Claire Isabella's Birth Story

Claire 5 days old


Well, they say every pregnancy is different, every birth different, and I will have to attest this is so true. Even though I thought I had very similar pregnancies with the boys, the births were so different, and with Claire...the whole experience was very different. Although we pretty much knew we would inevitably like to have a 4th child, the timing was not ours, as we were in the midst of getting ready to move to a new state etc. However, God's timing is always right, and we trusted that He knew what was best for our family!
What is kind of neat is I can really distinct each birth based on where I lived at the time. I had Leah in GA in a hospital, I had Ethan at home, living in a different house from when we had Leah, Owen was at home in VA and now Claire at a Birth Center, in of all places Delaware!

With this pregnancy, it was yucky from the very beginning. The nausea, the vomiting, then the moving to NJ, the house needing an extreme makeover experience, the holidays, the unexpected...enough to make one crazy. So, I don't know if it was all that plus being pregnant, but I was SO emotional and SO tired, more than I can ever remember. On the positive side, I didn't have a lot of the aches and pains like from the last pregnancies...no low back pain, no sciatic pain...that was a blessing.

Ok, enough preface, I will start with the Cliff Notes version of Claire's birth, as it sums up the whole thing in a different perspective; it took two weeks to dilate from 0 to 3cm., maybe a day for her to get in a somewhat posterior position, about 10 hours to go from 3cm-4cm and then just 2 1/2 hours to go from 4cm to delivery. In a sum, that equals one tired mommy upon a VERY fast, and VERY intense labor/delivery! Did I say VERY emphatically enough?? :)

So...going back to the first week in June. We had been planning on going to the homeschool convention in Richmond for months, and had my midwife appt. scheduled just before we left for our weekend away. I don't usually get "checked" for progress until I am in labor, but with all our traveling and with some more frequent Braxton Hicks, I wanted to know if anything was starting. I felt good knowing after my appointment that I was completely closed (no dilation, no effacement) and so on we went to our wonderful time in Richmond.
At this point in pregnancy, as I was now going into week 39, I had midwife appointments every week. Well, the following thurs. I had another appointment, just before we were trying to decide for sure whether any of us should make another trip to VA for Ira's sisters wedding in Lynchburg the weekend of the 14th. I had had some stronger Braxton Hicks randomly during the previous week and thought maybe they had gotten things started. Sure enough, I was 1 cm. and 25% effaced. Could have meant nothing really, but we were strongly urged to stay close to home for the weekend unless one, I wanted to have the baby in Lynchburg or Ira miss the birth. So, we sadly missed the wedding, but baby Claire was getting ready! That very weekend I had some back to back contractions that I thought for sure were the beginnings of labor, but they came, were not in any pattern and then stopped. This came to be the story for the next week.

On wed. the 18th, I woke up in the night, couldn't sleep for anything, had a few contractions, and kept feeling like I had to have a bowel movement, nothing happened and finally got about 2-3 hours of sleep that night. Thursday, again, woke up about 2 hours after getting in bed, this time some more frequent contractions, some harder than others, and more bowel movement pressure, this went on for a few hours then stopped and again got about 3 hours of sleep that night. One good thing is that I really wanted my mom to be here before I had the baby and she got here that Thursday afternoon, so although I was tired, I was glad my mom was here, and I finally felt ready to really get this baby out!

Friday the 20th was my midwife appt. I got checked since I was having all this start stop labor stuff and I was 4cm. and almost 50%, but had also discovered that Claire was posterior. I was SO, SO discouraged. If you don't know, posterior is bad, bad for me anyways. Posterior is what Leah was and it makes for a longer labor and very uncomfortable back pain with each contraction. Probably the reason I was having this start stop labor, her head was not in the best "take off" position! :) The midwife sent us home and told me to hang out on my hands and knees for the rest of the afternoon and gave me some other exercises to do to help get Claire in a better position.
After my appt. that afternoon, we were not in the car 5 min. and I started getting some very uncomfortable contractions and was feeling some of that pressure again. Apparently getting checked must have gotten things going again. We got home and I did all the things that the midwife told me, but didn't feel like anything had changed or progressed. I called the Birth Center about 7:30pm and told the midwife I was so tired, worried about this baby being posterior, and expressed that I really didn't think I was up for one more night of this start stop labor. I even inquired about the transfer hospital and that I was seriously considering just going and getting the epidural if this continued. She very calmly assured me not to worry, and to take things first things first. At this point my contractions were still not in any real pattern or significant length. The were maybe 30 sec. long and coming maybe every 10 min. or so. She said to call, basically if the contractions didn't stop and they got closer together...duh! But that it was possible that they could stop all together again.

