I am going to start by sharing her birth story, because I want to write it down in detail before I lose my memory of it!
We found out we were pregnant with Claire shortly before Halloween, 2010. We had just finished the Ironman and wanted to wait a little bit and try for a family. But, she did not want to wait! I took three pregnancy tests just to be sure, and they were all positive. I was going to surprise Brady by finding a creative way to tell him about the baby, but I was too excited and had to tell him right away. Plus, I thought he might notice the prenatal vitamins!! We decided to wait until we had our first ultrasound to tell our parents, but we wanted to tell someone, so we told Angie and Jerry on Thanksgiving weekend. We had our ultrasound the next week and then we sent the ultrasound photos to our parents as a way of telling them. They were beside themselves with excitement! My pregnancy went really well. No morning sickness, just really tired. Then, in February, we found out we were having a girl~ and Brady wanted right away to name her Claire. It was decided! It was great to feel her move and kick and punch, and I knew she'd be active and do things on her own time. We found out we were due June 23, 2011, so we eagerly awaited that day, not knowing what to expect.
Well, the day came, and went. No baby. No signs of baby! I had a doctor's appointment that day and I was only dilated 1 cm with no cervical effacement. We scheduled an appointment for the next week. I was sure she'd be born by then.
Nope. I went to the doc on June 28th, hoping for some good news. I was dilated 3 cm and had been having some pretty regular, strong contractions, but nothing else had been happening. We scheduled an induction for that Saturday, 7/2, but my doc assured me that she thought we would be having Claire earlier. I asked her if my baby was going to be 10 lbs and she thought that she would be right around 7. I was hoping she was right. By this time I had gained 40 lbs and I was sure that half of it was baby.
The night of June 29th, my contractions were becoming more regular. I was timing them but I didn't want to tell Brady since he is sort of a worrier. All night I was thinking, "Is this the night she'll make her debut?" I woke up the next morning, disappointed, because I thought things were starting to happen. But around 6:15 I started getting really regular contractions that were roughly 4 minutes apart. I decided to take a shower and dry my hair, spend a long time on my makeup, make sure my hospital bag was packed to my liking, make sure the diaper bag was packed. Then Brady and I walked to the grocery store - I didn't want to go far in case something big happened. When we got home, my contractions picked up a little in intensity and I am pretty sure my water broke then. It was about 10:30. It started with a slow trickle. I called Meriter to see if I should come in and they told me to wait but that if I had a gush of fluid, I should call back. So, Brady got an oil change and washed his car, then went to pick up sandwiches. As we were eating, my water really broke. Like, without a doubt. I called Meriter back and they told me to come in. Luckily, we were all packed and ready. We debated about calling our parents right then but we decided we should wait until we were sure we were getting admitted before we had everyone drive here. We got to the triage department and they ran a test to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid, and indeed I was! I got hooked up to the fetal monitor to track Claire's progress and waited to get admitted to a room. Brady and I were shooting the breeze, and my contractions were getting even stronger. I was having a hard time talking through them at that point, and they were coming about every two minutes.
At about 1:30, I got into my room, and the nurse encouraged me to take some walks. They started my IV and IV fluids, and started my penicillin running, and we did some laps around the hallway. I had to stop almost at every side of the square because of a contraction, and I was so hot that I made Brady turn the room temperature down to about 60 degrees. I did a little more walking and then got extremely uncomfortable. I sat down on a birthing ball, which actually felt quite nice, but then I got nauseous and threw up all over into a garbage can (I knew I shouldn't have eaten that sandwich!) It was then that I asked for something for pain, just to take the edge off. They gave me some numorphan, my first experience with IV pain medicine. It felt so weird. I felt like I was dreaming. I could still feel the pain, but I didn't care! Note the dreamlike look in my eyes.
I put my headphones in and tried to drift off to sleep. It was right around that time that my mom showed up. I was so glad to see her and she was relieved to have gotten there before Claire was born, since when she had me, it was start to finish in about two hours!
I started becoming nauseous again, and I asked for an epidural. I was going to try to do it naturally, but the nausea was getting to be too much for me. It was a little bit of time before the anesthesiologists could come and do the epidural, so I waited, puking, until they got there. When they arrived, who other than Tim Strigenz showed up! I work with him a lot in TLC, so it was good to have a familiar face. I told him to skip the discussion about risks and benefits and just do the epidural. So he did, and it was fabulous!! I barely felt a thing after that. My right leg went numb but I could still sort of move my left, so the poor nurses had to help me move both my legs and my butt. I couldn't even feel my contractions, which was bliss. Every now and again, mom and Brady would say "Whoa, that was a long one!" and I would just listen and smile.
Claire's heart rate stayed so solid throughout the entire labor. After I got my epidural, my contraction pattern changed a little bit so they started me on some pitocin. I think it was on for about 5 minutes and then they turned it off because my contractions were so close together! It was at this point that I remember thinking, "Geez, no wonder no one gets any sleep in the hospital!" The nurses were coming in and out constantly, turning me, turning drugs on and off, putting oxygen on me, etc. I think Claire's heart rate must have dropped slightly with the pitocin; I don't really remember when the oxygen went on my face, but I had it on for a long time. The rest of the evening went by in sort of a blur. I remember that Angie and Marge and Jeff came to visit me while I was brushing my teeth and taking out my contacts. I remember the nurses coming in at 11 p.m. and telling me I was completely dilated but that we would wait an hour for Claire to come down more in my pelvis. I remember thinking that I was going to have a July baby, and I liked that idea. Then I tried to sleep.
At midnight, Dr. Bills and my nurse, Sara, told me that it was time to start pushing. They had me do a practice push, and Sara told me that I was a good pusher and likely wouldn't push long. Famous last words. I pushed, and pushed, and pushed. I was on my back, my side, my other side. Brady held one leg, then the other. I used a sheet tied around a bar. I held my own legs. Dr. Bills and his resident came in and out, in and out. I don't know how all the time passed, but shortly before 3 a.m., Dr. Bills came in and asked if I could push for another half hour. I asked him what happened if I couldn't. He told me that he'd probably use a vacuum, which I didn't really want. So I pushed with all my might. He stayed in there with me and was such a calming presence to me, and to Brady. I think around 3:10 I asked if I could rest a little bit. I was so exhausted and hadn't slept in close to 24 hours. I tried to rest through two contractions, but pushing was just more natural to do. My contractions were about a minute and a half apart. Finally, I saw everyone getting gowns on, and another nurse came in the room. I gave one last push, and she was out! She didn't cry right away and that made me nervous. I remember asking if she was okay, and they didn't say anything except "She's a little stunned." I made Brady go over by her to see if she was alright, and she finally cried. She had meconium so they wanted to make sure she didn't aspirate it when she cried. They wrapped her up and brought her to me, and she was totally perfect, and not at all what I expected to see...
She was so wide eyed, sweet, and quiet when she saw my face and heard my voice. They wanted me to try nursing right away, which was a little frustrating, because I didn't know what I was doing. But I was in love instantly, as was Brady. We were smitten. We were suddenly a family. Such bliss!
I was a mom, perhaps the highest calling that you can have in life. I couldn't believe that you could love something so much that you had just met. It was amazing. Little did I know how much I would learn about her in the next few days, weeks, and months. Our adventure was just beginning!
No comments:
Post a Comment