The Story

Sorry it took so long to provide the details. Things have been great, but it has taken time to rest and adjust to our new schedule. To view more pictures, you can go here.  Below is the story of how Claire made her way to us.

I called the midwife at about 4:00 on Tuesday afternoon because I thought my water may have broken some time that morning. I waited so long cause I wanted to make sure, since it was less of a gush, and more of a slow leak... plus I wasn't having any contractions. An exam confirmed that my water had indeed broken. Due to the higher risk of infection, the midwives wanted to be proactive about starting my labor ASAP. They sent me home with all sorts of induction materials--including caster oil! Yuck! But it worked! I started the regiment at 8 pm and by 11 I was having regular strong contractions. We were in contact with the midwives all night long as I labored at home with Kevin. Our favorite Midwife Jamie arrived at around 9 am and checked me. I was 8 cm dialated and excited to be so far along. 

I got into the birth pool thinking I only had two more centimeters and would be ready to push in no time. However, after 15 minutes in the warm water, everything slowed down. I got as far as 9 cm, but my body wouldn't produce strong, frequent enough contractions to move things along any further. I stayed there in that state at 9 cm for the next 6 hours, trying everything under the sun. Finally it became clear that I would need stronger drugs than the midwives could give me. My water had been broken for more than 36 hours by this point, so this baby needed to come out soon! 

Jamie started calling doctors that the midwives regularly worked with. The problem is that none of them would take me due to my progress and how long my water had broken. We finally found a Dr. at Mission hospital who agreed. Needless to say, we were pretty disappointed to be going to the hospital, especially Mission. But it was what needed to be done. So, we drove down the 405 to Mission Viejo at 6 pm on Wednesday evening in traffic. Worst car trip ever!

Once we got to the hospital, however, things were actually a whole lot better than I feared. We had an excellent L&D nurse who took great care of us, and Jamie never left our side. After being hooked up to pitocin for a few hours I was ready to push, and it felt so good to finally be doing something that would soon bring Claire to us! Because we were in the hospital now, there were a lot of birth choices we had to relinquish--most of which I was ok with by that point. Except that the Dr. insisted on an episiotomy even after I emphatically requested he hold off. But, oh well. Claire was born happy and healthy, and I'm healing.

She has been a very excellent baby. We had a few rough nights at the beginning as I learned how and when to feed her. Now she usually only fusses when she's hungry. We are trying to get over a slight pattern of wanting to be awake at night. It requires more soothing to keep her happy then, which makes us tired! But all in all she mostly sleeps between feedings all night long, and is having more periods of alertness during the day. We're enjoying every second of it!

Thank you all for your support. We love you all very much!