The Big Arrival!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted a blog....but that is because we have been very busy!

On Easter Sunday evening, I started to have some consistent contractions. I had five contractions the first hour, and the second hour I had six (I was told to go in if I had 4-6 contractions an hour for two consecutive hours). Carl and I were not really ready for this, but we hustled and got the dog to the neighbors, the girls to Severson's house for the night, and ourselves to the hospital by 8:45. Upon arrival they hooked me up to the monitor and saw that I was having consistent contractions. the Dr was worried that my uterus wouldn't fair well if she allowed me to keep laboring, so she decided to C-section that evening. After the decision was made, there was a crazy whirl-wind of action going on. I.V.'s being put in, blood being drawn out, and a multitude of Dr.'s introducing themselves. I was wheeled into the O.R., my spinal block was administered, and by 10:39pm, CLAIRE NATALIE ADOLPHSON came into the world! She was 6 pounds 7 ounces, and 19 inches long.

Our extreme excitement was soon met by extreme worry! In the first minutes of her life, Claire was having trouble breathing. The nurses started to administer some oxygen and then called the NICU Dr. to come and look at her. Once the Dr. got there she had only "pinked-up" a little, and so she decided to bring her down the the NICU. Of course, Carl and I felt completely helpless. I was still on the table being put back together again, and I couldn't see anything and really had no idea what was going on. Carl was being extremely positive, and telling me everything was going to be fine, but on the inside, he was freaking out too! After the longest 15 minutes of my life, my Dr. called down for an update on Claire, and I was elated to find out that she was just fine, and was on her way back up to my recovery room. They told me that once she got to the NICU she started to show all positives signs, "pinked-up" completely, and was just perfect! :)The rest of our hospital stay was much more non-eventful (thank goodness) and was spent getting to know our newest daughter. She is a tiny little peanut, that has her big sister Jocie's mouth and chin, and her big sister Ella's nose and eyes. She also has black hair, which I'm sure will all fall out since I only seem to grow bald babies :)

While in the hospital, we worked a lot on nursing and cuddling. Her sisters are completely obsessed with her. Jocie loves to cuddle with her on the couch, and Ella loves to be involved with EVERYTHING that has to do with Claire. She watches every feeding and every diaper change. She also loves rocking her and signing "rock-a-bye" and "twinkle, twinkle little star". She is taking the role of "big sister" very seriously! Our world has completely changed, and we are very busy, but in a very good way. I hope to keep you well informed through frequent blogs...if you don't hear from me in a while, just chalk it up to extreme sleep deprivation!