The Happiest Day of My Life!

For 9 months, you imagine how the day will go. When will it happen? Will you be nervous? How it will feel to have your baby placed on your chest for the first time? What will he look like? Will you be in too much pain to notice?

On Friday April 24th, I woke up thinking my water had broken. I was 39.5 weeks along, and all I knew was it felt like I had peed my pants overnight! I called Ralph to come home from work so we could go to the hospital. As we were driving there, all of those emotions that had been building for 9 months began to well up inside of me! Was this going to be it? I almost peed my pants for real just thinking about it.

When we got to the hospital, the Doctor checked me and told us that I had an amniotic fluid leak, and that the best thing to do was to start the labor process. So i was admitted and they started pumping me full of Pitocin to start my contractions.

And oooh the contractions!

They started about 90 minutes after getting the Pitocin and they were very painful! I only endured about 4 hours of this before I asked for and received my epidural. At this point I was only about 4cm dilated. It was about 3p at this point. The dilation process slowed way down after the epidural.

But, at about 1145pm, the nurse told me that I was 10cm dilated and ready to push! At midnight, the pushing began! I pushed for about a half hour with just the nurse, and the the Doctor came in for the final pushes and the delivery. The Doctor told us that the baby was in the occiput posterior position, or face up. In deliveries, babies should be face down as they come out or it makes for tougher pushing for longer periods of time. But not for me! I was determined to get him out! At one point, he was so close to being delivered that the Doctor told me to reach down between my legs so I could feel his head. I did, and i completely lost it...the tears started flowing and fogging up my oxygen mask! It was becoming so real!

After 14 hours of labor and 1 hour of pushing, my sweet precious angel, Cameron Ralph Claussen was born at 1:02am on Saturday, April 25th. He was absolutely gorgeoous, conehead and all! My doctor and all of the nurses said they had never seen an occiput posterior positioned baby come out in less than 2 hours of pushing...and I did it in 1. Yes, I truly felt like Wonder Woman at that point! When they placed him on my chest I could not stop crying, and neither could Ralph. It was the most amazing moment in my entire life.

Cameron was 8.5lbs and 21 inches long and was born with a full head of dark brown hair. Ralph and I are so much in love and are so grateful and blessed to have this sweet blessing from God in our lives.