One of my concerns was that the Birth Center is a 45min. drive and I surely didn't want to be in the car during real active labor! So, tried a couple more exercises to see if Claire would move, and then started getting the kids ready for bed. Sure enough, by 9 or 10pm the contractions stopped and I went to bed. Around 11:30pm I woke up with a sudden sharp contraction and what felt like Claire doing a somersault. Had she turned?? I lied there for a few minutes and then another strong contraction. Got up and went to the bathroom and had another one on the toilet. This went on for about 30min and were coming about every 5min. so I woke up Ira. I was crying out of fear (that I was too tired to labor if this was really it) and the contractions were bringing me to my knees already, so I was worried about making it to the Birth Center in time if we really needed to go.

I called the midwife and told her I would feel better just coming in now and that I was so tired. Called my "middle of the night" back up friend and she zoomed over in 10 min. to stay with the boys while me, my mom, Ira and Leah, made our way to the Birth Center. Luckily we had taken the boys two car seats out of the back and I went back to my hands and knees on the back bench for the ride to the Birth Center. I was having some pretty bad back pain with each contraction, thank goodness my mom was there to rub my back, but that also meant to me that Claire had indeed not moved :( The ride was not that bad and seemed to go pretty quick. One good thing of middle of the night labor...no traffic! We got to the Birth Center at about 1:20am. The midwife checked me around 1:30am and that's when we found I was only 4 cm. and maybe 75% effaced. Claire was not totally posterior but her head was a little cockeyed, enough to make for some difficult descending. Labor slowed for the next hour, but my contractions were pretty strong. During that hour I tried walking the stairs as suggested that it might help the baby move into a better position. I was exhausted, and so Dorinda, we'll call her her name (the midwife), suggested that I get some Stadol (a narcotic)to help take the edge off my strong contractions and get some rest to gear up for the rest of labor. I reluctantly, but felt compelled out of exhaustion to say yes. I got on the bed on my hands and knees resting my arms on the birth ball while they got an IV started. As they were putting the IV in, it seemed as though all of a sudden, the contractions started getting closer together. Before she was going to give me the meds she wanted to check me once more to see if I had progressed. I was 6cm and she said she could stretch it to an 7. Borderline for giving the meds so she suggested breaking my water and giving it another 10 min. to see if things continue to progress before giving the Stadol. This was at 2:50am. I quickly moved back to my knees as I leaned over the birth ball position as this seemed to be the only position that I could get into. As a side note, I think it's interesting how with each birth I have had a particular position or "spot" that I seemed to have to keep going back to once I was in active labor. And for each child, it was different.

Anyways, I did pray for a quick delivery, but with that comes some of the most intense pain that I have ever had. All I could do was cry out to God to please help this baby come out! I could feel her move down with every contraction and was relieved when she started to crown. It seemed like forever for her whole body to come out, but in a moment, almost like a switch was turned off off, and a new one on, was my relief and exhilaration when she finally made her entrance. The midwife brought her through my legs and to my front as I collapsed in utter disbelief of what I had just did, and with complete thanks and praise to God for this wonderful, beautiful gift! I am, and will always be, amazed at the miracle of birth and how God designed our bodies to go beyond
anything that could ever be imagined, survive, forget(at least enough to think "it wasn't that bad"), and then do it multiple times!

Claire Isabella was born on June 21 at 4:07 am, weighed 7lbs 4 1/2 oz. and was 21in. long. What an awesome privilege to have another child to love, and to love so dearly, like we were never with out her!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." James 1:17








Claire about 1 hr. old getting her first measure.