Saturday, November 7...3:30 Am...Spencer wakes up to the sound of Jana doing laundry and thinks to himself, "Please let this be what they call 'nesting'" Nope, sorry Spencer - you might as well forget studying for that anatomy test... My water broke! What a day that was! It started early as we headed to the hospital around 4:00 in the morning. After a few hours of very light contractions, the doctor decided to start a flow of Pitocin to help speed things up a little. Well, it sped things up all right! I got the Pitocin early in the afternoon, between 1:00 and 2:00. Within about an hour I was feeling the contractions pretty heavily. The nurse checked and I was dilated to a 6; the next time she checked I was at 7cm; and 10 minutes later I told Spencer, "I think I have to push!" He ran and got the nurse and sure enough, I had progressed to 9 1/2 in that small amount of time! Claire was not ready to wait any longer! After pushing for about half an hour, Claire arrived in this world at 4:58 PM. Her daddy and I loved her at first sight. I soon realized that things were not over yet, though, because the doctor seemed to be inflicting even more pain now than I had felt during labor. As it turns out, little Miss Claire was in such a hurry to get out that she was not very careful with her mommy, and I had multiple 3rd degree tears and had lost a large amount of blood. I was able to endure labor and delivery without an epidural, but now I had to be taken to the OR and put to sleep to repair the damage! Not a great experience...but it was all worth it after one look at this precious little girl.
Claire Alyse Shugart...7 lbs...20.5 in...11/7/09 @ 4:58PM
More pictures to come! God is so good!!!
