Clara's Birth

Feel free to skip over as much of this writing as you want and just see the pictures. I keep this blog firstly as a personal journal and for that reason I'll spare only a few details- most of Clara's birth will be recorded as well as I can remember here. Also probably not in the most eloquent, cohesive manner. I trust you'll be able to make sense of any long winded sentences and my hyper use of commas. 

Here's the birth story of Clara:

After an active Wednesday of taking the kids to the park and doing lots of walking, I had contractions for 4hrs that evening. Unfortunately they were pretty spread apart and very mild. I was hoping I would go to bed and wake up with them having intensified. Instead I went to sleep at 10pm and woke up at 6am. Had a solid night of sleep which I was thankful for, but a bit disappointed I wasn't in labour. 

Thursday morning I had a second non stress test for the week. 

At first Baby wasn't moving much for this NST... Thankfully 15 minutes later we got it moving and the midwife was happy with the heart rate. 

I was 3cm dilated and had the midwife's blessing to try taking castor oil, although she didn't think my body was ready just yet. 

I was offered the gel to help induce labour but told her we could try that tomorrow if the castor oil didn't work. I was pretty adamant about trying a more natural route first before messing with any hormones. 

On the drive home from the appointment we stopped at Tim Hortons for me to get their B.E.L.T. (one of my favourites) for lunch because I was feeling very nervous and didn't want to have to think about making myself lunch. Especially if I was going to be going into labour soon a bit of protein would probably be best for me. And we got timbits for the kids. They were so excited that I would be taking the castor oil and that it would hopefully make the baby come today after they'd been waiting sooooo loooong for babe's arrival. 

We got home at 12:30, I made the kids lunch to procrastinate making myself the castor oil drink. Delilah kept telling me they didn't need lunch and I should hurry up and make my medicine. At 1:00pm I had the concoction mixed up and ready to go. 

It took me twenty minutes to finish drinking... 

Then I lay down for the afternoon to rest as much as possibly if this was going to be the day. 

I had one contraction at 2:56pm and then nothing after that. 

I was just beginning to think that the midwife was right and I probably took the castor oil a day or two too early, but then just before 4pm I had another, and another, and another. At 4:11 I texted Will I had had five contractions, four minutes apart. 

"Not too serious, but nice to see progress. I'm going to go outside with the kids and walk around a bunch. See where things go from here."

The kids walked around the yard with me for a while, the boys soon lost interest but Delilah stuck by my side for a whole half hour. We chatted about all sorts of things and I explained to her all about contractions and as they started getting closer and closer together she caught on that the baby would be coming very soon now. 

I called Will at 4:41 He had just finished a job and would start cleaning up his tools. 

4:54 text to Tonisha who was going to have the kids- I'm thinking this might be the real deal. 

then after two long, contractions only 1 minute apart I called Will again at 4:56. He was just washing his hands and about to head home.

I pulled out the bags I had packed five weeks prior and added some final touches to them. 

5:10 Will got home and contractions were 1-5 minutes apart but still a bit mild. 

I finalised the bags and Will loaded the suburban. We were ready to go and at 5:39 called the midwife to say that I think we should go to the hospital. She recommended that with my contractions not being too intense that we wait at home a while longer. 

I told Will I was pretty sure this was the real deal. He said we were going to the hospital. 5:45 we brought the kids over to the Flosktra's and then left for the hospital, but picked up Tim Horton's for dinner on the way there. They only had jalapeno bagels left at this point so I settled for a regular BLT. 

Contractions were only lasting 40-45 seconds but I was really having to breathe through them at this point. 

6:06 called the midwife again to say this was it and we would be 'leaving' 'soon'. She didn't know we had already left and were almost there. Said she'd leave her house and would be at the hospital in 20mins. 

We got to the hospital at 6:10 and ate our food in the parking lot. Will told me about his day at work and distracted me while I laboured. I was a lot more comfortable (mentally) to just be at the hospital, even if it was only in the parking lot. 

A little bit after 6:40 we had finished eating so we prayed together and got ready to head inside. As we were coming down the hallway to the maternity ward our midwife Rachel was just entering too. Perfect timing. Phillipa was a midwife in training who had attended my NST earlier in the morning and she was there too. 

We got settled into our room and I laboured on my own for a bit. 

Around 7:30 I needed Will's encouragement to get through the contractions and shortly after that I got into the tub. The hot water was a welcomed relief!

Will hung out at the side of the tub with me and kept talking about what he did at work. Rachel and Phillipa were on the other side of the room, talking quietly and mostly leaving me alone except to monitor the baby's heart rate every now and again. 

We listened to some music but it was fairly quiet and I was too distracted after the first song to pay attention to any more songs. 

