The Birth Story - Part 1

I keep on trying to find time to sit down and write out what happened the night before and day Clara was born, and it always seems like it's going to take too much time so I don't even start.  But I'm very afraid that baby brain is going to wipe it out of my memory very soon, and I definitely don't want to forget a minute of what happened.  So I think I will just try to write it in parts, and hopefully get it all down eventually.   

My due date was Sunday, Sept 18th, but that day came and went with no sign of her making an entrance any time soon.  At this point I had barely progressed at all, so I unfortunately resigned myself to the fact that we might have to wait a while.  I had already started my maternity leave, which was probably a good and bad thing - good that I got to rest and get some last minute things done, bad because I had all day to think about how I was still pregnant.  I had a pretty great and uneventful pregnancy, but the last month had really started wearing on me and I was pretty close to being completely done with being pregnant. 

On Wednesday I went to the doctor and we decided that they would induce on Friday if she hadn't come yet.  I wasn't thrilled with this because I didn't love the idea of inducement, but we discussed all the options with my doctor and decided this was the best for me and baby.  That afternoon I started feeling contractions, but I had been feeling something similar off and on for a few weeks so I just thought it could be more false alarms, although they did feel stronger than before.  Clint came home from work and we ate dinner, and then went to get ice cream.  His co-worker had been telling him daily about this ice cream place called Hank's Ice Cream that is near our house and supposedly has the best ice cream ever.  Not only was the Butter Pecan Ice Cream supposed to be amazing, but his co-worker swore that it would induce labor, ha!

We got there right before 8, ordered our ice cream, and after taking one bite I felt something strange.  I thought, "Maybe my water just broke", but I wasn't sure so I didn't say anything - it is much more common for them to have to break your water once you are already in labor, and, doesn't your water breaking in public only happen in the movies?!  After walking outside to get back in the car I knew that that was exactly what had happened, told Clint, and we both burst out laughing.  He first made me stand in front of the sign to take a picture, and then went inside to get something for me to sit on so I didn't mess up his new car.  Luckily we live very close, so we headed home to get our bags.  I called the doctor and then we called our parents, grabbed our stuff, and headed to the hospital.  Oh, and put our ice cream in the freezer to save for later :)

Last belly pic, right before we left for the hospital