The Birth Story- LONG!

Well, our baby girl is one week old now (how did that happen?) and I figured it was time to get some motivation & tap out the birth story of miss Claire Lula.

Here it goes, hopefully I remember all of the important details. All 15.5hrs of it were somewhat of a blur...

Sunday, August 29th was a perfectly normal day. I was feeling extremely anxious for the arrival of the babe, but wasn't having contractions or anything. My mom & sister came over later in the afternoon & we set up the pack n' play & told Claire she could come now as everything was completely ready for her.

Hubby & I went out for spicy wings that night with my family in hopes it would kick start labor, ha! We cheered to "hoping Claire comes tonight" as it was my sister's last few days in town before she left for college. After dinner, we went for ice cream & said goodbye with my family joking that we would see them at the hospital later that night. If we only knew....

Around 8pm, I was antsy just sitting on the couch, so I decided to take our puppy on a really long walk. I walked until I couldn't walk anymore & then came back to the house & had a hot cup of Red Raspberry Leaf tea along with my Evening Primose Oil Pill. I then took a shower, folded some laundry & climbed into bed & finished ready the Labor & Delivery section of my What to Expect book.

I turned off the lights and had a few strong contractions, but nothing worth timing (damn!). I said a few quick prayers & fell asleep. Around 12:30, hubby rolled into bed, which woke me up. I decided I had to pee. Right as I was about to sit on the toilet...GUSH. "OHMIGOD. My water just broke" I yelled to hubby. "What do we do?" he yelled. I called my mom & told her the good news. She was in shock. We all were. I couldn't believe this was actually it!

We frantically finished packing our bags, (because we are freaking procrastinators & didn't pack hardly anything beforehand) meanwhile I was leaking through pads by the minute (sorry TMI). I could NOT believe how much fluid there was. We got everything in the car & off we went to the hospital. Luckily I wasn't having any contractions yet because it took us about 25 mins to get there.

Hubby parked & we pranced (ok, waddled) into Labor & Delivery. Answered a few questions & were put into our room, all the while my pants are SOAKING wet. I changed into a gown as soon as we walked in & got all settled into bed, completely in a daze.

Around 1:30A, the nurse came in & checked me. 1 lousy centimeter dialated. Same as the week before. Since my water had already broken, the nurse wanted to start me on Pitocin to get the contractions going. They put me on the lowest dose & HOLY SHIT, the contractions came with a vengeance. I lasted until about 4:45A before I buzzed the nurse in tears & requested my epidural.

I didn't have to wait long & the anesthesiologist (who was AMAZING) came in & gave me the good stuff. Unfortunately, he had to up my dose 3 times because I could feel every single contraction for about an hour. Then I was SO numb, my legs felt like they weighed 1000lbs. It was a horrible feeling, but it was better than feeling those contractions.

About a half hour after I got my epidural, we started noticing that Claire's heart rate would drop very low every time a contraction would peak. She did this for about 15 mins & the nurse decided to stop my contractions so we could give baby a break. She was obviously under a lot of stress. The shot that she gave me (Terbutaline??) & stopped the pitocin which lowered the intensity of the contractions, but I was still contracting on my own. Claire's heart rate was doing alright, but not amazing.

By about 1pm, I was still contracting on my own. The doctor came in & checked me & told me I was 7.5cm & the baby's head was lodged in the side of my pelvis facing sunny side up. Grreaaatt. Her heart rate was still dropping with every contraction & that's when the Doctor decided a C-Section would be best.

I immediately started crying. I had been in labor for 14 hours. I was exhausted. I didn't want a C-Section at that point. But it was the best option for the baby's well being. At 3:45(ish) they rolled me into the O.R. & I was given lots of numbing medication. The doctor did a little test on my belly asking if I could feel anything. Yes. I could feel everything on my left side. More numbing medication. They then made the incision & I was instructed to tell the anesthesiologist if I was feeling anything. About 30 seconds into the procedure I screamed "I can feel everything on my left side. It is the worst pain I have ever felt!!"

That's the last thing I remember before being put to sleep. I was devastated. I wasn't conscience to see my daughter being born. I didn't get to hear her first whimpers or hear how much she weighed. It really was the last thing I expected with this labor process.

I was woken up by my sweet husband holding our sweet daughter with tears in his eyes. I was dazed & confused but so elated.

I was informed that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Claire's neck 3 TIMES. So she was obviously not coming out on her own. Thank God we did a C-Section.

Claire Lula Davis was born at 4:01pm on Monday, August 30th. She weighed 6lbs 14oz & was 20.5" long.

Recovery has been alright. We were in the hospital from Monday night to Thursday afternoon. But it felt like years. Unfortunately, Claire's blood sugar was very low every time they tested it, so she needed to be fed formula most of my stay in the hospital. I was however, able to feed it to her via the nipple. It's called SNS. Look it up if you want, I don't feel like explaining it :)

We found out that Claire has a cleft pallet in her throat. You know that dangly thing you have in the back of your throat (the Uvula)? She doesn't have that, which makes eating rough for her. She isn't able to push the milk forward with her tongue to regulate everything, which causes her to cough & choke a lot. When she spits up, it comes out her nose. It's so sad, but we are going to get it surgically fixed very soon. Things could've definitely been worse.

Besides that, she's a perfectly healthy 1 week old. She doesn't fit into most of her newborn clothes, but with all that she has been eating lately I doubt it will be long before she does. She breast feed like a champ, thank God, because I have SO much milk. I feel like a cow!

She's such a little peanut & an exact replica of her daddy. It's unreal. I seriously don't think she got any of my features except for my long limbs!

Motherhood has been a rough adjustment for me, but oh so worth it. The emotions & hormones are all over the place & I cry all of the time. I really am holding out hope that it's just the Baby Blues & not post-partum depression, but I have a suspicion that's what it might turn into from talking to my mom who dealt with it. Either way, we will figure it out & nip it in the butt.

Going through all of this has made me fall even more in love with my husband. It's a whole new love I never thought was possible. He is so in love with his little girl, it melts my heart every time he does anything with/for her. He has been SO good to me with helping me deal with my crazy emotions. I seriously would be lost without him.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. I'm sorry this is so all over the place.

Claire has her 1st pediatrician appointment tomorrow, so I will update on how that goes...even if it's next week. Bear with me!

I will leave you with about a million pictures to look at. They aren't in any particular order. Just some randoms.