Clara's birth story - as I remember it four years later

I never formally documented Clara’s birth story. However, both Matt and I agree that we have very vivid memories from that unexpected evening. I shake my head as I think back on January 2, 2009 and what I did that day. I must have had some crazy hormones going on and a little anxiety about becoming a first time parent. That’s my rationalization for some of the odd things I accomplished that day.

Here’s the run down from that day. It was my last weekday of a two week vacation from work. Since January 2, 2009 was a Friday, I wasn’t planning to return to work until that following Monday. Matt, however, returned to work that day so I had the day to myself to accomplish my ridiculous list of to-dos.

Here’s how it went:
-9am - I had a non-stress test at the doctor. Results were normal. My c-section was scheduled for January 13, and I did not see the doctor that morning. I would see my doctor again (or so I thought) at my next appointment the following Tuesday, the 6th. I had found out the week before that I would be having a c-section since she was breech, and the doctor was planning to answer any questions that I had on the 6th.

-Went to Hobby Lobby to return unused pew clips from our wedding almost three years earlier. Bought some garland to go on top of kitchen cabinet.

-Went to Kohl’s to exchange a purple pair of sweat pants.

-At home, I arranged the garland on top of the cabinet and hung a plaque above the back door. Matt was not pleased that I was up and down off a chair and countertops decorating when I was 9 months pregnant while home alone. The thought never occurred to me.

See the plaque on top of the door?
That's what I hung by myself 37 weeks pregnant. 
It took many steps up and down off a chair.

The all important garland is coming out of the basket on the top right.
Everyone knows a baby won't want to be born into a family without garland in their basket.

-Finished the letters to Clara’s name and hung them in her room.

-Wrapped the gift for Abby Carlin’s baby shower that I planned to attend the following morning.

-Did a little work. Exchanged e-mails with the director I was working for at the time. He told me to keep the baby in there for one more week. I told him this wouldn’t be a problem.

-Ate fajitas at Chili’s with my husband.

-6:45pm – returned a battery core to the Wal-Mart automotive department to get the $10 core charge returned – the battery had been sitting in our garage for over a year.

-7pm – returned some other items to the front return counter at Wal-Mart.

-We had a LONG list for Wal-Mart. We were planning to stock-up on toiletries and groceries. We were at the very beginning of the list looking for hypo-allergenic body wash that I was supposed to bathe with prior to my c-section on the 13th.

Now that I see this in writing, I think it’s possible that Clara was just fed up with standing in return lines and decided to put an end to my craziness. I think she stomped one of her little feet in frustration and caused a leak. That’s all it was – a little leak. I leaned over and whispered in Matt’s ear, “Oh no, I need to go to the bathroom.” As I started to walk away, I realized something wasn't right. “We need to leave right now.” We abandoned the cart and quickly headed for the car. My savvy husband threw the reusable canvas grocery bags on the seat, and said, “Sit on these!” I still wasn’t sure what was happening. I suggested that we go home so I could change my pants (in hindsight that would have been futile) and wait for the doctor to return my call.

Apparently the key takeaway Matt remembered from our birthing class was “If the water breaks, go straight to the hospital.” Because he kept repeating the “straight to the hospital” part over and over. Still unconvinced, I called my Mom. “How do I know if my water broke?” I asked her. “Oh, if your water breaks, you’ll know” is what she told me. As I was on the phone with her I kept saying, “It just keeps coming!” By the time we walked into the waiting room of the hospital, my khaki pants were SOAKED! They immediately admitted us into a room where they did a test to see if my water had broken. I told the nurse that I didn’t think my water had broken. She told me she was 100% sure that it had and that we were going to be parents in about two hours.

