Introducing Clara

Born Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 12:16 AM

She weighed 7lbs 11oz.

20" long

(Same size as Ella was but one ounce more) ☺

I'll post the birth story at the bottom, so if you want to read on....

otherwise, here are some pictures.

Wednesday, Feb 13th, I'd been having contractions all day, but this isn't anything new for me. That afternoon it was a nice day, the kids and I were outside playing and the contractions were getting more intense.  I was still only having about 2 contractions every hour so I wasn't too concerned. By the time we were eating that night I was in a lot pain everytime I had a contraction so Cary was trying to convince me that we needed to head to the hospital. I wasn't so sure yet, but Cary made me realize we had nothing to lose by going into SLC that night since I had appointments the next morning anyway, and we could find a place to sleep if the hospital wouldn't admit me.

So Cary and I got in the van and headed to SLC, although half-way to Delta I really considered just stopping at the hospital in Delta. ☺
I think God helped me out and I would have a really painful long contraction and then the next one or two would be shorter and less painful, and at this point they were every 5 minutes, so we did decide to just keep moving on towards SLC.
We got to the hospital around 10:00 PM and I was worried they wouldn't be admitting me since I still wasn't convinced I was in active labor, but I was REALLY wanting an epidural.
When the triage nurse checked me I was dilated to a 6, so then things started to get interesting and the nurses moved a little faster. ☺ By the time I was moved to a labor and delivery room and got the epidural, I was dilated to an 8. I think by 11:45 I was completely dilated, but there was meconium in the fluid when they broke my water, so we waited for the NICU team and everyone to be there and be ready, so I didn't start pushing until closer to 12:15. Clara was basically out with the first contraction I pushed on.
Easy peasy. Ha ha.

So far recovery has been great, I'm sure it helped a lot that I didn't tear this time. ☺