November 23rd, 2009 Happy Birthday Claire!

The Amniocentesis

Monday morning we woke up at 5:30am to get out the door by 7am. Mom and dad dropped off the kids (including Eva) at Grandma Rowe’s while Paul and I went on to the hospital. Our Amniocentesis was scheduled for 8:30am. I was so so so nervous. I was worried about the pain, and if it would hurt the baby. I had read the day before that amnios hurts A LOT when the doctors stick you while you are having Braxton Hicks. I had Braxton Hicks ALL of the time. Also, I was half way hoping that her lungs weren’t ready for delivery, because I didn’t think I was ready. I wanted to push everything off as long as possible. We waited a long time in the waiting room, which again, I was ok with. Finally, when we were called back, they asked if I knew which doctor would be performing the procedure. Ha, I didn’t know, and neither did they! Great! The ultrasound tech hunted down some doctors and eventually they began prepping me. A cute, pregnant, resident actually did the procedure with a med student and overseeing doctor in the room. They started scrubbing my belly down with iodine and getting the utensils out. Once they said they were ready, I closed my eyes. Going through the skin didn’t hurt more than a shot, but once they reached the uterus, and then the placenta, the pain increased. The pain kept increasing as they extracted the fluid, and the baby was kicking violently. I was so afraid that she would kick the needle and was praying that she would sit still. I was so thankful when they were done. After it was over, Paul, who watched the whole thing in the ultrasound and my belly, told me that the needle was over 6 inches long. Shew, I was REALLY glad that I didn’t look!

     After the amnio we were sent to do NST to be monitored for 30 mins.  Ha...it was nice to lay down after that stressful proceedure.

The Birth

We were told to go to the ninth floor (Labor and delivery) to wait to hear what the results of the amnio were. If her lungs were good, then we were giving birth that day. After a half an hour, Katie, my life long friend, came in to see if I was ready to go back to the prep room. We still hadn’t heard anything about the results so we were confused. She said, “Oh, her lungs are good, you’re giving birth today!” Katie was so excited yet relaxed, and nonchalant that she made me feel the same way. I thought, “If Katie is ok with this, I guess I should be too”. She took Paul and I back to the prepping room and started everything. As we were walking back, I couldn’t help but think how weird it was that in a couple of hours my baby would be out of my stomach, without any work on my part. The whole “Scheduled birth” is such a foreign concept! Ha, Katie had someone else put the IVs in because she didn’t want me to hate her after all of these years! The prepping time took about an hour. Katie kept me calm by telling me funny family stories. While we were sitting there, I started having contractions, and I could feel them in my back. I still wonder if the amnio was what caused them. They eventually wheeled me into the operating room. My anesthesiologist, Mike, was WONDERFUL. Paul even said, he was the most caring man he’s ever seen, without being creepy. He was so good at putting in the epidural, and was rubbing my head and checking in on me throughout the whole surgery. Even before everything began he said to me, “we will be praying for you through the surgery and for your baby”. The whole atmosphere of the surgery room just seemed so peaceful and prayerful. It seemed almost that God hand picked each person who was present for the birth. Everything was as perfect as it could be. (Side note: those epidurals are the weirdest things! They work SO fast and it feels like the bottom half of your body isn’t really there.) I had always heard that even though you are numb through a c-section, that you feel them pulling on your stomach. I didn’t feel a thing! (Paul watched the WHOLE surgery...brave man.) Once they were ready to pull her out, they lowered the curtain so I could see her little body emerge from my belly. The cord was around her neck, and her head, I thought, looked a little blue, but a couple seconds later she cried. I knew then that she was fine. We were all surprised when we saw that her lesion was completely covered in skin! YAY! She even scored a 9 on her APGAR test! Fr. Nick, the hospital’s chaplain, was there for the birth, and baptized our baby soon after she was born. Ha, I think he actually baptized her “Claire Amanda” instead of “Claire Maiella”. Oops! The nurses took pictures and video taped the whole thing, and even prayed along with us when she was baptized. At the end of the baptism, there was a loud “Amen”. It was awesome! Claire was soon taken down to Good Sam’s NICU while they sewed me up. The epidural was so weird, because once it started to wear off, it moved up to my chest and felt like someone was sitting on top of me. Once we were finished in the operating room, Katie wheeled me into the recovery room. At one point Katie moved my leg and took my sock off. I wasn’t looking when she did this, but when I looked down I was surprised to see my foot and leg altered, because it felt like my leg was still straight! What a funny feeling! For the next couple of hours I made a game out of trying to move my toes and legs while I was still under the epidural. I got really excited when I was finally able to succeed! Oh the simple things! ( I felt like Wesley on the Princess Bride when he moved his thumb and nodded his head!) After about an hour Katie wheeled me down to the NICU to see and hold Claire before she was transferred over to Children’s hospital. She was beautiful, but it was so sad to see her little arm poked with an IV. I couldn’t help but think about how cozy and safe she was inside of me, only to be pulled out and poked as soon as she entered the world. At the same time, I was Ok with everything that was happening. When thinking about this moment in the weeks prior, I pictured myself crying when they took her away. I don’t know if it was all of the prayers that everyone had been offering, or if the mental preparation helped at all, but I was totally calm and at peace. It was just something that had to be done, and I was ok with it. Once they settled me into my recovery room, Paul left for Children’s, and mom stayed with me. (I had a private room! Katie said that they thought it would be cruel to put me in a room with another mother and baby, since I didn’t have my baby with me. That was a good enough excuse for me.) Kathryn, my sister, stopped on her way home from Steubenville to also keep me company. She brought Milka, and other goodies! Paul ended up coming back over and staying the night with me so my mom and sister could go home.

                                                                 

Claire's Cadillac