Claire is my third, my sassy, my crazy, my little BFF. She is Scott’s first baby. When I was deciding if marrying Scott is what I REALLY wanted, I had to decide if I wanted to have more children.
About 3 months after Scott and I got married we found out we were expecting a baby. This was planned out. I had older kids and didn’t want to wait if we were going to add to that.
The morning Claire was born was planned. I was being induced. I have fast labors and it just works better for my body. I woke up and showered and got ready to meet my little girl.
While I was in the shower Scott came in to tell me that the sink in the kitchen was broken and leaking… I didn’t even care. Not my problem! We loaded up the car and headed to the hospital. I was getting nervous. I didn’t want to do all that giving birth entails. It was going to hurt. It was not going to be fun. So I asked Scott to pray before we went inside the hospital.
We got settled in to our labor and delivery room. At 7:57am my water was broken and they gave me the lowest dose of Pitocin possible. I tried to let my body relax and do what it is supposed to do. 2 hours later I felt something shift in my body and knew I was about to deliver. Sarah (my most amazing nurse) came in and checked me. I was at 6cm. I had told Sarah that my previous labors were fast and I didn’t expect anything different from this one. That is why I didn’t get the epidural. She said she wasn’t going anywhere and let my doctor know I was almost ready to deliver. Sarah got the room ready for our sweet girl to make her entrance in to the world.
All of a sudden I felt SO MUCH pressure and told Sarah I needed to push. Maybe like 3 minutes after Sarah had checked me. She started to help with counter pressure by pushing my knees back toward my belly. While this helped I really wanted to push. After that one contraction Sarah checked me again and I was at 8cm. She called my doctor and said, “you should probably come over, this baby will be here before we know it.” Sarah told me to do baby pushes but nothing too crazy. I tried really hard not to push. If you have ever had a baby, that is really really hard to do.
My doctor arrived maybe 3 minutes later and I was ready to push. He checked me and I was complete and could start pushing. I remember saying to him “I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this.” He looked at me and said “no one else can do this but you. you can do this.” So I pushed. And then I heard him say “she needs an episiotomy” and saw him raise scissors. I closed my eyes and just pushed. Moments later Claire was born and on my belly. We had a delayed cord clamping. Scott was able to cut the cord. They whisked her away for about 4 minutes to weigh, measure and put a diaper on her. Then she was back on my chest for skin to skin contact.
Claire started to nurse almost immediately. It was pure heaven to have her in my arms. She was my longest labor at 3 hours from water breaking to delivery. This was by far my easiest recovery as well.
I cannot believe she is 4 today. She is one of the best kids I know. She loves everyone, has the funniest things she says and does, her imagination is huge and I love watching her grow up. Time is a thief though, this is happening way too fast.
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