Meet Claire Elizabeth

Half a year has passed since my last blog post, but I felt the need to dip my feet into the blogging world again. A lot has happened in our little lives since my "19 week pregnancy post", the biggest being the arrival of our sweet little girl, Claire. It's funny because I had every intention of blogging during my pregnancy, but then felt it kind of silly to just keep posting pictures of my pregnant belly along with my pregnancy details. However, now that I have a daughter (did I really just say that?) So much is heavy on my heart to share! That will be for another post though I'm sure.


Today I just want to share with you our birth story along with a few pictures.

My scheduled due date was February 25th and I was just sure that my baby would come early. With me being a first grade teacher and up on my feet all day every day, I really thought that would kick-start my labor. However, Monday February 25th rolls around and still. no. baby. We had the option of inducing that day, but after praying about it over the weekend, we decided to hold off and see if Claire came naturally. But, due to the safety of the baby, we did have a scheduled induction for Friday, March 1 in case she had not come by then.

Anyway, Tuesday passed. Then Wednesday and Thursday. By this point I was walking our chocolate lab Abby for an hour a day and throwing in a few lunges here and there. Still no baby.

Thursday night comes and we anxiously get to bed early, knowing that within 24 hours we would get to meet our precious baby girl. We check in at the hospital Friday morning at 8am and I begin taking a medicene called 'Cytotec' to help start contractions (thankfully I was already dilated to a 2 and 90% effaced). After 2 hours of having the medicine, I had dilated to a 4 with very strong contractions. I quickly received an epidural (never once thought twice about NOT having one...I mean seriously people!?!?) After my painless epidural, I was on my way to a comfortable labor!

Things were pretty uneventful all afternoon, we had family visiting us in the room while nurses came in and out to check on me every hour or so. By about 7:00pm, I had dilated to a 8/9 and 100% effaced. Time to call the Doctor!

When my doctor came in around 7:20pm to break my water, there was meconium in it which was not a good sign. Because of this, it was time to get Claire out! I began pushing and my doctor realized that Claire was "sunny side up". After about 10 minutes of pushing, my doctor was able to turn Claire into the proper position. By this point, I had a low grade fever, which meant that Claire probably had one too. They ordered the NICU team to come in and be on stand-by just in case.

As I was pushing, my doctor realized that my placenta had ruptured so she decided to use forceps to get Claire out quickly! Claire was born at 7:59pm weighing 8lbs 4oz and 20.5 inches long! She was perfectly healthy and didn't inhale to much of the meconium. The doctors were able to clean her all up so Josh could hold her.

However, my uterus wouldn't contract and I began hemorrhaging...losing over 2 pints of blood and almost in need of a blood transfusion. Praise the Lord I didn't have to have one! About an hour later, I was in a much better state and was able to hold my baby girl for the first time. It's the most unreal feeling, and unless you're a parent, there's no way to fully understand what that moment is like.

Here are a few pictures of Claire Elizabeth Barnes

Just born!

Sleeping soundly!

Going home! (please don't let this picture fool you, Josh had to tell me to stop crying and try and smile. I was an emotional wreck and in the most pain I've ever felt...so glad that's over with lol)

So happy and content

Our new family of three!

Thank you for reading about our story. Hoping to have another new post soon!