At one point I told Will I had to fart but didn't want to in the tub. And then I did, and there was a long, steady stream of bubbles coming up to the surface. I laughed so much Rachel and Phillipa thought I was crying. 

For this birth I really wanted to use self directed pushing like I did with James' delivery, and also see if I could put the fetal ejection reflex to the test. I've read so much about FER and it seemed like the most natural way to deliver a baby, so I wanted to try it. 

I used a comb for counter pressure in the palm of my hand which worked wonders at relieving the contraction pain. For a few contractions, but then they got too intense for even the comb to mask. 

Transition hit and just like every other time I told Will, "I think this is transition, I feel like I want to stop and go home now." 

Fear set in pretty hard and although I knew I was going to do this, I also really didn't want to. 

I laboured with my forehead against Will's, holding his hands, and breathing as studiously as I could. 

A little after 7:50 I surprised myself with a moan and thought this was way too soon to have to push. We had only been at the hospital for an hour. 

Then, with the next contraction I pushed and I told the ladies I was pretty sure my water broke.  Difficult to tell when you're in a bath tub, but that's sure what it felt like.

Phillipa came over to monitor the baby again but the contractions kept coming so it took a bit for me to be able to hold still enough for her to check the heart rate. 

This is when I finally accepted the fact that delivery was soon and I was able to repeat what Will and Phillipa were telling me, "Baby is almost here. I get to meet my baby soon." 

Quickly my tone changed though, "I can't do this, I can't."

And then I did it. 

Baby was born in one push and I scooped them up out of the water and sat back in the tub in relief and kissed Babe's little head. 

Two nurses came rushing in and I remember saying to them, "Look, I had a baby!" 

Rachel brought a towel over to keep baby warm. 

8:01

(I was very impressed with Will for taking a picture so quickly)

Baby was a girl. 

I teared right up. So happy for Delilah that she got her long awaited sister. 

I got the oxytocin shot in my arm rather than leg since I was still sitting in the tub. My placenta detached so we hurried a bit to get out of the tub and over to the bed.  

8:12

We did it! 

Baby girl didn't have a name yet

8:14 we texted Tonisha "Baby is here!!! Are the kids still awake?"

Rachel confirmed with us that we wanted an early discharge and said that if baby and I were stable we could go after 2hrs. I replied that that would be ideal, but we've always had babies over 9lbs and have had to stay 12hrs at minimum for the additional blood sugar monitoring. She said we'd weigh baby girl and see where we were at but she was pretty sure she was under nine pounds. 

I thought No way! 

Especially being 10 days overdue, she would have had to be heavier than 9lbs...

But she surprised us! 

Tiny little thing. 

Only hitting the 92nd percentile

And at 20.5 inches tall she is our smallest baby to date. 

It took a bit for the midwives to get me sorted out and then we called the kids who were all very excited to find out they had a little sister. We still hadn't settled on a name but didn't want to delay sharing the good news! The kids were happy enough to learn that their long awaited baby was here, and she was a girl too! 

Delilah didn't fall asleep until almost 11 that evening because she was "soooooo excited to be a big sister again"

Calling folks 😊

9:22

9:20 we finally had a moment of calm to settle on a name. We came to the hospital with one boys name and three girls names. Telling of the fact that we've been collecting girls names for the past five years. 

 

And looking at this dainty little daughter of ours we landed on Clara Janelle, meaning Bright and Beautiful. My own namesake and our beacon of light after a dark season. 

With things still quiet in the room we all went to sleep. 

I don't think I've gotten a newborn dressed so quickly after birth, but if we were going to be heading home so soon she needed clothes! 

Fresh newborn snuggles

And as quickly as we arrived, we were ready to leave! 

We got home just before midnight and it was around 2am that we were settled down to sleep. Clara did great, waking at normal intervals to nurse but continued sleeping that fresh newborn sleep. 

We woke up at 9am briefly but then slept until 11am again. 

Once I was finally up and dressed the kids came over for a visit to meet their little sister. 

They've waited sooooo long for this moment!

James thought it was very silly that she kept putting her fingers in her mouth

The kids hung out with us for a little while before going back to the Flokstra's for lunch

Will says she looks like a gnome in this hat. I think she's the most adorable gnome out there. 

After spending the afternoon napping, and getting another visit from Delilah, we walked over to the Flokstra's for dinner. Wonderful for us not to worry about making a meal and no dishes to dirty at home either! 

We took the kids back home with us after dinner and got them back to their own beds. 

24 hours old! 

It was wild being discharged so early. I thought the 12hr discharge we had with the boys was the best thing ever, but I am now convinced that 2hrs is the way to go.

Clara's birth was so special and she was well worth the additional days she made us wait. 

We are so grateful to finally hold her in our arms - an answer to a year of prayers. 

Praise the Lord!