On Wednesday the 26th I had a doctor appointment. When the doctor checked me during that appointment she guessed I wouldn't make it til Saturday before baby girl made her appearance. My body told me she was right. I had done all I could to give her time to grow, mentally and physically I couldn't take much more bed rest. I went home and made the final preparations, and then waited.We didn't have to wait to long. Thursday morning around 9:00 my water broke. We were lucky enough to have Cassidie staying with us that week to help with the kids. We packed up the car and headed to Salt Lake.
When we arrived I got changed into my hospital garb and asked if I could go walk the halls. I was trying to avoid needing pitocin if possible so I wanted to see if I could strengthen my contractions on my own. Chris and I walked for about 20 minutes, unfortunately walking had the opposite effect. My contractions stopped completely. That on top of the fact that walking with a broken water bag is a little tricky, made the decision to head back to the room pretty easy.
I layed in the hospital bed for about 2 hours hoping my body would kick in and contractions would speed up, unfortunately that didn't happen. I knew they would only let the baby stay in for 24 hours from the time my water broke so sometime after 12:00 I consented to pitocin. They got me hooked up to all the IV's and told me my contractions should be picking up quickly. They didn't. At 2 they came back in and decided to bump up the pit drip to an 8. Contractions slightly increased then, but they were still only mildly uncomfortable. At 3:00 they decided to bump up the pit drip to 12. This did the trick contractions picked up and quickly became uncomfortable. I called for my epidural.
Finally the epidural started to work a little on the right side and I got to a point where I was relatively comfortable. I could still feel most of the contractions but they were dulled and I could easily breathe through them. About 5:00 I started to feel really uncomfortable, things felt off, I didn't feel pressure I just felt like something had changed. I asked the nurse to check me and she told me I was only a 6. I was suprised, but decided my funky epidural must be the cause for my strange new discomfort. Fifteen minutes later the discomfort was growing. I asked the nurse about the pain and suggested maybe my catheter wasn't in right. She said she would check for me, (which a slight chuckle) I could tell she thought I was being overly worried. She lifted the sheet to check and quickly called for the doctor. I was a 10, fully effaced and the baby was coming. I knew it! The doctor made a speedy entrance and with one small push baby girl was born at 5:27pm.
It all happened so fast the team of nurses for the baby weren't there. So she lay on my tummy for a long time before they took her to clean her up and get a weight. She was covered in the cheesy white stuff and boy did she have a set of lungs on her. She cried and cried, it was a beautiful sound. When she came out I knew she was my biggest girl so far. She was so long, so healthy, so perfect.
She weighed in at a whopping 6lb 10 oz. and 20 in long.
There is something transcendent about birth and those few hours following. The four walls of the hospital room become a holy place. The spirit of a new little one fresh from His arms fills every corner and I am reminded that being a mother is God's work. And it is the best work. Love floods my heart and the veil is lifted just enough for me to look into my precious baby's eyes and know her. And just like that she is mine, and I could never imagine life without her.
About an hour after her birth we decided on a name.
Brielle Felicity Clayton.
This time around I hired a birth photographer. Amy Monroy took my hospital photos. I put together a combination of her photos and my own to make this little video.
2 comments:
Brielle is SOoooo BEAUTIFUL! And so are you!
How great to see this wonderful video....I was almost there. Love you
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