4:20 Feeling some stronger contractions; not sure if it's going to peter out or not
5:20 Um, yeah, at 2-4 minutes apart, I think we need to go to the hospital
6:20 Intake, I'm 5 cm dilated
7:20 Contractions getting pretty painful, admitted to our room
8:20 Got my epidural. Happy time.
And that's where I left you with my last post. Here's what went down in the 90 minutes after pressing "publish":
9:20 Nurse checks my cervix again, discovers, to her great surprise, that I'm fully dilated and she can see Claire's head, with hair, still inside the bag of waters. Matt and the on-call doctor, both thinking we had plenty of time, had gone home (Matt to get his clothes and take a quick shower). Willing my water not to break on its own in the time we're waiting, since she could come super-quick after that, we call Matt and Doc to get back here ASAP!
Matt and the doctor both got back around 10:05. The doctor prepares to break my water with the crochet-hook-type tool, barely touches me with just her finger, and pop! there it goes! Like Kate, Claire had meconium staining (i.e. had pooed in-utero), as is common for overdue babies. I didn't like that Kate had to be taken to the nursery right away for the respiratory checks that are necessary with that condition, rather than getting to cuddle and nurse right away, and that was actually part of why I was willing to induce at only three days overdue, to hopefully beat the poo. Didn't need to worry, though, because at this hospital, they called NICU when they found the meconium and had a couple NICU nurses on hand for delivery to check her lungs thoroughly right there in the room!
At 10:12, we started pushing. Three counts of ten for just two contractions, and she was out at 10:21!
She took to the breast right away (hooray!), and has been nursing and sleeping wonderfully! I didn't sleep too well last night, but it certainly wasn't sweet baby's fault. She's a sweetheart, and we've enjoyed our first day together, filled with visitors. Seeing the sisters meet was definitely a highlight, and I'll have to do a whole post on that. It's official: we're a family of four now! Here's a few more pics...
6 comments:
Congrats! She's precious!
Yay! Congrats! Glad Matt & the doc made it back for you!
So happy for you all! Your labor (especially the short pushing part) sound like a dream and your new baby girl is absolutely beautiful.
As a side note, do people often tell you that your mom and Matt's mom look a lot alike?
Love the post, love the photos, love you four! I hope we make it out there sometime in the next year to see you/meet the girls. I hope when we get around to having kids my labor goes as well as yours. YAY and Congrats again!
Congrats!!! Gorgeous pics!
PS - the last pic is cool because you're the only one looking at the camera, it's like a Zack Morris moment and you're saying "Time out! This is my family, aren't they awesome?"
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