The Campbells: Clara's Birth Day and First Week

Clara Grace Campbell

Clara Grace Campbell was born on Thursday, July 30th at 11:44pm weighing 7lb 3oz and was 19in long. She is the most beautiful thing we have ever seen! Sometimes I just look at her and get tears in my eyes because I am so in love. I can't believe she is already one week old! The past week has gone by in about 2 seconds and has been challenging, tiring and amazing. Jason and I have definitely learned a lot to say the least. Clara is a major sleepy head so we pretty much have to wake her up for every feeding. I'm sure that will all change soon though. I have never been a "baby person" so I was very anxious to see how I would feel toward my own. And just like everyone tells you, I am so overwhelmed by how much I love her and want to take care of her. We are so blessed! I put some pictures of her "firsts" and will put up some more in a couple days.

Clara's Birth Story

Because I was about 2 weeks past my due date we were scheduled to start induction at 6AM on Thursday and had the plan already to go. But just like the past couple weeks had gone, those plans would quickly change. Just hours before we were going to leave for the hospital my water broke at exactly midnight as we were finishing packing our bags. Contractions started right away and started to get closer and stronger. We were so excited! We couldn't believe I was going into labor on my own. Because of the excitement and mild contractions I of course got zero sleep. The midwife on call said we were to still go in at 6 AM since Clara was post term. But by the time I was admitted into the hospital and started the monitoring the contractions had almost completely stopped! And because my water had broke this totally changed our plans once again. We were planning on having Cervidil placed in my cervix to help ripen it and hopefully start labor. But because my water had broken they did not want to stick anything up there for risk of infection. So we were left with two more options, start the pitocin right away, or take something called Cytotec which was supposed to do the same thing as the Cervidil. We had heard some not good things about Cytotec so we were originally against it. But on the other hand I REALLY didn't want pitocin. Pitocin in my eyes was my arch enemy. haha. This was because my mom had a bad experience with it and I had heard it made labor A LOT harder. We took about an hour to rest and prayed about what we should do. We finally decided that we really trusted Debbie (the certified nurse midwife working with us) and that she would not suggest something that wasn't safe. We chose the Cytotec which was taken in a little tiny pill form. After I took the Cytotec they had to monitor me and Clara for two hours. Clara was awesome and apparently had no idea what was going on. :) After this two hours she had me walk the halls for another two hours in attempt to get the contractions going again. We became hopeful once again when the contractions started up again and were getting harder. But after the two hours they pretty much came to a stop. AGAIN. At this point I had been up for 36 hours with no sleep and in my eyes hadn't even begun the REAL labor. Now we had no option but the pitocin since I was 8 hours away from the 24 hour mark of my water breaking (the risk of infection continues to go up after that). I was going to have to meet my arch enemy. I remember just sitting there in the rocking chair, looking at Debbie, saying I couldn't fathom going through labor right then. I had nothing left physically or mentally. But regardless of how I felt we started the pitocin at 4:30. Debbie left Jason and I to labor together for a couple hours (Jason was awesome by the way). After that the contractions started to get a lot harder and she came in and stayed the rest of the time. After two more hours of hard contractions she FINALLY was ready to check me. I had not been checked at all since I arrived because of risk of infection. I was 5 cm!!! This was seriously a miracle because my body seemed so resistant to progress. I really thought I was going to be a 2 or 3 (and so did Debbie) so this really encouraged me to keep going. 2 more hours went by and the contractions were super intense. But the weird thing was that I felt really relaxed and almost drugged. I would even start to fall asleep in between contractions! All those endorphins I guess. After those two hours Debbie checked me again because she thought I was maybe ready to push. I couldn't believe we were maybe at that point. When she checked I was at a 9! Woo Hoo! They let me start pushing. It was the most physically demanding thing I had ever done. After an hour and 15 minutes of pushing Clara Grace came into the world (almost 24 hours exactly after my water broke)! It was so amazing when they put her on me and getting to hold her for the first time. She was the most beautifully squished thing ever! Jason and I couldn't believe we had made it through that 24 hours. And as far as my arch enemy pitocin, I no longer have bad feelings toward it. It helped bring my baby into this world! I really think God allowed us to go through all of this to show He could bring us through something we never thought we could handle. To show us that although I had nothing left, He provided me the strength to bring Clara into the world!

We wanted to say a special thanks to Sharon Tilotta. She taught our birth classes and gave us a lot of great advice. I know for sure our experience would not have been the same if we had not met her. She is apart of First Birth Ministries and has a passion for teaching couples about labor and delivery. She also offers labor support. She has 11 children and is pretty much always on call for an upcoming delivery. I still can't figure out when she sleeps. The website is http://www.firstbirthministries.com/ and her classes and expertise come highly recommended. Love you Sharon!