Sophia True Clements
Born on December 21st 2010 at 10:53pm
7 pounds 4 ounces
19 inches
Sophia's Birth Story
At 4am on December 20th I woke up to contractions. I was so excited because I knew she was coming. I didn't know how long it would take, but I knew she was on her way. I remember thinking I should really try to get some sleep, but I don't think that happened that morning. My parents were visiting at the time so when everyone else was up we went out to breakfast as was already planned. The contractions continued on pretty irregularly throughout the day but we tried to carry on with the day as normal.
There was snow fall in Dublin that also started on this day and got heavier and heavier as time went on. Further on into the evening I could feel the contractions getting stronger and more regular. By about midnight my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart so off to the hospital we went in about a foot of snow. I was feeling pretty great that we were able to wait until the contractions were this close before we went to the hospital however when we got to the hospital, I was told for the first of what would be three times that I was not officially in labor. Her head wasn't even engaged at this point!! I couldn't believe it. Anyway, we decided to go back home. The midwives basically told me to stay at home as long as I could stand it.
We got home around 2am and tried to sleep for a while but my contractions were pretty painful lying down so that didn't last very long. At about 11am I decided I needed to go to the hospital; I thought for sure I was in labor, but if not I wanted pain relief! So back into the car and off to the hospital in even more snow. I was examined again to find out for the second of three times that I was still technically not in labor; "tightly closed" I later read in my chart. The midwife I talked to suggested that if I really wanted to see my birth plan through (which among other things was to let my water break naturally and to not have any pain relief) I should labor in the antenatal ward until my water broke and I felt like I needed to push and then ask to be examined so that by the time I got to the delivery room the baby was coming and there would be no time for pain relief. She estimated I had another 4 hours to go. Ahhh! I couldn't believe it. Anyway, we were in the antenatal ward for 6 hours before I thought I needed to push. I was really nervous to be examined because I didn't want to be disappointed again. I wanted to hear I was almost fully dilated, but decided I would be happy if I was 5 cm dilated (mind you, my water STILL had not broken). And for the third time, I was examined and the midwife said, "well, you're almost there". For a split second, I thought she meant I was almost ready to push, but quickly realized she meant that I was almost in labor and still not even 1 cm dilated!!
Rob made the well received suggestion for me to lay down for just a few minutes and after a few extremely uncomfortable contractions laying down my water broke! Woo hoo! Oh the excitement. The hardest part was feeling like I had to push and being told that if I did I would damage my cervix because I had not started to dilate yet. I was moved into the next available delivery room and was examined again by our lovely delivery midwife, Eimear, who told me I was 7 cm dilated. That was only about 40 minutes from the time my water broke - the relief of hearing this was amazing - she was coming fast now. Eimear said she would usually do examinations every 2 hours unless I wanted otherwise. About 20 minutes later the urge to push was so great I said she had to check me, and thank goodness, I was already fully dilated and Sophia was ready to make her appearance in the world. Rob was such an incredible help throughout the whole thing. One of his favorite parts was when Sophia's head was "out" and we were waiting a couple of minutes for the next contraction to deliver the rest of her body. Apparently she made a nice Elvis lip curl when her head was out - I think she's going to be a feisty one. At this point I was absolutely elated thinking that I DID IT. She was delivered quickly after this and I got to (sort of) catch her, it was amazing. It had only taken 2 hours from the time my water broke to Sophia's arrival.
