mother's day | clara's birth story

 

I never wrote down Clara's birth story....and I meant to publish this around Mother's Day. As usual, life got away from me. It is fun to reflect on Clara's pregnancy and birth experience nearly a year later. It is unbelievable how quick the past year has flown.

My pregnancy with Clara was relatively uncomplicated. Because of the challenges we experienced with Nora's pregnancy, we went to pre-conception counseling with a maternal-fetal specialist. If anyone has had a shared experience, I highly recommend this step. We discussed my history and what steps we could take in the next pregnancy to minimize risks.

Ultimately, during Clara's pregnancy I ended up on progesterone injections weekly from 16 weeks to 36 weeks, bi-monthly ultrasounds to measure cervical length, Fetal Fibronectin tests, baby aspirin, and megadoses of vitamin D and C.

At 32 weeks, I had a positive fetal fibronectin test. This test is more confirmatory with a negative result, but a positive result sends up red flags. At the same time as the positive, I had an increase in dilation (I believe from 1 cm to 2 cm (but I'm a little fuzzy on the details at this point)). We immediately went to the hospital to receive steroid injections for lung development and Terbutaline (when monitoring showed I was having contractions every 5 minutes). A repeat Fetal Fibronectin came back negative indicating the first result was a false positive. However, as precaution I was sent home on Nifedipine (for the contractions) and bed rest. I remained on bed rest until Neal was able to return from St. Louis in anticipation of Clara's delivery. I was having significant contractions from 32 weeks on and they seemed to escalate by 36 weeks. I was taking Nifedipine around the clock to prevent delivery. My OB instructed me to continue to take the Nifedipine until Neal was literally on the plane to come back to Arizona.

I stopped taking the medications the morning of Neal's flight. I believe it was July 2nd. We did everything under the sun to encourage labor. We went on tons of HOT walks. Nearly one week later, we joked my uterus was totally asleep. My contractions had lessened significantly and my progress was minimal. So, at my 38 week appointment, my OB stripped my membranes (because Neal was going to have to return to St. Louis to start fellowship shifts). This method is great because supposedly it only works if mom and baby are ready for delivery. After the appointment we met our fabulous group of friends for an evening out at Top Golf. We had an amazing time!! Seriously, one of my best memories. One of my other friends was also pregnant and due soon with her baby girl. We left the group a little early that evening to head to bed. Both of us were tired!

Neal came home late that night and had really enjoyed himself with our friends (around 2 am). I woke up around 6 am with a strong contraction. I had been paranoid about false labor and didn't think this was a real contraction (although its intensity was pretty serious). I decided to get in the shower and get ready just in case. Because Nora's delivery was so urgent and I had been in the hospital on bed rest so long, I looked like a train wreck (so much for post delivery family pics!). I had been determined my entire pregnancy NOT to let that happen again if I could avoid it (I know....should NOT have been important...). By the time I was blow drying my hair, the contractions really set in and picked up quickly. By 7 am I ran to Neal and told him that I was pretty sure we needed to leave immediately! My contractions were 3 minutes apart (I was supposed to leave at 5 minutes apart).

The car ride to the hospital was unimaginable. I thought I knew what labor contractions felt like. Boy, was I wrong! The intensity of these were so significant, I was convinced Clara was going to be born in the car. At the hospital, I collapsed in the parking lot. A nurse leaving her shift, saw us and told us she was going to call and warn them we were coming. Believe it or not, I was still not sure I was in true labor.

Once upstairs, nearing labor and delivery, I decided I couldn't walk any further. I collapsed next to house keeping, profusely apologizing. In triage, the nurses assured me I was in true labor. They said its EASY to tell those in true labor. Those in false labor are usually still laughing and smiling. I definitely wasn't.

Prior to delivery, I had discussed VBAC vs. repeat Cesarean section with my OB. While there are risks to both, Neal and I ultimately chose to attempt a VBAC. I had been so closely monitored, we knew my risk of uterine rupture looked small. However, despite my initial (intense) desire to deliver totally un-medicated and naturally, my OB required placement of an epidural. This is important because it allows quick access if an emergency Cesarean section needed to take place. I was assured though that I did NOT need to run medication unless desired.

Admittedly, I was BEGGING for the epidural in the hospital parking lot (with medication). I was ANGRY with the anesthesiologist for taking so long for epidural placement. I could not believe how many questions the nurses were trying to ask during contractions (which at this point kept coming without any significant time gap). I remember a poor nurse telling me I needed to breathe and nearly swinging at her. Its amazing how pain changes your response to people. I know they've seen everything, but I was SO embarrassed by how I handled the pain.

