How Claire made her grand entrance

Well, many of you have heard the basic story of Claire's birth, and here's the rest of the story: As I posted before, I started feeling contractions pretty regularly early Sunday morning: they were five to six minutes apart, but not very intense, until about 9:30 a.m., when they seemed to subside altogether. I called the hospital (again) and a nurse said to try walking, and wait until they became regular to come in. So Jay and I went for a walk, and I tried to keep moving around. Of course, both sets of grandparents had been notified in the morning Sunday that I was in labor, as we though we would head into the hospital sometime before noon. So by noon, my family and Jay's parents were both at our house, wondering when we were going to head up there. They left us to monitor contractions pretty soon, though, and I took a nap. When I woke up, contractions became more regular, and we finally got ready and headed to the hospital at about 7 p.m. Sunday. Again, both sides of the family were so excited, they all got to there shortly thereafter (except Paul and Diane, who met us there, as our church is next door to the Women's Center).

I was dilated to a three, which was a little disappointing--I was hoping that after waiting so long for regular contractions that I would be a little further along. Little did I know I would stay at a three until 8 a.m. the next morning, when the doctor came in to check my progress! He had me put on a Pitocin drip around midnight to speed up my contractions, and then I took some pain meds a couple hours later, as the contractions became really painful (Jay helped a lot by massaging my back every time one came on). I was glad I took the pain meds though, because we both desperately needed some sleep, after being up since 3:30 a.m. that day! When the doc came in around 8, I was still at a 3, like I said, so he said he would go ahead and break my water. He said contractions would start coming on hard and fast at that time, and did I want the epidural. As tired and weak from hunger as I was at that point, I did not hesitate to say yes. So he gave me the epidural (almost painless, really!), and then the nurse broke my water after it kicked in. I don't know that I liked the feeling of being numb from the waist down, but I think I liked it a lot more than contraction pains! Labor progressed pretty fast after that: by noon, I was completely dilated, and ready to push. Unfortunately, my beautiful sister had a final in Norman at 4, so she had to leave by 1!! At 1:15, she had to take off, not having any idea how much longer I would be. 1:15 was actually Claire's birth time, but Jay and Mom didn't go into the waiting room until 10 minutes later. We were so sad for Manda, but she came back to town the next day, even though she's in the middle of finals week.

Pushing was INTENSE, but the doc and nurse said I did a good job! Except for how completely drained I felt, I had no idea how much good I was doing, because of the epidural! Mom, Jay, the nurse, and doctor were really good about cheering me on, though. My arms are still sore today from pulling on the handlebars when I pushed!

Claire did GREAT last night, her first night at home. She woke up to eat twice, and went back to sleep really well. At the hospital, she was really stuffy and gassy, and would cry inconsolably at night, but my nurse was quick to recommend she go to the nursery for a few hours to give me a break. At home, I'm figuring out what she needs (to have her back patted hard so she can burp often, to use a bulb to clean out her nostrils), and my milk is coming in and she's eating really good, so she sleeps for longer!

Can't wait to see the Pannell family this weekend for Kyle's graduation!!