Before I forget any more of the little details, I need to write down about the day my little Claire was born. She came February 15, 2014 at 11:31pm, weighing 7lbs and 11 oz, and a nice 20" tall.
Just a forewarning: there may be some TMI moments. This is childbirth people. What do you expect? :)
Oh and sorry there's no pictures during this time. We were a little preoccupied. But I promise, part 2 has lots of pictures :)
Her due date wasn't until the 21st, but we had been hoping she would be coming every day that week. Especially Clayton. Every morning he'd wake up and say, "Today's the day!" and every time I would text him or talk to him during the day I received "contractions?!" Only to disappoint. I had been feeling a few more contractions every day, but nothing to be too excited about. Then Saturday rolled around. We both have talked about how it was really the first day we had our guard down, even though it was still a week before our due date. I had the whole day planned. We needed to go grocery shopping and get some last minute baby things done. We had just spent a nice Valentine's Friday night, and maybe hang out some more that night. Clayton was going to owe me some (hopefully) discounted Valentine chocolate. He had come home from working out with his brother around 8:15 when I was just getting up, so we were chatting--me under the covers, him sitting next to me--when I felt a little trickle. My thought: "Did I just pee my pants??" You'd think being 39 weeks prego, no biggie, but I had proudly never done that. My next thought: "Did my water just break?...nah..." It's definitely not something I expected. Only one of my sisters had her water break on one of her kids. Everyone says how rare it is that it happens before getting to the hospital. So I put it out of my mind and started to get ready while my amazing hubby made pancakes. Then going to the bathroom I felt more of a gush (like I said, TMI) that felt like more liquid than there should be. The "water breaking" red alert started forming in my mind again, but I pushed it away. After getting ready, I was walking in the kitchen while Clayton was finishing up the pancakes and felt another trickle. This time I was more alert to what it might mean, so just in case I went to the bathroom to check. Again, big gush in the bathroom. "honey!...I think my water broke!.." Then came Clayton checking off all the things the birthing class woman told to check off to make sure. But I'll admit, even though it was passing, I was still in denial. I ate breakfast, finished getting ready, made a list of things to get done and planned the day. Around 10:30 I finally called my sister Jennie and asked her what it was like when your water broke. And after her urging to call the doctors, we did. All I got was a recording stating that "if your water has broken, please proceed to the hospital." So that's what we did! By 11 we had arrived at the hospital, bags and car seat in car just in case! I still was in denial. We even expected them to check it out, let us go until contractions were 5 minutes apart so we could get our errands done, and maybe be back to the hospital later that day. Ya, nope. By the time we got the elevator to go to labor/delivery I was convinced: a HUGE gush a water came tumbling down. Let me tell ya, that's a fun feeling.
We got checked in, dressed in a gown, and tested. And then we waited....and waited....and waited. Thankfully we had To Kill a Mockingbird to entertain us. That and cracking up about the trail of puddles I was leaving between the bed and the bathroom down the hall. Ya. Nice. From the point forward, any personal boundaries and embarrassment went out the window. The whole time I kept expecting to feel more contractions coming on, but even though the monitor showed some happening every now and again, they weren't big enough for me to really be aware of. After an hour and a half, the nurse came back and confirmed it: my water had indeed broken! In my innocence, I still fully expected to be told to come back once contractions had started. Because that's what everything I had read had said would happen. But they wanted me checked in right away. I understand that they didn't want to risk any infection to the baby.
Just a note: I'm really glad I read a friend's of mine blog a few months ago about when she had her baby. She talked about how even though she had her birth plan and all these expectations, that they can all be turned upside down. To be honest, I don't think I would have handled the whole day without having kept that in mind. Our plan was to labor naturally. I hadn't ruled out an epidural, but I wanted to go for as long as possible without it. I definitely did not want Pitocin. I wanted to be able to walk the halls to help contractions on. I wanted to do early labor at home. I wanted to be able to rest baby-free at night. Did any of that happen? Nope! They wanted to start me on Pitocin right away. To be honest, I wish I had fought this looking back. Contractions are supposed to start within 24 hours of your water breaking and I just felt like they wanted to get it over with rather than waiting to see if my body would kick in. But they said that in the two hours I was there my labor wasn't progressing and so they were starting me on pitocin.
Well that stuff definitely works! Our first nurse, a girl from India who we could barely understand what she was saying, kicked it into high gear. I started the day dilated to a 3, so now it was just waiting to see how long it would take to get to a 10. Immediately, contractions started up. From when it was started at 1 until 5, those early labor contractions really weren't horrible. They were uncomfortable, but not unbearable. Clayton and I watched movies (The Greatest Game Ever Played and The Hunger Games) and played games. Then 5 o'clock hit and oh. my. gosh. Contractions are no bueno! They came hard and fast! We started timing them more and really tried to focus on breathing. We were playing Phase 10 and it got to the point where everything had to be stopped. Each contraction was lasting 90 seconds and I only had 30-60 seconds in between each one for a break. Sometimes it didn't seem like there was a break at all. Just as soon as the pain was receding, I felt another starting up.
I tried holding out for as long as possible because I really didn't want to have an epidural if I could help it. After an hour of watching my contractions be almost off the charts because they were so intense, the pain won the battle. I had been debating it for awhile, but to be honest, I felt like a failure for only lasting an hour through hard contractions. Finally Clayton told me that if I needed it, he could tell the nurse I wanted an epidural. His willingness sort of felt like I received permission finally. So he went and told the nurse that we wanted it and a few minutes later the anesthesiologist was in the room getting everything ready. He was a really nice guy. Super patient and gentle. I had heard that it could hurt a little, but I didn't feel a thing. Also, I was scared that I would have another contraction during the procedure. There's no way I would have been able to hold still if I had, but I was blessed for those couple minutes with some relief.
And oh how wonderful the epidural is! Almost immediately I could feel it taking hold. Then I noticed that only my left leg was numb and I could completely feel all of my right leg. And I had heard of that happening where you could feel half of it. I told the nurse and she had me lay on the right side to see if the meds would sort of go that direction. It took probably 45 minutes but finally I was completely numb. And that was heavenly! By this time I think I was only at a 5 or 6. Either way, we had no idea how long or short our night was going to be.
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