Clara Madeleine is 1 week today!

Well..a week has gone by and haven't even blogged about our life's adventures. (Well today she will be two weeks...kind of got behind)

Clara's Birth:

On Monday, November 4th we left the house just before 7:15am. We said goodbye to the kids while they were eating breakfast. Sigh, it was hard to say goodbye because it would be a couple of days before we would see them again. I was worried how they were going to handle us being away for that long, especially Olivia since she was the one who always wondered in our bedroom in the middle of the night. There was a pit in my tummy too knowing that when we returned from the hospital our family of 4 would be different. How would the kids react to their new sister?  Will they regress?  Will they be angry at us for leaving them for so long?

In the car there were so many things in my head. Of course, Martin wanted to stop at Starbucks before we headed to the hospital. And...of course, because of that stop we were about 15 minutes late. hahahah  We walked into the Labour and Delivery Unit at the Civic with Starbucks and luggage in hand. We were ready. They brought us into our room where they hooked me up to the IV and took the necessary tests before the c-section. This was the last photo before the operation. Lordy I was huge!  Just looking at this picture, I can't believe how big my belly got.  Even the nurses when I got to the operating table, they didn't I was that big, but then when I laid down on the table it just popped. hahahah  I got into the operating room at 11:00am, where they prepped me more. TI remember feeling nervous and freezing when I got into the room, but the nurses and doctors just kept me talking about the kids and our little "surprise".  They gave me a spinal freezing that took minutes to work. I literally only had a few minutes before everything went numb from the breast down. It was scary actually.  Then about 15 minutes later white-faced Martin walked in his scrubs. He wasn't as talkative as he was 30 minutes before in the other room. hahahha. He looked petrified and nervous. He sat down beside me and stared at the floor.

Then then the party began. There was a lot of chatter among the doctors and nurses about their weekends and what they planned for the week.  Everynow and then the anetheisologist checked in on me and Martin to see if we were okay. More Martin because he started feeling faint and was pretty quiet. hahahahha. Then there was a flurry and chatter and laughter as they pulled this baby out. "Don't worry you'll just feel some pressure, it's okay. Are you ready?" Then at 11:39am, Clara Madeleine Savard was born.  Dr. Visser looked over to me and laughed and told there was no way I would have been able to naturally give birth to this baby. hahahaha. They pulled her out quickly showed us and took her across to get all the yucky stuff off and get weighed. Feeling were just overwhelming. Tears of joy and relief came across Martin and I. We couldn't believe it. It was all so surreal at this moment. The other doctor had to take the camera off Martin's hand because he was still overcome with emotion. Most of the photos were taken by her. hahahahha

Our heavy weight came in at 10.2llbs. Yup, having the planned c-section was the right decision. No regrets whatsoever.  Happy Birthday baby Clara! What a miraculous day!

After they weighed her sewed me back (ew), they wheeled us back to the recovery room.  There I sat patiently waiting for them to do more tests with Clara and then finally I was able to breastfeed my baby. Skin to skin was such an amazing experience with Clara.  I couldnt' believe this was happening and she was her, and she was dependent on me for her nourishment. Yikes!  Apparently she latched on very well, and I was relieved. We had about an hour of quiet time before they wheeled us to our shared accomodations for our hospital stay. We were back in our hospital room by 1:00pm. Then the texts and emails began. The proud papa couldnt' wait to call everyone and tell them the news. I, on the other hand, had a sleeping baby in my arms and wondered what the road ahead would bring.