This just about sent me over the edge. I started sobbing. The planner in me did not handle this surprise very well. I mentioned that I had just eaten fajitas, but that I was told not to eat 12 hours prior to my c-section. They told me I might get sick, but there was nothing that could be done about that now. Both of our cell phones were almost dead. Matt called his Mom – no answer. He left her a message telling her the baby was coming and to bring a camera to the hospital. He called my parents to tell them the baby was coming soon. He got off the phone with them, and I asked him if they were coming. He said he didn’t know. I told him to call them back and tell them I wanted them to come. I kept crying. I was really scared. I wasn’t going to have my doctor for the operation, and I hadn’t even had a chance to ask her my questions at my next appointment. Plus the house was a mess (but the decorations were hung!), and I had about two more weeks of work that I was planning to cram into the following week. The nurses and doctor kept asking me what was wrong, and the truth was that I wanted my doctor for the operation – not the on-call doctor who I had never met. But I didn’t tell any of them that because I didn’t want to be rude. We got a hold of Heather who swung by our house and let Elise out and grabbed our camera. Heather and Karen were the first two at the hospital.

I begged the nurses to let Matt come into the operating room while I was getting my epidural. They refused and told me that Dads have a tendency to pass out. I kept sobbing. They had me lean over an anesthesiologist while they administered the epidural, and he apologized if he smelled because he had been up since 3am. It was now about 9pm – not a great thing to tell an emotionally unstable pregnant woman.

Finally I was lying on the operating table, and they let Matt in who was decked out in hospital garb and armed with a camera. At this point, I finally calmed down. I remember the next part going very fast. The doctor and nurses were talking about their kid’s sports activities, and then at 9:32pm, we heard a baby cry. Hands down, that was the first most amazing moment of my life. Four years later I get teary thinking about it. She was red all over, had chubby cheeks, lots of hair and was very beautiful. There really is nothing else in life that compares to the birth of your child. They held her up for us to see, and then they moved her off to the side to get her vital signs.

 

Matt left me in an instant and was by Clara’s side. A few minutes later, I got super queasy. I told them I felt sick, and the anesthesiologist said, “I have something for that!” Then I suddenly got an awful headache. “I have something for that!” he said. Then I felt extremely loopy and must have started saying really funny things because they asked me if I had been drinking. I said, “Well, I can now!”

They explained that they nicked Clara’s bottom as they were performing the c-section, and the doctor told us Clara was the most breach baby she had seen.  Clara was in a pike position – bottom wedged down and feet up by her head. After the surgery was complete, they moved me to a tiny recovery room outside of the OR. It was very quiet since it was late on a Friday evening.

 

They took Clara to the nursery to get cleaned up. Clara's first two blood sugars were extremely low (due to my gestational diabetes) so I was in recovery about 2 hours before I got to hold her. I was getting frustrated having to wait to hold my baby so I sent Matt to see what was taking so long--he didn't return. Then I sent Karen to see where Matt went, and she didn't return either! Come to find out Matt was in the nursery, and Karen was watching thru the window. We were told if the third blood sugar reading was below 50, she would have to go to the NICU. They were bottle feeding her formula in an attempt to get her blood sugar to a safe level. Thankfully, the third reading was in the low 50s (a significant improvement from the earlier 20s readings), and I was finally able to see her.

 

 

My parents and Kim arrived shortly after they brought Clara out to see me, around 11:30pm. I remember being very out of it. I lay in the corner observing everyone holding Clara, and it almost felt like an out of body experience. Must have been all those things they put in my IV to cure the nausea and headache. My recovery was very painful, and I was slow to get back to normal. Clara never did successfully breast feed since she had gotten so used to the bottle in the hospital. She woke up every two hours at night for the first eight weeks, and I was pumping 7-8 times a day and bottle feeding her. I remember the first two months being extremely hard and physically and emotionally exhausting. I also remember it being very amazing as we admired our new little person. I do think a c-section has to be the best surgery there is. Your reward for getting cut open is a beautiful baby! The downside is that you don’t really get to rest during your recovery.  They tell you to take it easy and rest, but they send you home with a newborn.  We all survived and tomorrow we will be celebrating her fourth birthday.

 Happy Birthday Baby Clara!