The Birth of Henry Miller Clark

My newest little man was born last Saturday, June 15th, 12 days overdue and following over a week of false labor and 4 months of gradually building contractions.  Basically, tons of fake-outs and thinking I was in pre-term labor...then on-time labor...then late labor...and then FINALLY I actually WAS in labor, less than 2 days shy of a scheduled induction.

The evening of Friday the 14th, contractions were steady at 3-5 minutes apart for 4 hours.  We called the midwife and she said we could come in if we wanted...but since the pain was still bearable (it didn't seem intense enough to me) we decided to wait, pack our hospital bags and try to sleep, thinking we would be woken up in the night.

Instead, we slept until morning.  I was disappointed to wake up the next morning, feeling nothing (after alllllll those contractions!!).  But shortly after getting up, contractions and other labor things started happening (I'm keeping this the non-TMI version).  We walked on the greenway, since walking always made contractions pick up for me, and I was totally that hugely pregnant girl walking, and stopping for contractions, making bystanders really nervous.  OH, because after 3 weeks of not being able to walk due to back pain, at around 41 weeks pregnant, something changed and I could walk again.  What a blessing.  We made a quick Trader Joe's stop and went home to see if things would keep going after the walk.  They did- contractions quickly brought me to the level of tears and that's when I knew it was really happening.  We showered, ate lunch, packed up again and put Arthur down for nap with extra kisses and snuggles.  We didn't tell him anything, of course. Then we watched an Arrested Development (didn't pay any attention to it) as I bounced on the yoga ball and timed contractions...again.

And within an hour, I knew it was time!  Steph came over to stay with Arthur (she's a champ) and we headed peacefully to the hospital!  It wasn't the dramatic car ride that I had anticipated.  We checked in at 3:00 and to my dismay, I was only dilated to 3 cm- the same as I had been the day before when midwife Hallie swept my membranes and things got crazy.  It was discouraging- after allllllllll those contractions.  Lindsey was the midwife on duty and she instructed us to walk the halls fast for an hour, so we did!  And it worked- after that I was 5 cm.  After some deliberation, I let her break my water...this baby needed to come out.  That was at 5:00pm.  As with Arthur, once the waters were broken, things got out of control really fast.  I mean PAINFUL.  I began shaking violently and the pain was honestly more than I had ever imagined possible.  I requested an epidural pretty quickly, but it only kicked in on one LEG...and at 6:15 I was fully dilated!!  I accidentally experienced an unmedicated labor and transition.

I tried a practice push and it hurt like all heck.  Oh, I am no super-birthing mom.  I was screaming, crying, shaking, gagging, cussing (well, I cussed once, which is a lot for me).  Wailing like a newborn baby.  Begging for the epidural to kick in...once the technician adjusted it, I demanded we wait til it kick in before more pushing.  So finally at 7:15 things had calmed down enough where I was ready to try pushing again.  With Arthur it took 1 hr 45 min to push him out.  With Henry- 15 minutes!!! Hooray!  It's an amazing moment to see your baby for the first time.  So surreal and awesome!  I will be forever grateful at how quickly he finally came out, and forever Henry Clark's biggest fan :)

Happy Father's Day!

The brothers like each other so far

The best kind of nap