Clara Nicole Sullivan

She's here! She's here! She's here!!!

I have about 20 minutes so I'll type as fast as I can to document the story of Clara's birth.

Travis and I left the girls with Nancy and drove downtown to Methodist for an 8AM induction appointment.  Things got started at about 9 AM with a pitocin drip, which was super fun.  I had had contractions since about 5 AM, but only enough to keep me awake and not enough to do any good at all.  They broke my water at about 10:30, but that caused baby's heart rate to drop and she freaked out a little, too.  The nurse checked me, suspecting a prolapsed cord, but fortunately that wasn't the case! Phew!  That really scared me, because I did NOT want a C-Section, nor the drama of a prolapsed cord!!  But it meant that they turned the pitocin off, and had to start over again at the lowest dose, so we spent the morning just waiting, and socializing with the nurses.  Finally, the contractions got frequent and regular enough that they called the anaesthesiologist, which I thought should have been done a lot sooner because I kept saying I had nothing to prove, the sooner the better.  It was pretty agonizing by the time he got there.  The pitocin gave me the shakes, and I was freezing cold and shaking on the edge of the bed, clinging to a nurse, writhing in pain... it was horrible.  But then after the anaesthetic took effect, it was amazing.  I told Travis that it was kind of like the feeling you get when you've been struggling to stay afloat in freezing cold water, and finally you get out of the water, dry off, and catch your breath, and your toes finally get warm again and then you relax.  It was that good of a feeling, only better because the pain beforehand was a LOT worse than swimming in freezing cold water!!

So, after that was all taken care of, I took a nap. :)  I slept for about half an hour, then the nurses had to check something and rolled me over.  Once I did that, I could totally tell that I was ready to have the baby.  About half an hour and two key contractions later, she was born!!  She was very, very purple, but beautiful and round right away, not at all red and wrinkley.  I got to hold her for a few minutes, and then Trav was with her at the warming table, where she didn't scream much at all.  He said a few of the nurses were impressed when her head circumference was announced - such a proud dad!  And then they weighed her, and sure enough, she beat her sisters for size.

Since then, it's been a crazy mess of people coming to see her, coming to help me, coming to watch the girls... and now it's quiet while Travis takes the girls to the park in the Burley behind his bike, and Clara sleeps.  Clara and I had some quiet time together in the hospital, which was really nice, but I think the massive amount of pitocin, and some other factors including a horribly uncomfortable hospital bed, made it hard for me to relax and sleep so I didn't really any solid rest until I slept in my own bed last night.  Clara had a great night last night - only up twice, each time just a quick change, eat, back to sleep - so I'm hoping she's got another one of those for me tonight.  She's napped a lot today, but also had two or three good hour-long awake times, so I'm hopeful.  I'm still pretty sore, but feeling a little better each day.  I'm impressed with just how atrophied I am!!

And, might I mention, Clara is just BEAUTIFUL.  Her eyes are so deep and alert, and her face is just a perfect shape, and so soft!!  She seems really mellow so far, although writing that probably means that I just jinxed it. :)  After all the visitors she's seen, she follows the sound of my voice whenever I reappear, and Travis's and the girls' voices, too.  My parents have been marveling at how much she looks like my baby pictures, but I'm sure she's Travis's kid:  She's already had her first blowout diaper!  She's spent all day today eating and pooping, so we're moving up out of newborn size to size 1 already. Her stash of cloth diapers is ready and waiting, but it'll be a few weeks before we venture to that.  She also has the same relaxed, long legs that Emily had as a newborn, which I credit her Sullivan side for, also.

The girls are just infatuated with her, and very loving.  They have obviously been stressed by all of this, and I'm seeing some behaviors from both of them that are unusual for them, but really not much and nothing that's at all concerning.  Travis and I tried out some of our favorite girl names by having Emily and Audrey say them out loud for us, and to hear them say "Clara" really sealed the deal for us.  My favorite moment of this whole experience so far -- Travis was holding Clara, with Emily and Audrey on his lap, too, and he asked them if they would like to sing Happy Birthday to Clara because it was, in fact, her birth day.  They did, together, and it was possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever heard in my life.  And Clara stared back at them both, VERY intently.  I can't even describe the feeling... It was a moment I want to hold in my heart forever.

We are so lucky, so happy, and so very overwhelmed by everything.  My heart is full!