When we arrived at the hospital I was 4+ cm. Within about 2 hours I was ready to push. Clara was out in two pushes (maybe 5 minutes?). I felt great! Its crazy how different a natural birth is from a cesarean section. Now, that is not to say that there are not pros and cons to each, but at least initially, I felt amazing.

Clara's birth was a truly incredible experience and so positive. We were so in LOVE and still are. Its unbelievable she will be one in less than one month!

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nora | first movie

For Father's day, Neal and Nora went on a daddy/daughter date to the movie theater. Nora's first movie in the theater was "Finding Dory." Per Neal, she had an overall amazing first experience. She went back and forth between Neal's lap and her own seat and jumped a few times at surprising parts (i.e. the octopus hitting the windshield). She LOVED her oreos and popcorn. Nora was worn out by the end of the movie and fell asleep hard!

XO!

Caity

clara | 11 months

The past 11 months have flown. I cannot believe Clara is nearly one year old. She has changed so dramatically, especially in the past month. The last 5 months Clara has been the happiest, most joyful child. She giggles like crazy and is constantly talking, playing, climbing or on the move. She is into EVERYTHING, much to her sister's dismay. She loves to cuddle and will always stop playing for a quick love. She occasionally gives kisses but always will lay her head down on your chest or lap. The feeling is mutual. We are SO. IN. LOVE. with our petite little Clara Eloise.

D E V E L O P M E N T 

Clara is a girl on the M O V E. Until a few days ago she has been racing around the house on all fours. She crawls soooo quickly. She has also been practically running around the house using her walker toys (and everything else). She has rearranged the house using chairs, laundry baskets. etc as walking apparatus. She has been cruising for the past few months and over the past month had started to bravely take a step or two unassisted from one piece of furniture to the next. Now (into the 11th month) she has started WALKING. She took a few steps at a time if someone was close enough to grab if needed and yesterday she walked all the way across our living room. Nora has even been yelling that Clara is walking when we aren't even in the same room with her. 

Clara is also a C L I M B E R. Muchhhh more so than her sister was. She tries to climb everything. We laugh because she constantly has a leg up trying to climb, even though she isn't remotely close to getting those adorably chubby legs up on her goal. Because she is a climber, she takes regular falls. We have childproofed everything.

Clara is also a T A L K E R. She is constantly babbling and making noises. She has several words:

• "Na-na" : Nora
• "Da-da": Daddy
• "Ma-ma": Mommy
• "Nigh-nigh": Night night
• "Do": Dog
• She signs, "milk," "more," and "all-done"

Her comprehension is really coming along. It is so fun to talk to her now. You can tell by her expressions and reactions that she understands a lot of what is being said to her. She can follow simple commands like "splash" and "wave."

 Until about two weeks ago, Clara just had the bottom middle teeth. Then, the right tooth next to the middle came in. Then... we had a big boom, some blood and "ta-da" the middle, upper teeth. We can tell the left, upper (next to the middle) is RIGHT there.

Clara has finally graduated to 6-12m clothes and will be moving to size 3 diapers at our next shipment!

S L E E P

We are still doing amazing in this department. Clara goes down easily at 7 pm after a typical nighttime routine of bath, lotion, pjs, vitamins, brush teeth, milk (I know this doesn't make sense after brushing teeth), rocking for a few minutes and bed (with owl lovie and pacifiers). Ok...like a million pacifiers. 

Clara naps twice a day. She usually starts laying down all over the house saying "nigh, nigh." Shes finally gotten extremely easy to read. 

T H E  S C H E D U L E

5-5:45 am: BF

6:30-7 am:Wake-up

7:30 am: Breakfast 

 9 am: BF + nap (used to be a solid two hours, but she has all of a sudden reduced to 45 min-1hour)

11:30 am lunch

1:30-2 pm BF + nap (also usually 1 hour recently) 

4:30 pm: BF or snack

5:30 pm: Dinner

6:15 pm: Bath

7 pm: BF + Bed

E A T S 

Clara is a great eater...when she wants to be. She used to heartily finish purees (from spoon or on her own via pouch).  Now, purees are hit or miss and she pretty much refuses veggies in a pureed form. I don't totally blame her. She had two favorite pouches, the Plum Belly Blend and their blueberry, banana, oat, sunbutter, chia seed blend. We brought tons of these to Chicago (for Neal's ultrasound conference) and apparently overdid it. She is less than interested in these now.

Breakfast favorites include whole milk plain greek yogurt with almond butter and occasionally with strawberry jelly, any kind of fruit and toast. Toast is this girls jam. She will eat it plain, with butter, with almond butter, with jelly, with cream cheese...etc. She LOVES it. I try to make her eggs regularly, but she usually takes a few bites and leaves the rest behind. 

