It was my birthday. We were five days past my due-date, but one day before the mental due-date that I had given myself-so I was still doin' fine. Your first sister was 4 days late (but my Creighton instructor had adjusted her due-date based on my charts to be 2 days later so was she really just 2 days late?...) and your second sister was induced at 5 days late, born at 6 days late, sooooo, I wasn't expecting you to be early, or even really punctual, except that I had been on progesterone shots for your entire pregnancy so I thought maybe you might be a little bit earlier. But still, I have late babies.
Anyway, it was my birthday, and my birthday wish list said something like, "A white teapot, wildflowers, peach cobbler, a new nursing cover, a baby." Check, check, coming after dinner, check, and nope. No baby. We started the day with doughnuts and then Dulce and I went to 9 am Mass. I was having lots of bloody mucus and was nervous about that. It had never happened before. What did it mean? Were you okay?
Fortunately, I had doughnuts for breakfast and you were extra active. Some reassurance from my mid-wife also helped put my mind at ease.
Mass was wonderful, as always always. Dulce had excellent behavior! We got home around 10 and I was having some contractions, so I decided to take a nap. Dulce would NOT leave my side. After an extreme tantrum we let her lie down with me, so she napped from 10am-12pm, too.
Lunch, more contractions, not much going on. They weren't very intense and I was excited and not too uncomfortable. Could a birthday buddy be on the way? My sister said she would come over to take a walk since it was my birthday, and I asked her to bring an overnight bag....just in case.
Around 3, Meg arrived and I asked Ron to start recording contractions, just so we had a sense of what was going on. I still didn't think they were very strong and was just chatting away with Meg and the kids between contractions. Ron however, had gone into super hyperactive overdrive mode. We kind of laughed at him as he frantically made sandwiches and fruit salad, located the camera and the video camera, packed toiletries and regular clothes and just generally seemed like he was the energizer bunny. My contractions were about three minutes apart and one minute long! He thought we would be heading to the hospital soon. But I thought we still had several hours at home...
4 pm: I had a contraction, and when it was over I stood up from the rocking chair and felt a gush of liquid. What?!?!?! I went to the bathroom to investigate. My water had broken. It was full of green gunk...meconium. In a panic, I yelled the news to Ron. He threw all of our stuff in the car. I tearfully kissed my big girls good-bye. They barely cared-Aunt Meg was there and they were having a blast. I plopped myself down on my old, yucky towel and we "sped off" to the hospital. I cried and prayed and called the mid-wife to let her know we were headed in. Ron reassured me and drove quickly.
I got to the hospital around 4:30. My water had broken (clearly!) so I was admitted. Each contraction resulted in a gush of amniotic fluid that was just gross and basically confined me to bed (bummer!). They also told me that due to my water breaking I couldn't labor in the water tub (bigger bummer!) AND I was two centimeters dilated (say WHAT???!!!). I had been 1.5 cm dilated the previous day at my last visit to my mid-wife so I was very disappointed that after 6+ hours of labor I hadn't progressed much.
We settled in for the long haul. I breathed and relaxed through each contraction and waited for the nurse to start my prescription of penicillin. The computers were down so it took a really, really long time to get the prescription. I needed two doses, four hours apart before you could be born, little Clementine, so I really wanted them to get me the dose quickly. But alas, I got my first dose around 6.
While we waited for the dose, we did random things. Ron trashed the towel that I had sat on on the way to the hospital. He called Meg and asked her to kindly mop the floor in our house. I relaxed through contractions and chatted with Ron, the nurse, and monitored my cell phone. I was getting all sorts of random "Happy Birthday!!!" text messages which were sending me into a slight panic. I was desperate for privacy. It's a thing for me when I'm laboring! I would love prayers, but I always really, really want privacy and just can't bring myself to let people know that I'm in labor and to please pray for me.
So the penicillin was finally ready and the nurse warned me that it could hurt when it reached my veins. I think that I flippantly responded that I could handle it, it couldn't be worse then labor, right?
Fast forward five minutes, and WHOA!!!! My arm felt like it was on fire. It was way worse then labor and I felt....bad. My blood pressure dropped dramatically and I felt like I was overheating and in a panic I sent Ron to find the nurse. In came a swarm of nurses. They put ice on my arm and turned me on my side and talked to me and monitored me and hooked up the penicillin so that it ran in with my saline solution so it was more dilute. By 7 the crisis was averted, but I was exhausted from the experience and they checked me again and said I was 2 or 2.5 cm.
Not going anywhere? Grab a snickers. But since that wasn't an option, I asked for an epidural, please, pronto, the sooner the better. I had a great anesthesiologist, which was a relief for me after the horrible experience that I had when Pia was born. They made Ron leave the room, which was actually a relief for him, too. Done at 8 pm. Still 2.5 cm. Bummer.
But now we settled in to a much more comfortable labor experience. Ron and I chatted and waited. I could feel my entire body shaking and still gushes of water. I knew that my body was working hard, but now I wasn't in pain and I wasn't getting in my own way. At 9:45, I knew it was time to push. The nurse came in and said, "Well, that went fast! Better call the midwife." So they called her, and administered my second dose of penicillin, diluted this time. They made me wait to push until the medicine was in and the midwife was there and until I was completely ready. At 10:30 I started pushing, and I expected you to shoot out like Dulce had, but my midwife had me push slowly and in a sense gently and so you were born at 10:55 pm.
The emotions of that moment are too much to describe, to see the face of the little one who has been so prayed for and longed for. My beautiful little Clementine, how much we love you!
