Claire's Birth Story || November 15, 2017

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Well, given that Claire is now 3.5 weeks old I figured I should try and get her birth story written. I do not know how anyone with three kids blogs...I barely have time to eat. 
I digress, let's get this written before someone needs food or a butt wiped.

On the morning of November 15th I started having contractions around 5:30am. I'd been experiencing braxton hicks contractions pretty much my entire pregnancy, and I definitely knew these were different and real. It was a Wednesday so I knew that I needed to get the kids to school, which meant I needed to get them and myself ready.

Around 7 I realized the contractions were coming about every 4-6 minutes. Although they weren't real painful I still felt they were the real deal since I'd never actually had contractions without pitocin. I also knew that bowel movements are common before labor, and well, twice in one morning is enough to make me a believer. I called my mom (who was 5 hours away) and told her I was pretty sure it was happening. I also called Sean who, as I knew he would be, was skeptical and not in any hurry. And although I was a little skeptical too, I definitely wanted to at least be checked and see if I was at least progressing.


I got the kids and car seats dropped off at school around 8 and arranged their transportation for the afternoon with friends. I got home and finished getting ready, gathering a few last minute items, and picking up a bit. The contractions were still continuing on about the same at this point.

Sean arrived home around 8:45 and we left for the hospital about 9:20. By this point the time between my contractions had actually spread to more like 9 minutes but they had progressed in intensity and I actually felt like something was happening. 


We arrived at the hospital around 9:55, after a quick stop for some breakfast. They got me into a room and said they would monitor my contractions for a couple of hours and we'd go from there. They checked my uterus and I was dilated 3cm, which was progress from two days before when I was almost 2cm.

After being there for about two hours they checked me again and there had been no change in dilation, and my contractions had slowed down substantially. The nurses called my doctor to get his thoughts and he gave us the choice to go home or stay and induce. Since I was already two days past my due date and knew we'd probably be back soon, at 12:30 we decided to stay and induce. 



Coincidentally, or not, almost as soon as we decided to stay my contractions picked back up on their own. I blame it on the lab work and IV since they made me nervous and tense, but whatever. They went ahead with the pitocin at 12:45 and at 1:20 my doctor came in to break my water. Everything after this point went super fast and is kind of a blur but I tried to record as much as possible.

My contractions really picked up once he broke my water and I was dilated to a 4 almost immediately. The nurses went ahead and called in the anesthesiologist for my epidural and by the time she got there I was in some serious pain. The epidural was in by 2:30 and I had progressed from 4-7cm over the course an hour. 


After the epidural was in my blood pressure immediately dropped. They had me lay back and had to give me meds to bring it back up. The medicine caused it to spike up really fast so it caused me to have a migraine. Thankfully Claire was totally fine during all of this, but Sean was in a bit of shock once they let him back into the room and he saw me laid back on oxygen. 


By 3:00pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. Claire made it easy on me and was born by 3:14pm...with a head full of dark hair. And let me just add, pushing with a migraine...not so fun, but like I said, thankfully she came quick.


Since this is our third baby to be delivered by Dr. R we have a wonderful relationship with him and he let me hold her for a few minutes before Sean cut the umbilical cord. It was really sweet and surreal. And feeling my heartbeat through her is something I'll never forget. 


After a few minutes they got her weighed, 7 lbs, 10 oz (our heaviest baby), and wrapped up. She pretty much just wanted to cuddle and sleep immediately, and that pretty much hasn't changed since. We were, and are, just so thankful for another happy and healthy baby.














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