It's been exactly three weeks since our perfect baby Claire entered our world. The following is just a whole bunch of stuff that I want to remember about Claire's arrival... so fair warning if its TMI or incomprehensible.
Claire Faith Hillam was born on January 4th, 2016 at 1:40 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 20.25 inches long. She was born at Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, and Dr. Stinger delivered her. Our Labor and Delivery nurse was an amazing, kind of crazy ;) woman named Wendy. We absolutely loved her and were so grateful to have such an awesome nurse. They truly do make all the difference.
I went into the hospital on Sunday, January 3rd and began my "induction" at 10pm. Because I wasn't dilated or effaced (at all really), they started me on a drug called Cytotec rather than start me on the Pitocin. The cytotec was supposed to help my cervix along and each dose was for a 4 hour period. After my first four hours, I was dilated to a two. Not very promising. So at 2 am, they started me on another dose. After 4 hours of dose number 2, I still wasn't progressing. So at around 6:30 am, my pitocin was started. Nice and slow. The contractions finally started to come. Nothing extreme, but I knew I didn't want to let them get too bad before I got my epidural. So at around 10 am, I asked for and was given my epidural! It was awesome not having to experience the horribly painful contractions that I had felt before they let me get my epidural with Hallie. At this point, I was maybe dilated to a three. My epidural was administered by a student... and it was pretty painful to receive. It also worked really heavily on one side and not so much on the other. So it wasn't as awesome as my 1st epidural, but thats ok!
At 1pm Wendy checked me and I was still at a 3. So disappointing! She was really hoping to have this baby by 1:30pm, and it didn't look like that was happening. Dr. Stinger was also hoping for that because he needed to get back to the clinic to see patients at that time. So Wendy decided to check me again at 1:15 to see if I was effacing more or anything....and I was a 10! Ready to go! I went from a 3 to a 10 in less than 15 minutes and I was sooo grateful! So the Dr. and his resident got all set up and I started pushing.
Pushing was not fun this time around. I couldn't feel anything! It was so frustrating to be told to push, when you literally can't feel anything below your belly button. But I faked it as best as I could. I was SO exhausted but even more excited to meet this little baby, so I pushed and I pushed and I pushed! About 20 minutes later, our sweet baby girl arrived! It was such a different experience than when Hallie was born. With Hallie, it was instant adrenaline. I absolutely couldn't believe that Hallie was there, and I was SO in love, I just kept repeating "I love her! I love her! Oh my goodness, I love her!" When the Dr. pulled out Claire, I couldn't help but start to tear up, again in such awe of the miracle of what had just happened, and so filled with love, but I felt it in such a different way. (After telling that to Eric, he also admitted that he teared up when Claire was born.) Both experiences were so special and so amazing, but so different.
Our 24 hours in the hospital after Claire was born were pretty great too. Here's a few things we realized were different from our first 24 hours with Hallie.
The Name: With Hallie, we waited and waited to pick a name. It just never "clicked". Finally, we were forced to write a name down on the birth certificate paper, and we frantically wrote down a name. We love it and it's perfect for her, but we didn't know that at the time.
With Claire, we came to the hospital with a list of our Top 5. Hazel, Evelyn, Claire, Reagan, Olivia (I think there was actually one more, but I can't remember). But we sincerely had no idea which of those names, if any, were right for our girl. We stressed out about it for months! Within moments of holding her, I knew instantly that this was not a Hazel, not and Evelyn etc. This was my little Claire. I was so caught off guard by how certain and how sudden I KNEW her name. I turned to Eric and said something like, "Honey, I really can't imagine her as anything but our little Claire". I was nervous to tell him that, because I felt SO strongly that Claire was supposed to be her name, but I knew that Claire was not at the top of his list. So I about melted when he replied, "I know. I totally agree." Wahooo! That was easy! Her middle name, not so much. We really like Claire Joy, and were pretty sure that was what it would end up as, but we couldn't nail it down. Finally, Eric said, "How about, Claire Faith?" Again, it instantly rang true, and we wrote it down seconds later and never looked back. I love how sure we were!
The Food: The food at Madison was awesome. The food at Portneuf was awful.
The Nursery: With Hallie, we kept her with us 24/7. If she had to go somewhere, Eric went with her. She stayed with us in our room all day and all night. I would feed her, then pass her off to Eric to burp and change her. We loved that time with her.
With Claire... we were exhausted. So when the nursery nurses came in to offer their services, we accepted every time. It saved our sanity to have those extra few hours of sleep and to not have to worry about Claire. I'm glad we spent that time with Hallie, because I felt like as first time parents, we needed to prove to ourselves that we could really do this, but with Claire, we already knew we were champs :) and also knew the importance of sleep.
The Weather: Hallie was born in the heat of July. We sent her home in a little t-shirt and a diaper cover. Claire was born in the freezing January, and we were not prepared! We didn't even have a blanket for her! We were also talked to a lot more about the dangers of cold/flu/rsv season with babies. Scary stuff!
Recovery: My recovery with both girls has been awesome. I feel great! The only big difference was the after-labor pains. They were SO intense with Claire! Literally worse than any pain I felt during labor. I couldn't believe how painful they were. They eased up within 2-3 days, but still. SO painful! It's also not comforting that those pains are supposed to get worse and worse with every baby :( I will for sure have my pain meds ready to go next time. I had to wait a while to get them with Claire, and I thought I was going to die.
These past three weeks have been amazing. We feel so blessed to have two healthy, beautiful baby girls!
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