Clare is Born

Photo by: Auntie Amee

Welcome little one. We have been waiting for you...

There were very few things in common with the births of my two precious little girls. What took practically thirty hours with sweet Helen, took only four and a half with tiny Clare. She made us wait until almost 41 weeks to meet her, but when finally deciding to enter the world she did so in a hurry!

Looking back the funniest thing both had in common was dinner the evening labor began.  Both times we ate out at Italian restaurants with three piece Jazz ensembles.  Watch out for that walking bass!

Photo by: Auntie Amee

With Clare, we were beginning to wonder if I would ever go into labor.  We had finally agreed to setting up a time with the hospital to have my water broken. Little did I know, Clare had her own plans.

We met my parents for dinner the night before the appointment so that they could take Helen.  We enjoyed dinner and then went home to relax.  At 10pm I had my first contraction and mentioned to David that it felt real but didn't think much about it. By 10:30 the contractions were eight minutes apart... and they hurt. I called my sister and during the course of the conversation they sped up and intensified. By 11:40 I was convinced we had to go to hospital and we checked in a little after midnight... I was already more than half-way ready to go.

We discussed our birth preferences with our nurse and she brought in the birth ball for me to sit on. We discussed some light and late pain management. Clare was still sitting quite high, so it seemed there would be some time.  At 1:30am the nurse checked again I was already to an eight. The contractions were  intense and I told her that I was ready for that pain management since singing "Sally the Camel" and "These are the People in Your Neighborhood" wasn't really working for me anymore.

The anesthesiologist was called, though in the minutes it took him to arrive two mega contractions locked and loaded Clare and brought me to a 10.  I wasn't going to get my epidural.  Really? Really.

David and my nurse were wonderful. Our doctor was wonderful, and I guess I was pretty wonderful too.  The whole situation felt crazy to me, and I let everyone know that - repeatedly.

At 2:24am, Clare was born. It was amazing. She was beautiful.

Miracles are real.