Finally!

The title of this post is appropriate for many reasons! First of all, Clara is here!! She arrived on Tuesday, November 2nd at 1:33pm! Secondly, this is the first chance I've had since coming home Thursday to get on the computer for more than a couple of seconds. I wanted to get my birth story and a picture or two posted. And last, it's been a while since I posted anything!

I'll start with my last appointment which was on October 26th. I went in, hoping to have made some progress...which I finally had, but it was only a fingertip's worth of dilation and little effacement. At this point, I'd had enough. We talked about doing the Foley catheter induction and decided to go ahead and schedule it for Monday November 1st unless I went into labor on my own before then. I thought for sure it would happen over the weekend, but no such luck. So Monday rolled around and we went in for the catheter. What this involves is putting a Foley catheter into the cervix between the cervix and the bag of waters. The pressure from the inflated Foley is supposed to simulate the baby's head and stimulate labor. Well it hurt...BAD. I went home and contracted pretty much every 5 minutes until around 9:30. I took the sleeping pill they had prescribed around 9:30 and then went to bed, hoping I'd be going to the hospital before the 5:30 time they had scheduled us for. No such luck.

5:30am Tuesday we showed up at the hospital. We got settled into our room. I got my IV placed. My nurse checked my dilation, but it was hard to tell as the Foley was still in there. She tried to take it out, but opted to wait for my doctor to do it instead. A few minutes later my doctor came in and took it out. It was determined that I was 3cm dilated and about 50% effaced. At that point, they started pitocin and broke my water. Let me tell you, that's probably one of the weirdest feelings I've ever experienced!! At this point, time sort of became irrelevant. I know it wasn't too much after they started the pitocin that I was checked again. I was now 5cm and 75% effaced. My original birth plan involved going without pain meds. Well, let me tell you, laboring while on pitocin sucks. My contractions were about every 1.5 minutes apart and the more they increased the dose, the stronger they got. I ended up caving in and getting an epidural. I think it was probably around 8am. It took 2 sticks, but they finally got it in and it was FABULOUS!!

I labored on the pitocin for a while...I even took a nap after the epidural kicked in because I knew I was going to need all my energy to push her out once the time came. Around maybe 1o or 11 I started feeling pain again so I asked for a top-off of my epdiural. At around 11:30 I got checked again and was 8cm! My nurse said to let her know if I felt an overwhelming urge to push, otherwise they were just going to let me labor down. After that I was checked a few times (I know the last time they checked me I was 9.5cm). Soon after they checked me the last time, I started feeling like I had to poop. I remember telling Adam "I feel like I have to poop." I went with it for a little while, and then let the nurse know because I REALLY felt like pushing. So she checked and sure enough, I was complete and Clara was moving down in a hurry! She called my doctor (who was in a meeting...and happy to get out of it) and he rushed up. I started pushing a little after 1 and Clara was born at 1:33pm!! My epidural was wearing off by the time I started pushing, which really helped because I could feel exactly where I needed to push.

I thought the pushing was going to be worse pain-wise than the labor, but I was wrong! It felt really good. I was really in control. I pushed while Adam counted and in between contractions I let my body go completely limp and just tried to rest as much as I could. Before I knew it, Dr V was telling me to look at my baby! I could feel her sliding out the whole time so I knew when her head came out and then she was up on my chest...looking at me with those huge eyes! I do remember Dr V saying she had the cord around her neck once, but there weren't any ill effects from that. I held her for a good long time before they took her to clean her up. I couldn't believe she was actually here!

Recovery has been slower than I would like. I had a 1-day set back due to a spinal headache. I ended up needing to stay in the hospital for an extra day. I also ended up with stitches since Clara's chin cut me open on the way out. But aside from those things, recovery is going well. We're breastfeeding like champs. Clara is already latching on by herself. We had some concerns with jaundice, but her weight was up today from yesterday and I think we're heading in the right direction. Adam and I are both tired, but Clara's sleeping well at night (in between feedings) and all of our animals are doing great with her, too.

As much as I would like to write more, it's about time for Clara to get up and eat. Here's a few pictures...some with her new grandmas and some from today in her swing.