Birth Story

Time to catch up on the last few months!  I thought about doing this chronologically, but let's be honest- most of you just want to hear about the birth story and see pictures of Claire.  And you should!  She is the sweetest lil baby ever!  So let's start with last Tuesday night.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013 8:00 p.m. - Contractions started.
Since this was my first experience with labor, I wasn't sure what was going on at first.  The contractions were pretty regular- 8-10 minutes apart, but not very strong.  I was awake all night timing them and waiting for the magic numbers.  At our birthing class, the nurse told us to go to the hospital when the contractions were "3-5 minutes apart for at least an hour and bad enough that you can't talk or walk through them".  She probably repeated that sentence 25 times!  So I slept a few minutes at a time, waking with every new contraction and hitting the timer on my phone.  The contractions got worse and worse, and closer and closer together.  Finally, at 4:00, we hit the magic numbers and I woke Nick up.

Wednesday, December 4, 4:30 a.m. - Hospital Visit #1
We got to the hospital and checked in.  The nurse measured me and told me I was dilated to a 3.  They watched for the next 2 hours but I only progressed a little bit, so they sent us home.  The doctor prescribed a morphine shot before I left to help me get through the next few hours of labor at home.  I called in to work to let them know that I wouldn't be coming in for a while!

Side note:  I worked with drug addicts for 8 years, so when I say that I will never, ever do drugs, it's because I have watched the horror of someone coming down from a heroin addiction.  I've seen what it does to people and to families.  That being said, morphine is GOOD stuff.  I don't remember everything that happened after the morphine kicked in, but I'm pretty sure I started singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to Kyle at one point.  :)

I tried to sleep for a few hours, woke up around noon when the drugs started wearing off, and the contractions kept getting worse.  I tried to eat something, but that was a bad idea.  It came right back up.  Finally, around 2:30, I'd had enough and we went back to the hospital.

Wednesday, December 4, 3:00 p.m. - Hospital Visit #2
The look on the nurse's face was priceless.  I mean, I get it.  Labor and delivery nurses probably see tons of hysterical first-time moms who think they're in labor weeks before their due dates.  I wasn't looking for sympathy, but I could have done without the condescending smile when I told her I wasn't due for another week.  Then she measured me and her eyes got really big.  "Oh!  You're a 7!  Let's get you checked in.  Do you want an epidural?"  Music, sweet music.
They wheeled me to our labor/delivery/recovery room, gave me an epidural, and called my doctor.  Dr. Young had just left for vacation (figures) so his back-up, Dr. McCarter came to the hospital.  He walked in, measured me, called for the respiratory specialist and we started pushing.  I pushed for about 25 minutes when they suddenly told me to stop.  Dr. McCarter said the cord was around her neck THREE times.  We are lucky that Claire is so small, because the complication was easy to resolve.  He hooked his finger under the cord and pulled it over her head, we pushed one more time, and my sweet little Claire Emily was born!  All 5 pounds 7 ounces of her!
Nick cut the cord and I told him to go with Claire to the side of the room where they were cleaning her up and measuring her.  I didn't see it, but Nick told me that it was like a highly efficient assembly line.  Grab the little bottle of disinfectant, squirt in on her eyelids, chuck it in the garbage.  Grab the tape measure, measure her, chuck it in the garbage.  They were fast!
They wrapped Claire up and gave her to Nick while the doctor finished stitching me.  When he finished, Nick put our daughter in my arms.  Holding Claire for the first time was such an amazing, tender moment.  Morphine be damned- if you want a real high, try snuggling your firstborn.

My little angel! 

Nick and Claire- my two favorite people in the world! 

It's amazing to me how much she has already changed in 2 weeks!  She barely even cried the first night. 

After Claire ate, they took her for a bath.  Nick went with them.  When they came back, she had a cute little purple bow in her hair!  (Nick got to pick it out)

Compare this picture to her ultrasound from October- it's amazing!

 I absolutely hate this picture of me, but I think ugly pictures of new moms are obligatory.

She was so yellow at first!  We were worried about jaundice for a few days, but she's okay now.  

Our room was awesome!  It had a futon/bed thing for Nick to sleep on and it looked very homey despite all the scary medical equipment.

Also, I suck at taking non-blurry pictures.

This was kinda cool- the nurses would write their info on the board to help me stay updated.  At one point, Kyle wrote "cookies" under the medication list.  Because, well, he's Kyle.  That should pretty much explain it.  When the nurse came in to check on me, she asked me about it and I told her that my brother was being silly.  About an hour later she came back with these:

Freaking awesome service!  :)

Grandma came the next day!  My mother has been waiting an awfully long time to hold her first grandbaby!  

They were pretty much inseparable all week. 

Getting ready to leave the hospital!  Everything Claire owns is WAY too big on her!

 Pretty eyes!

This is the blanket that the nurses at the hospital gave us.  Daddy is trying to get Claire to sleep before we have to put her in the dreaded car seat!

 I love these people!

First family picture!  We are one sexy bunch!  :P

She's home!

Okay- last thing for this entry- here's a couple pictures of Claire's room.  :)

 Disney princess poster- what did you expect?

 I know, I know, bumper pads, pillows and stuffed animals in the crib!?  Bad mom!  Don't worry- she won't be sleeping in the crib for a few months.  Right now she rarely even sleeps unless someone is holding her. :)

  

Okay, one more picture of my sweet little Claire....

I may be biased, but I think she is the sweetest, prettiest, smartest two-week-old ever!