Claire...where to begin!

Claire is finally here! It was not an easy road getting her here either. Where do I begin? Let me start with Thursday, the day before I was scheduled to be induced. Well, to start things off, Mae threw up twice on Thursday Feb. 9th. and needless to say, I was freaking out! I couldn't believe Mae was throwing up sick and I was scheduled to give birth the next day. So many things were going through my head like should we postpone getting induced?? Who is going to want to watch my sick child?? Will Claire get sick when she gets home?? I was just basically freaking out about all of the unknowns! Luckily, My cousin Natalie, bless her heart, had the day off from her crazy schedule and agreed to watch Mae. My mom helped me get tons of popsicles, crackers ect. for Mae to eat while she is here in hopes of her not being sick again. We just decided it was best to go ahead with being induced. By the time Thursday night rolled around, I was exhausted and still had so much to do to get ready for Friday. I had to clean Mae's car seat because she got sick all over it. Pack my bags. Write instructions for Natalie. ect. I was tired!

Friday morning came and I got the call at 5:30 that I can come in at 6:00am. So I grabbed my bags and headed to the hospital. Leaving Terry there to wait for my mom to bring Natalie over around 9 or so. The morning at the hospital was pretty uneventful. They started my antibiotic, and the pitocin and I just basically sat and waited. I listened to music, read some, wrote in my journal. My doctor had come and we decided to wait to break my water until I had the 4 hours of antibiotic I needed. Terry got there around 10 or so, he had homework and things that he was able to finish before he came.

Finally my doctor came and broke my water around 12 or so. Then things moved really fast. The contractions very quickly became stronger and so I asked for an epidural. I got one but I could still feel the contractions just as bad as when I didn't have the eipdural. I kept thinking, it will kick in any minute. My legs were numb, but I could still feel the contractions, it was awful! I even asked the nurse if the anesthesiologist could come back and help with the contractions. But before he got there, I could tell that I was ready to push. So the nurse checked me and I was complete and the doctor was on her way. When my doctor got there, I pushed through one contraction and she was out! So quick! But this is when the fun started...oh and by the way, poor Terry was pretty queasy through out this whole time. He didn't do well with me in so much pain from the contractions so he had to sit down. Anyway, Claire was out and they were just doing the normal routine, they weighed her, 10lbs, 2oz, 21 in long. She was born at 2:55pm.

They let me have some skin to skin time with her.

My doctor stitched me up but the bleeding wouldn't stop. I just kept bleeding and bleeding, and I would look over at Terry and he did not look good at all! I though he was going to throw up or pass out or something! Then the charge nurse came in and started to help, they gave me a couple kinds of medicine to help the bleeding to stop, a pill and a shot. At this point my doctor looked at me and asked if I was feeling ok and I could tell I was starting to not feel good. So they took Claire off me and asked Terry to take her down to the nursery with them. I could feel all of the color drain out of my face and I felt really light headed, I felt like I was going to pass out. I just closed my eyes and hoped it would pass. I was feeling really weak and weird but the Dr told me that they were going to put a certain kind of catheter up to help the bleeding to stop. So they did that and they felt like the bleeding was pretty under control at that point. I still felt really weak and queasy. So I just laid there while the nurse was going around and doing different things. Then finally the anesthesiologist came in and checked on me. He said he was stuck talking with someone in the OR I think...lame. Anyway, after a little while the nurse came and wanted to take the tape and everything off from the epidural. Well, that killed! It was seriously so painful that it made me throw up. The force from throwing up made the catheter thing pop out. I just couldn't win for the life of me. It was thing after thing! So they wanted to keep me up in Labor and Delivery longer to keep on eye on my bleeding since the catheter came out. That normally was going to be left in until the next morning. So after a while of being up there I was feeling sort of ok again and I asked if I could see claire. So they brought her up to me. I was so fun to be able to see her after so long! Her poor little face though, she looked like she had been beat up!

