Clara Laine's Birth Story

After a scary NICU stay with DD#1 (Ella) when she was born10 days late and inhaled meconium, I knew from the beginning of this pregnancy,I did not want to wait much past my due date to have this baby.  At my 39 week appointment, my doctoroffered to induce me the following Tuesday so it was a go. I stressed out aboutif I was making the right decision to be induced since there are other risksthat come with it, but ultimately decided I felt more comfortable having Claraa couple days before her due date, than a week late.

11.1.11

DH and I woke up at 4:15am, showered, packed up, ate a pieceof toast and were out the door at 4:59am. Checked into the hospital at5:10am.  I started the day out as adrama queen (Says DH ) by almost passing out before even getting my IV.  Luckily it was just from low blood sugar so the nurse gaveme some juice and a peanut butter sandwich. IV was in and the lowest dose ofPitocin was started at 6am on the dot. The nurse said I was 1-2 cm and 80% effaced. At 7am my dr came in andbroke my water and about 10 minutes later I felt faint contractions. At 8am Iwas feeling them a little more and we were being moved from triage to myL&D room. We got in and the nurse said I could walk around if I wanted andto let her know if I wanted an epidural sooner rather than later because shehad to hook me up to some fluids that would take about 30 min to empty. Wewalked to the end of the hall and I told DH we needed to go back to the roomand start the fluids! While waiting, I sat on the exercise ball and DH massagedmy back whenever I had a contraction. At 9am I was at 6cm and epidural was inby 9:15! Immediately I felt so much better! DH and I were talking about how itwould be awesome to have Clara born at 11:11am on 11.1.11 and the nurse said,?I don?t think you?re going to make it that long!? I was shocked and didn?treally believe her because Ella?s labor was 12 hours with 2 ? hours of pushing!Finally around 10:15, I told the nurse I was feeling a little pressure, but notthe urge to push like I remember with Ella. She called my dr to find out if hewas in surgery and update him, then checked me and called him back ASAP to sayClara?s head was right there. My dr showed up and I got my legs up on the tableand DH looks at me kind of funny, so I said, ?What? Can you see her headalready?? totally joking? but he could! I pushed once and my dr said, hold on asec, let me suction her mouth and I replied, ?her head is out???? yep! Anotherpush and she was on my chest at 10:30! DH was super excited to cut the cordsince he didn?t get to do that the first time around and I was so happy to haveher on my chest, it made the getting sewn up part go by a million times faster!I had a 2^nd degree tear. Clara Laine R. weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz and was19 in long.

At 12:30 we were moved to a recovery room, which I walked tobecause I was not in any pain, just sore. We got settled in and startedenjoying our new little girl. She took to breastfeeding right away and sleepspretty good too! Ella came with my parents to visit and immediately loved hernew sister, then started crying when Clara did.  The next day I was a lot more sore and didn?t get out of bedmuch. When Ella came to visit, she was not into her sister at all and didn?teven care much to see DH and I (she loves her Grandma and Grandpa!) but ofcourse I started crying the instant she left! Day 3 (today) I feel a milliontimes better and we are home!  Mymilk came in, so Clara?s been eating a ton and pooping a ton too!  My bleeding has almoststopped too! Ella had a rough evening, but luckily her grandparents are herefor a couple more days, so she?ll be getting plenty of attention while gettingused to her new sister.

Overall, it was a much better experience than Ella?s birthand hospital stay and I told DH if it?s always this easy, I think I could have10 more! Haha! We?ll see if I?m still saying that after a week of being sleepdeprived!