Clara's Birth Story: Detailed.

Here is the story of Clara's labor and delivery: Jan. 24th I woke up to a little twinge about 4 am. At 8 am they started to be more consistently apart about 6-7 min, lasting about 5-25 sec. At about 12:30 we decided to go to the hospital to get checked to see if anything was progressing. I figured it can't hurt and the kids were really excited to go to Rick and Ivy's house. And my story to the kids that Clara was poking me wasn't really sufficient anymore. So, I wake up Josh who at this point had only slept 3 hours after working a 12 hour shift the night before. Being the good dad that he is, no complaining about getting woke up, in fact he's quite alert when I mention I want to go to the hospital. hahaha Well we get there and I insist not to be dropped off at the door because that would just make it more emberassing when they send me home with tylenol. So we park like the fathest spot away... and funny thing is they took us to the 2nd to last room to be checked. Nice little walk right? Sooo.. she says she will go ahead and check me, and if nothing we can wait a few hours or she can send me home with pain medicine... la la la... she checks, I apologize to be bothering her.... She says I'm 7 1/2 and my water is bulging! She says I'm not going anywhere. She became quite urgent, very calm though, to get a warmer and the room set up. Scurrying around asking me if I need to push. She said she was sorry but she didn't think I was going to get an epidural. Well, I said no really I want one of those. She said if I didn't push I could have one. So, I would imagine it was about 1:30 at this point. The ladies at work joke about how high Clara is, and how she must be all propped up in there to make sure she isn't born. And that turned out to be quite accurate. She was high. Anyway.... she said if she broke my water it'll be quick. But that it might be better to let her come down the canal a little on her own. The nurse wouldn't check me at this point, because she said that if she touched the water would break and all. So, I stayed like this til about 4:30. I apparently had a water of steel. I didn't mind because I wasn't in much pain. I did have an epidural that took the edge off. With Monroe, my epidural made me not feel anything. This epidural didn't work so well though once the pushing part came. Well the doctor broke my water at 4:30.... and she came pretty quick. But let me tell you, this 1/2 hour is my war story. Eve I didn't really push, Monroe I pushed but had a great epidural, so I giggled him out. This baby... oh my heck! Well, we'll just say that Josh says I was screaming but the nurse said I was just moaning loudly. Mom and dad said I was screaming and they were listening outside the door. I always thought that was dumb when people screamed, like oh please nobody does that.... But anyway... all 9 lbs 3 oz. WIDE of Clara came at 4:59 pm. She was 20.1 inches. I consider myself to have had a very good birth experience, with very little pain.... except for that 1/2 hour (my war story 1/2 hour) which is such a small price to pay to have this beautiful baby girl. It was really amazing to hold her with her cord still attached and all, really, that is cool. She looks so different from Eve and Monroe, and I'm in love with her. She is nursing well and is very healthy. She has a really strong suck, so I have a feeling she's not going to be missing any meals. Her temperment so far is calm. Funny thing is we have to negotiate with Eve to hold her. Josh just took her from Eve after Eve had her for 1 1/4 hours. Ha It's neat to see them bonded already. Monroe is not terribly interested in her, though he thinks her car seat is really great to play with. When daddy can peel the baby away from Eve, I see the pride in his eyes and love for his baby girl. We're a happy little family! We're blessed that everything went so smoothly. We're also very blessed to have a lot of supportive family who we know would help us with anything at a moments notice. We are also grateful to both have supportive co-workers and friends from church who also love baby Clara.
Here are some pictures:

Baby Clara proably2-3 min. old getting her Apgar assessment. Awwwwww.
This is mommy loving Clara about 22 hours old.

Daddy holding his baby girl.

Daddy helping Monroe to lean in and give his baby sister a smooch.

Eve is very good with Clara. Clara was fussing and Eve insisted we should check her diaper. So we changed her diaper together.