Claire Brelyn Hirz-The Baby Story

The short version for you to enjoy...

It was long. It was painful. It was exhausting. And it was worth every second. My birth plan worked out exactly how I wanted it, too. I went to the hospital, I had a beautiful healthy baby, and I came home. Good work, Me!

The long version for me to remember how things went...

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Here we were at our due date and still no baby. I wasn't too surprised by this and really was not to anxious to get her out. I had been telling people that she will come when she is ready and that I'm not getting impatient while waiting. Sure, I was dying to meet my little one, but I honestly wasn't too miserable-pregnancy was really a great experience. I did stop working on Friday for maternity leave in hopes that Claire was on her way and because my legs were swollen so badly.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

We had our last appointment with Dr. Gourley today. Claire still hadn't dropped at all and I was only dilated to maybe 1 cm if he was feeling generous, ha. So, we talked about some options. He said we could either choose a day and just go in for C-Section or go in on Sunday for some Prostin gel and early Monday morning to be induced. We decided to go for the Prostin gel option and got it all set up. I was feeling relieved to know that by Monday we would have a baby one way or another!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Today we had 2 Prostin gel treatments scheduled today. They are supposed to help get things ready and could even put me into labor. We went in at about 2 pm for the first treatment. They hooked me up to hear Claire's heartbeat and to monitor contractions. Claire sounded fabulous, as always, and I wasn't having any contractions. After they inserted the gel, I stayed hooked up for about 45 minutes to make sure everything was still alright with Claire and then they let me go. We went back in around 9 or 10 for the second round. This time I was having some contractions but they didn't hurt at all and I didn't even really notice I was having them. Another round of Prostin gel and a couple of hours later and we were on our way home.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Today is the day, today is the day! I called the hospital at 6:30 am to see when I could come in to be induced. They told me to come on in! Woohoo! We got there and all checked in by 7:00 am. They were starting my IV and my dr came in to break my water. Once they got the Pitocin going he broke my water and the contractions started coming. They started coming pretty quickly and pretty hard-let's get this baby out of here! The doctor told me that he hoped to see about 1 cm dilation progress every hour, so I knew we were going to be in for a long day.

Contractions were pretty intense, and so I decided to get a shot of pain medicine that went right into my IV. It started working immediately and was pretty crazy. It just took the edge off for a little less than an hour. My nurse checked me a few times throughout the day and I wasn't making the 1 cm an hour progress that we hoped to see. By now, I was pretty tired and in quite a bit of pain. Brent was super amazing, encouraging me the entire time and telling me how fabulous I was doing. My mom was great too, she rocked at giving me those ice chips! I was thinking about getting an epidural because I didn't know how much longer I would be in labor before it even came to the pushing part of things and I was getting tired. But, I didn't want one because I am not a huge fan of needles and that needle isn't the smallest thing in the world. Well, when the nurse came in to check me about 6 hours into labor and I was only dilated to a 3 and Claire still hadn't dropped at all, I was a little frustrated with the lack of progress. So, let's try that epidural. Oh boy, it was incredible! The guy that put it in was fabulous and it honestly didn't hurt at all. I could still tell when I was having a contraction but now it wasn't even phasing me. I'm a big fan of the epidural. :)

My doctor came in about 5:30 pm to see how I was doing. Sadly, I was still dilated to a 3 and Claire had still not dropped...at all! He told me that he was concerned that she wasn't dropping because she wouldn't fit. We talked about the possibility of a c-section again but he didn't want to push me into making that choice and he would let me and Brent discuss it to make sure we felt good about things. We felt like we weren't pushed into our decision at all and that we truly were making the decision ourselves based on what we knew and thought would be best. Dr. Gourley left the room and Brent and I decided to go ahead and have a c-section since we weren't making progress. We wanted to make a decision to have Claire while she was still doing fine and we didn't want to wait to get to the point of it being dangerous for her. We told Dr. Gourley and they started getting everything ready, including more epidural medicine. I was completely numb-thankfully, haha.

Brent got to be in the operating room with me and I'm so glad he was there. I was freezing and shaking but unable to do anything about it. Strange. I also tried with all my might to move my toes but couldn't do it. Crazy! It was a very weird sensation knowing they were cutting me open but not being able to feel anything. At one point, I asked, "Have they started yet?" The anesthetist told me that they had already been going, ha. I didn't even know. The anesthetist told Brent to look over the curtain as they were pulling out Claire. He said to me, "It is a girl!" and we both cried happy tears. It had been a long day and we finally had our precious baby.

Claire Brelyn Hirz was born 9 days late on January 23, 2012, at 7:11 pm weighing in at 6 lbs 9 oz and she was 19.5 inches long. I can't believe how tiny Claire was! Brent went with her to be cleaned up while I was sewn/stapled back together. Before they took her to the nursery to give her a bath, Brent brought her in to me so I could see her. I couldn't see her too well, but she was beautiful. Brent even told me, "She is already smiling." She did have a little bit of a cone spot on her head and a bruise from where she had been sitting for such a long time during labor. Her head was not going to fit and I'm glad we made the choice to have a c-section.

I couldn't wait to see my baby after I got all stapled up! It was a couple of hours that passed by the time I got to see her. (Side note that I heard from my mom....Brent stopped by the room we were in before they went to the nursery to get my mom. She was looking in through the window and saw Brent bent over a drawer studying whatever was in it. He picked something out and held it up with a big smile on his face for my mom to see. He picked Claire a purple bow because he knew I would love it. I love that husband of mine and I did love that purple bow!)

We had a perfect, healthy baby girl and we were so excited. Claire did have to have her blood sugar checked every 6 hours since she was so small for being 9 days late. It did drop to a level that we were nervous about but she got the hang of eating and it went right back up. We were in the hospital until Thursday afternoon and we actually had an amazing stay. I never once felt pressured to make a decision that I wasn't ready to make or that I felt was the wrong decision. I had wonderful nurses taking care of me and Claire. I felt that we had outstanding care and feel bl

essed that things went so wonderfully for us.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Because Claire was such a tiny little peanut, her doctor wanted to see her at 1 week to make sure she was growing and doing alright (side note-we love her pediatrician-Dr. Nielsen!). In the hospital, she dropped to 6 lbs and 4 oz so we were excited

to see that one week later she was 6 lbs and 12 oz! Woohoo! Claire is the 20th percentile for weight, the 62nd percentile for length, and the 43rd percentile for head circumference. Yeah, Baby Girl!

Monday, February 6, 2012

At Claire's 2 week well check, she was up to 7 lbs 5.5 oz! Holy moly, she is growing like a weed! She is now the 24th percentile for weight, the 53rd percentile for length, and the 64th percentile for head circumference.