For those of you that haven't heard her birth story, here it is. On Tuesday, June 14th I woke up at about 4 AM with some mild, irregular contractions. I was excited but not completely sure that it meant she would be here soon. The contractions continued all through the day and finally around 10 PM the contractions started developing a pattern. Joe was so excited he could hardly sit still and insisted that we pack our hospital bag just in case. I still wasn't convinced that she was coming just because the contractions were so mild and were 10 minutes apart, lasting about 15 seconds a piece but I was proven wrong.
At 2 AM we left for the hospital. My contractions were 5 minutes apart and each lasted a minute or longer but they were sometimes so mild I could hardly feel them. So we got all checked into the hospital and they hooked me up to all the little machines. The nurse came in and checked me and I was dilated to 2 cm and 90% effaced but my contractions were not hard enough to be admitted so they sent us home. I was instructed to stay at home until I could no longer talk through a contraction so I labored at home from 3-8:30 AM which by this point I was still doing fine with the pain but the contractions were getting too close for our liking. We left for the second time for the hospital and this time they admitted me. I was dilated to 5 cm and 100% effaced. After getting all settled in they allowed me to walk the hallways and soak in the tub. The midwife was pretty optimistic that I would deliver before 1 that afternoon so we were pretty excited. After a few hours the contractions were getting harder but Joe was an awesome coach and kept me focused and laughing. My mom arrived to be there with me around 11 and we were all so sure that I would be able to complete the delivery completely natural.
But when 1 PM rolled around I hadn't progressed at all. Our midwife was afraid that if I didn't start progressing soon that I would be too tired for delivery and suggested we start me on some pitocin. Once that was started the feeling of the contractions changed completely. They were hard and unnatural but I pushed through the pain with no pain medication until the pitocin pain level reached a 6. I was able to handle it until she checked me again at around 5 PM and I was STILL at 5 cm. She explained that she needed to up the dosage some more and that's when I finally broke down and cried. The pain was too much and to think about it getting worse was overwhelming so I decided to go with the epidural. While we waited for the epidural they injected a pain medication into my IV and upped the dosage on the pitocin. The medication made me feel loopy and dizzy and caused my entire body to shake. I could hardly concentrate on Joe telling me to breathe. I was getting frustrated and the pain was becoming unbearable. About a half an hour later the anesthesiologist arrived and proceeded to stick me with that huge needle THREE times while I tried to breathe through the contractions and Joe held my shaking body as still as he could and tried to get me to stop crying. But as soon as the epidural started to work I was in heaven!
At around 7:15 PM the midwife came to check me again and I was finally at 10 cm!!! She said I could start pushing and after 2 hours we could see the top of her head but her heart rate was starting to get too high so they called a doctor in to use the little vacuum on her head in order to get her out as soon as possible. Two pushes later and at 9:49 PM our little girl was finally born! They placed her on my chest and I was so relieved and happy to finally have her here that all I could do was cry. She cried with me on my chest while Joe stood next to us just beaming. :) He was so excited he just kept kissing both of us and kept telling me over and over that she was finally here. It was a wonderful moment to finally have our family of three.
My mom stayed with us through the whole thing and took a ton of pictures. Here are just a few.
Before they started the pitocin
It was a long and hard day for all of us but in the end it was so worth it! We love our baby girl and can't imagine life without her.
Love the last picture of Claire. She is beautiful! So impressed that you held out for as long as you did with the pain. You are a rockstar!
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