the epidural, as they were really getting to be unbearable and my initial "goal" was to wait until ~ 5 or 6 cm prior to getting an epidural, should I choose to ask for it at the time.

I was then moved to a room (time is slipping away now, I have no clue what time it was when I got to the room, but we arrived at the hospital at about 5:30). Once in the room, I'm working through the contractions and I decided to ask for the epidural. I was in so much pain and starting to get frantic. Nick was SO great, just rubbing my back and holding my hand held fan (A MUST!!). He kept telling me I could do it, and that's exactly what I needed to hear.

Then I realized between me getting a bit frantic, saying "I can't do this, it's not going to happen" and I suddenly got the urge to push. I asked to be checked again, even though it had only been about an hour since my last exam. The midwife was asking me if I wanted to be checked to avoid an epidural, and I said I just felt that I needed to be checked, and if it was to avoid the epi, so be it.

She checked me. 9.5 cm with a tiny paper thin lip to the cervix left. She said "Feel free to push".

That was honestly what I had hoped happened, as I really didn't *want* an epidural, but I wanted to leave my options open as you really can't plan labor.

So, I started to push at 7:30 am. Holy hell that was hard. With every push, it was 2 steps forward, one step backward. They kept making me change position in order to get more movement. I liked the squat bar best. Towards the end, they gave me oxygen, because I was getting tired and apparently the baby's heartbeat was dropping with each contraction/push. They made me roll on my side, which was awful, but they told me "YOU HAVE TO GET THIS BABY OUT NOW".

I really didn't realize the severity of the situation, but I pushed with all my might. I could feel the tearing (small tears, but when you feel your urethra tearing, you pay attention). And the midwife was yelling "Push through it!!"

Moments later, her head was out, her cord was wrapped around her neck and they unwrapped it and she was here. Amazing.

I've always heard of the postpartum 'down there' care, but no one told me how sore my entire body would be! I even have to watch how hard I exert myself because just going to the bathroom (walking there and back) would put me out of breath because of how fatigued all of my muscles were. But, of course, in the end, it's oh, so worth it.

Breastfeeding is going well (started within 20 minutes of delivery) and she's super healthy. It's amazing to think of how far we've come and how long we've waited for her. Now that she's here, I hardly remember how it was without her.