Hello! Big wonderful news! The Clarkson family has expanded to include a very special (and very beautiful) baby girl! Eden Elizabeth Clarkson was born Tuesday, September 9th at 2PM. She weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20 inches long. This made me (Emily) especially happy that she came a week early rather than a week late, otherwise, I think she would have been a rather large baby to deliver. Us ladies think about these things:) I'm going to share some details and reflections of the labor and birth so if this isn't your cup of tea... you have been warned:)
On Monday I was a little disappointed because that is the date I had guessed to be her delivery day, but alas nothing happened. I did try just about all suggestions I had heard for trying to jumpstart labor (eating green grapes, eating spicy food, walking, taking baths, etc.). I'm not exactly sure if any of those suggestions worked, but I did feel better trying at least. Seth and I went to bed on Monday night as normal.
Early Tuesday morning Seth headed out for Bible study and I decided to enjoy a bit more sleep. I woke up around 7AM, and heard a 'pop'. I thought the baby was trying to break my pelvis, but then eventually when I decided to get out of bed, there was water running down my leg. My water had broke. Oddly enough this took me completely by surprise as I was well familiar with the statistic that for only about 11% of women does the water break as the indicator of the onset of labor. So, I waddled over to the computer, texted Seth that my water had broken and quickly ate a bowl of cereal as I knew that it might be a while before I would eat again. Around 8AM I called the clinic to let them know about the situation. At this point contractions hadn't really started and I was feeling pretty good. The clinic had us come in to get checked out. We called our families to let them know that my water had broke, but then also told them not to make plans to come down to Ames yet. First babies, long labor right? Seth and I had planned on laboring at home for a while so we only brought a couple of our bags that we'd packed for the hospital and planned to get the others after we'd returned home after our checkup, thinking that-we'd be more comfortable spending a good portion of the expected long labor at home.
On the short 15 minute drive to the clinic the contractions started to get closer together. These contractions were completely different from the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd been feeling for so long, and I quickly came to realize that I definitely preferred the latter. At about 9AM, I was checked out at the clinic, where it was determined that indeed my water had broken and that I was dialated to 3 cm and 100% effaced. They decided to have us go ahead and check in at the hospital. I was pretty surprised that they wanted to have us check in already (since I wasn't that far dialated). But by the time we'd walked across the street to the hospital (around 10AM), contractions were getting more intense and getting closer and closer together. I felt a bit like Dr. Jekell & Mr. Hyde as in between contractions, I was fine, but then once a contraction came on- watch out. I was glad we'd gone to the hospital. The contractions were coming one on top of the other and getting increasingly intense. I desired to get through the delivery without any pain medication and was wondering how this was going to be possible since I wasn't able to get much of a break in between contractions. The staff was wonderful about encouraging us to get into different labor positions. Things were getting pretty intense, the baby was sitting very very low and was putting a lot of pressure on my back. Then, we made a great decision- labor in the SWEET jacuzzi tub in our room. Wonderful, I was able to sit in front the jets to relieve some of the back pressure. This was probably a welcomed break for Seth as up until this point he had previously had the responsibility of putting as much pressure on my tailbone as physically possible, and to me, it never seemed like he was pushing hard enough. I labored for about an hour and a half in the tub. The tub felt amazing. After I'd gotten out of the tub contractions were incredibly intense and I can honestly say that I'd never felt more awful in my entire life. I told Seth I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it without pain medication. And I was very very serious. We'd only been at the hospital laboring for about 2 1/2 hours by this point, and I think he was starting to wonder if I'd be able to make it either. It was intense. Maybe a minute break between contractions, often not even a break. Since I was having such incredible back pain Midwife Carol asked if I'd like to have a sterile water injection to help with the back pain. I thought this sounded like a pretty good idea. By the time the injection was available I was screaming a pretty bit. It was not pleasant. If I hadn't been the one in labor, I would have quickly left the room so I'm grateful that Seth, my mom, my mother-in-law, and my sisters decided to stick it out with me rather than evacuate the premises. It was a lot. Then Carol suggested that she check out to see how far dialated I was before she gave me the sterile water injection. I was dialated 9.5cm. It was 1PM. Fast labor. She told me I could start pushing if I'd wanted to. Man, did it feel good to push. It was not pleasant, and I probably made some unusual noises. I was DETERMINED to get that baby out and delivered our beautiful baby girl at 2PM. It was one fast labor, lasting in total around 6 hours. Not at all common for a first delivery. She has a beautiful full head of light brown hair, and she is just about the most perfect looking baby that I've ever seen. She is an absolute delight and I can't imagine anything more precious. After delivery I felt pretty darn good, and was so happy that I indeed as able to make it through without any pain medication. It'll take a while for me to recover fully, but my body was able to do exactly what it was wonderfully created to do, give birth.
Reflecting on the whole experience, I don't think I could have asked for a better labor. I was able to enter into labor having a full nights sleep behind me. Seth and I worked very well together. He'd told me that I had two jobs 1) relax 2) communicate, both of which we were able to do very well, he was there for me every step of the way, never took a break. There's no way I could have done it without him (don't think about that one for too long:) Having a midwife attend the birth was a great decision. Carol was phenomenal. She told me to do whatever my body felt like doing, if that meant screaming, I could scream, if I wanted to push, then I should push. This was incredibly important. It turns out my body knew exactly what it needed to do. I'm also really glad we decided to give birth in a hospital, the hospital staff has been so supportive, encouraging, and has taken excellent care of us. I don't think I'd previously realized what recovery would look like for me post-delivery, and now, knowing what I do now, I'm glad we've had a couple of days here in the hospital to to recover. Giving birth puts quite the strain on the body. I'd also decided to have quite a few people in the room for support (my mom, my mom-in-law, and my three sisters). This was such a blessing as sometimes, to put it lightly, things got pretty intense. Our moms were great at helping us to time contractions (among doing a lot of other things), freeing Seth to fully support me. My sisters were there to run bath water, hold my hand, rub my feet, whatever. It was very very intense. Seth and I were able to spend about 2 wonderful hours alone with our little daughter soon after she was born. It was a wonderful time of bonding, reflecting, and awing over the beautiful little gift the Lord had given us. Then all of our immediate families were able to spend some time with us and share in the joy of her beautiful little life. It was an intense day, but one of the most wonderful days of my life. The Lord is good.