Is that not the saddest thing ever! Her face was sooo swollen and bruised! Anyway, then we finally decided to try and have me move down to mother baby. I thought I was feeling ok enough to try the wheelchair, but when I stood up, I instantly felt light headed and had to lay all the way down again. So the nurse had to go and get a stretcher to wheel me down that way. So finally I got down to mother baby. By this time it was like 7 at night. My sweet mom and Natalie and of course Terry were there and we all got some dinner and ate it together. My mom kept telling me that I had no color in my face and that I just didn't look that great.

So on Saturday, it was pretty uneventful for the most part. They had me stand up in the morning and see if I got light headed at all. I could stand and not get light headed but I had no strength at all and I didn't feel like I could stand for very long. I desperately wanted to take a shower but I didn't feel like I could stand for that long. So I spent the day mostly sitting in bed and just getting up to go to the bathroom. Later in the afternoon Dr. Savage came by and talked to us a little bit. Since we don't have insurance at all, our original plan was to go home as soon as possible. So she mentioned that I could get some blood to help me feel better and I could probably go home later that night. So we thought about it and that's what we did. I got some blood in hopes that I would be able to go home later. Well, a couple things happened to foil that plan. First, Claire's blood sugar dropped again and they had to keep her in the nursery for a little while to watch her. And after their blood sugar drops they have to check her again before and after 2 feedings. Then as I was almost done with the blood, I thought we were in the clearas far as having any side effects from the blood, I started to feel like I was getting hives on my eye and ear. So needless to say, we had to stay over night again. Crap! I took a benedryl let the nursery take care of Claire, and basically was knocked out!

Then Sunday morning came. I felt awful. I had not showered at all since arriving at the hospital and I felt like my eyes were almost swollen shut from the hives...it was awful! I had hives everywhere. But Dr. Savage came bright and early to help us get out of there! I called Terry at home and said that we can go soon so he came right over! We got everything ready to go. I still wasn't feeling all that great but I could get up and get dressed and I was so excited to get home to Mae. Well, we got home around 10:00am. I don't know if I was just up and around more than I should have been or what but not 20 min later, my heart started to race really really bad and I was short of breath and felt light headed again. I didn't know if I was going into anaphalactic shock from the hives or what was going on, it really scared me bad! I had to just go lay down and once I laid down my heart started to regulate a little bit but it seemed like it took a while for it to go back to normal. I had called the Dr. on call and my brother while I was waiting for it to regulate! I basically couldn't do anything. I laid in bed and tried to rest. I frankly was scared to get up again. And that's when I started to take benedryl every 4 hrs around the clock. I think I took benedryl for a good 2 days straight, maybe even longer. It was so hard to just lay in bed and not be able to take care of my 2 kids. I could hear Mae being crazy and screaming and acting out and I knew I could help her calm down but I couldn't get up and help. I think it was really hard on Mae too. Poor thing she didn't know what was going on. I was just all of the sudden gone for 2 days and then for another 2 days I couldn't get out of bed! And she had just been sick on Thursday. Oh my, I am glad that is all over!!!!! Thankfully, Terry's mom came into town to help us for when Claire was born, and I am soooooo glad we had her come. Little did we know we were going to need her help more that anyone knew! She was so wonderful too, she cooked meals, did laundry, kept the house clean, fed Claire and took care of Mae. Bless her heart, she was probably sooo ready to go home! But I can't thank her enough for how much she helped us! My mom was so sweet too, she brought dinner a couple of nights and called all the time to check in and see how we were doing! It was a rough little while and I seriously am sooo happy that is behind us!

Claire is now 2 weeks old and we are all doing wonderfully! Mae is back to her normal super sweet self and loves baby Claire. Baby Claire is also super sweet and just doing so great! As of right now, she hates binky's though which is so different from Mae. But she has gained weight and is in the 95% for height and weight. I am feeling totally back to normal and couldn't be happier about it!

Cute daddy and Claire

Grandma Sharp and a much better, less swollen looking Claire.

Cute big sister and baby "cwaire". Mae doesn't say the "L"

Finally some pictures of all of us! We are looking a little raggedy but happy to be home and feeling better and back to normal!

LOVE my little family!