She's Here!

Claire Olivia Brown was born on Easter Sunday, April 24th. She weighed 8lbs 2oz and has a ton of dark brown hair. She was delivered around 10 pm.

The day before, Jack and I spent the morning in Salt Lake. I picked up a crib for Claire I found on KSL that is exactly like Jack's. We are thinking about making them share a room for a bit, we'll see, but I thought it would be good to have matching beds. Plus, it came with a mattress and was half the cost of the actual crib. That was located in the Avenues. Whew, what a ride.

I then took Jack to the Great Cloth Diaper Change. It was a Guinness World Record to change babies into a cloth diaper simultaneously around the world. I was glad we had to change at 10:30 because people participating in Australia had to do it at like 2 in the morning. Whew! Kind of strange but it was fun and I won a free pocket diaper in a raffle along with got a free changing pad and a whole bunch of fancy soaps. I also got an oatmeal cookie in a goody bag which I shared with Jack. Afterwards I found out it was supposed to help women produce more milk. Lol, I felt bad for Jack but figured it would be okay since the label didn't say don't give to kids, if he produces milk, I'll take him to the doctor.

After that we visited my sister. Jack loves his Aunt Tonie's house because she has a big piano that he can play on. I love his expression when he sees it too. He looks at it and then looks at me, smiles REALLY BIG and then runs to the bench to start plinking around.

On the way home I could feel contractions and decided to start keeping track. They were coming about eight minutes apart but weren't hurting. After we had settled in back at the apartment I told Kyle who looked at me and asked if we were gonna have a baby tonight. I thought probably not but I packed up my hospital bag and got ready to go to the hospital. Our good friend Ila came over that night at 10 and stayed with Jack while we went to get things checked out since the contractions hadn't stopped and had gotten stronger.

This pregnancy was weird. With Jack, I never went into labor and never had regular contractions. So when my body started contracting I wasn't sure if this should be treated as a first pregnancy or second. With the first pregnancy it can take a long time for labor to progress as compared to the second pregnancy because the body knows what it is doing. I didn't know if this should be counted as a first or second (It should be referred to as first labor because that would be more accurate). On top of that, I didn't know if I was supposed to go into labor because they were planning on a c-section and I didn't know if that would affect whether or not they would deliver me.

We went to the hospital and I was monitored for about two hours only to find out that they wouldn't deliver me because it wasn't an "emergency" and it was a weekend. I wasn't dialated and they didn't know how long it would take to go into active labor. I was given a shot of morphine and sent home.

On Sunday I stayed home from church because I was still having contractions. They were pretty strong and were sorta regular. They would be consistent for a few hours and then not. We went to Kyle's sister's house for Easter dinner. It was pretty much delicious and I enjoyed watching Jack play with his cousin Jordan. On the way up I had been timing my contractions and they were about six minutes apart. Because it was a Sunday and they wouldn't deliver me unless it was an emergency, I didn't want to go to the hospital unless I absolutely had to. I was pretty upset from the night before. Anyways, I was sitting on the couch waiting and the contractions were getting stronger. I timed them and they were coming pretty consistently at four minutes apart. I told Kyle we should probably go and then called my sister so she could watch Jack.

When we got to the hospital I was getting nervous that they would just give me a shot and go home. I didn't want to try and sleep through the contractions because they were the most painful things I had ever felt. When the doctor came in I was crying and as he said had a "death grip" on the bed. He checked and they decided to deliver Claire.

This time the c-section was not as bad. I was up and moving around the next day and was so grateful to have the IV's out. I guess we left the hospital a day early but I was glad to go home. I missed Jack a lot and it was difficult for him to be at the hospital because he wanted to play with everything. Things are going well and Jack is sweet to his little sister. He rubs her head and gives her kisses. We have to watch to make sure he doesn't lean on her and he has a fascination with face, mostly the eyes. He sure seems like a good brother and I hope they get along well. My mom has come down to help out and it has been a huge blessing. I can't pick up Jack because of the c-section and it's nice to have someone here all day to help. Now we just have to get packing so we can move. Our house is very crowded right now and I think we are all ready to move on to a bigger place.