Lunch is often wheat crackers + cheese + fruit (blueberries and strawberries are her favorite) or quesadillas + fruit or grilled cheese + fruit (ALL on whole grain breads or tortillas). Clara is OBSESSED with smoothies.

Dinner can get interesting. This is the area we try to  adventure from kid staples, but maintain as much ease and healthfulness as possible. A HUGE challenge. The girls often refuse to eat much, but sometimes suprisingly eat a TON. Our consistent dinner successes (less adventurous) include homemade Chipotle bowls, quesadillas or burritos, pasta + veggies, veggie burgers + baked beans + fruit.

We rarely eat out, but both girls LOVE Panera, Jimmy Johns and pizza. 

She is amazing with cups. She can easily drink from any sippy or straw cup shes given without coughing or choking.

 "All done"

F A V O R I T E S

• Loves to dance . She dances every time she hears music or on command to "rocka-rocka" or "dance-a, dance-a."
• Loves to brush her hair. She proudly puts the brush or comb on her head. Still HATES headbands.
• Still LOVES the bathtub. She splashes like crazy and tries to climb in the tub if you are not fast enough getting her in.
• LOVES the pool. We recently took her to our rec center pool for the first time. She and Nora had an absolute blast walking, crawling and playing in the water.
• Still LOVES to play "peek-a-boo."
• Still is obsessed with Nora's teepee (shes getting one for her birthday). 
• Newly obessed with the play kitchen (her little one or Nora's bigger one). I recently moved it upstairs so the girls could more easily play with it. 
• She also loves Noras baby dolls and loves rocking them in the cradle. 
• Loves jumping in her crib with Nora. She is in L O V E with her big sister.
• Loves being outside but she is neutral about riding in the stroller. She'd much rather be on the move herself.
• She hates diaper changes, bibs, and car rides (still).
• Absolute favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, yogurt, smoothies (she can drink us under the table) and toast.

T H E  S T A T S

Weight (home scale): 16.4-16.8 lbs ? (10-12%ile).

P H O T O S

XO!

Caity

mother's day | nora's birth story

In honor of Mother's Day, I want to share my girl's birth stories. Nora's I originally published on my former blog. Clara's I have yet to write. Below is my original birth story posts from Nora.

At 32 weeks, I expected to be getting “big and pregnant” and to be nesting, preparing for the arrival of our little one in two months. Baby Hartman had other plans in mind.

On Sunday, December 9th we were to celebrate the arrival of 32 weeks. We had been counting down to this date for two reasons. First, 32 weeks marks an important level of fetal lung maturity and two, it would be the half way point in the hospital stay (we were anticipating delivering at 36 weeks).

However, on the evening of December 8th, Baby Hartman’s heart rate dropped for a scary period of 8 minutes. One of my favorite nurses, Tammy was on that night. As usual, she rushed in as the alarms were going off. She moved me to the right, to the left, to the right again. This time changing positions did not help Baby Hartman’s heart rate return to normal. She pulled the alarm behind the bed (which Neal and I had accidentally pulled early in the admission). Within seconds many nurses from the maternity ward rushed in to her aid. Finally, after eight, very long minutes, Baby Hartman’s heart rate returned to baseline. That evening, she continued to have dips in her heart rate with contractions, which for the first time felt like true, painful labor contractions becoming 3-4 minutes apart.

 During the admission, the OB had ordered Terbutiline injections (fast-acting bronchodilator) every several days to control contractions. Traditionally this medication has been used to control asthma. Currently, the medication is used to prevent preterm labor 48-72 hours. It has a painful burn and causes shaking and a very high heart rate–feelings which I will never forget. Even though I have an incredible fear of needles, this medication worked wonders for me and provided amazing relief from contractions and the feeling of the baby’s head pushing down. I almost started to welcome them. During this evening and the frequency of terbutiline injections increased to every few hours.

The morning of December 9th, my OB came to visit and told us that she did not like what Baby Hartman’s heart rate had done over the past 24 hours. She wanted to deliver her because she thought Baby Hartman was in distress. It was decided that the C-section would be scheduled for 4 pm on December 10th. This would allow for maximal effects of the second round of steroid injections. Because my cervix was still progressing (I believe I was 4 cm? at this point), the OB started me on Magnesium sulfate, also traditionally used to prevent preterm labor. While studies show it doesn’t successfully prevent preterm labor, it does help to reduce contractions by relaxing all of the muscles in your body. It also shows some neuroprotection, primarily from cerebral palsy (more common in premies).

The magnesium sulfate burned (pharmacy’s can no longer prepare it with lidocaine because of accidental toxicity). It made my body feel like it was under a broiler. I felt flushed and very warm. The worse part was the incredible, insatiable thirst. I was receiving fluids through the IV and also drinking 5 liters of water per day. Luckily, I was still able to sit up and walk (because of the muscle relaxing effects, some people can’t even hold their head up). At midnight, the OB made me NPO (no food by mouth) to prepare for surgery the following day. This wouldn’t have been bad expect for that crazy thirst (Neal sneaked me a few ice chips). The nurse brought me some fruity swabs that are supposed to increase saliva production (which almost made it worse…).

On the day of Baby Hartman’s scheduled entrance into the world,  I felt relatively calm (aside from the crazy thirst). For years I had envisioned how I wanted the birth of my children to go. If I was to have had a “Birth Plan” it would have been to experience the delivery as “naturally” and “drug-free” as possible. I wanted to experience all of the aches, pains, and joys that pregnancy and delivery is said to offer. However, with the experiences of the last few months and the blessings of medical interventions, I had already had to throw all expectations out the window. Like pregnancy, birth was going to be dictated by the needs of our unborn child and we were going to do everything in our power to have the best, safest birth outcome. In order to achieve this outcome, a c-section was necessary. The main concern was that Baby Hartman’s head was compressing the cord under her head, which was far into the birth canal. Throughout the past month+ she had demonstrated poor tolerance to contractions (which hadn’t even been as intense as labor contractions are) and additionally the position of the cord put her at risk for cord prolapse. After I accepted that a c-section was necessary, then I had to accept what I had feared the most, a spinal. Because of the fear of needles and the fear of what we might experience in the delivery room with our premie, I seriously considered being put to sleep for the surgery. After much discussion with Neal and family, I eventually accepted that the spinal was the best option and that i would regret not experiencing Baby Hartman’s birth.

About an hour before delivery my Mom, Neal’s mom, and my sister arrived to show their support. I had begged for a shower prior to delivery (I wanted to look pretty in those classic post delivery pictures–and I figured I might not be up for showering for a few days). After convincing the doctor (who was concerned because my contractions continued to pick up in frequency the morning of delivery, even with the Magnesium), I showered but didn’t know that I had to be reconnected with my monitors right away. As a result, my mom was going to try to style my hair for me.

 As my mom began to style my hair, I quickly became overwhelmed with emotion and fear. My body began to shake uncontrollably and I felt panic set in. At that point, our family left and it was just Neal and I. Neal cuddled with me for a little to try and help me calm down. One of my amazing antepartum nurses was able to be with me during the surgical prep and delivery. The anesthesiologist was the first to come in the room, he went and gathered the rest of the medical team (OB, neonatologist, nurses, etc). Within minutes we were rolling out of my “home” and into the surgical area of the maternity ward. The scariest part was when they have you walk yourself from the hallway into the room and climb up onto the table yourself. The table is really skinny with two extensions for your arms that stick straight out, making you feel very vulnerable.

First, they administered the spinal. They asked me to curve my back as much as possible to expose the region for the injection. Because of fear, I curved my back as much as possible, but heard my OB demanding I push back harder. I was still shaking uncontrollably and so scared. The spinal was not nearly as bad as I had imagined. The worst part was the burn of the lidocaine injection prior to the spinal itself. The spinal sent the most bizarre, intense tingly feeling down my legs. After that everything went extremely quickly. There were so many people doing different things. The neonatologist was setting up with his team for the baby, the medical assistant was getting the tools ready for the OB, my amazing nurse was finishing my prep and then came to support me during the procedure. Neal was there on my left, holding my hand. Within minutes I felt pressure, even some pinching as the doctor was making sure the spinal was effective. Then there was intense pressure and tugging and at this point I knew Baby Hartman was being born, but my memory is not as clear. Neal will have to fill this part of the story in for me.

Nora Emerie Hartman was born at 4:06 pm weight 4 lb 11.8 ounces and was 17.7 inches long. The next thing I remember was the neonatologist holding Nora in front of me to see her. The emotion was overwhelming. There she was, who we had been waiting for for months and really our whole lives. She was perfect, I didn’t know how to respond. I reached out and touched her. She was soft and warm and I couldn’t wait to hold her, to get to know her.

Then they were rushing Nora out of the delivery room to the NICU and Neal was asking if I was okay if he went with them. I was scared for him to leave, but immediately I couldn’t imagine our baby being alone without us. She had been a constant presence for the past 7 months.  I had felt her move, held her (always rubbing and hugging my belly) talked to her, cared for her, watch her grow, and had made important decisions for her well-being. We had been active parents for months before she arrived. An amazing realization. Life hadn’t been the same since we found out we were pregnant-but we had really actively embraced and thrived in our roles as parents during the time in the hospital.

Nora Emerie was officially here, tiny, perfect and healthy, and she was forever ours.

 

WELCOME TO THE WORLD NORA EMERIE!

XO!

Caity