Claire Cynthia Palmer

I can't believe it's taken me this long to get on here and announce her name. I'm sure by now, most of you had already heard it somewhere else. Sorry for the delay, but we don't really have the internet at the moment (the Shaw guy was coming on the 28th, but we were in the hospital still). Other than that, I've been totally wiped. Anyway, her name is Claire Cynthia (Cynthia after Michael's mom). She was 5 pounds 12 ounces, and just over 3 weeks early. They did all they could to keep my blood pressure down, but it didn't work so last Tuesday, after my regular checkup, my doctor told me I'd won myself a trip to the hospital. I went home to get Michael and my things together just in case we needed to stay for a while. We spent about 12 hours in triage before they could decide what to do. Finally, they decided to induce me. They were going to use a foley (essentially a catheter for your cervix, which helps move everything along). I was more nervous about this than anything else I think. It was supposed to take about 4-6 hours to get me to about a 3 so I could offically be in labour. Well they ruptured my membranes by accident instead, and I was off to my own room for delivery. It seemed like a total palace compared to the cot in triage. They started me on a IV of cyntosomething to get me going at about 1 in the morning. I was fully expecting to labour for a while, get my epidural (as you all know I was fully expecting to do), and then have the baby. Well, instead I progressed was faster than the doctor expected and the next time she came into check me, I was at a 10. They were all so excited that I could just go ahead and have the baby. I had had a shot of morphine (which did NOTHING for pain, but made me totally out of it). I also had the gas which saved me totally! I asked at that point if I could have the epidural now, and they said I didn't need one since I'd done all of the really hard stuff already. Michael tried to argue for me and I tried too while I was totally delirious. They said I should try pushing for 30 min, and if I wasn't progressing, we could do the epidural. Well 37 minutes later Claire was here, and I just given birth without the epidural I had planned on my whole life I think. It wasn't fun, but shockingly better than I had imagined. And, I can now say that my recovery was better without it, and next time I'm insisting right away that I get the epidural. I don't really want to do that again.

She was so beautiful to us right away, and we spent forever trying to pick her name. We picked just before we left the hospital (which I was in for 3 days). We love the name now that it's picked, and she's such a Claire to me. We're now at home and exhausted, and completely in love with our girl. I can't wait to watch her grow. She's so tiny that none of the clothes I had fit her.

Anyway, Michael's got the camera at work and I think he's going to try and post some pictures right away. We have some good ones. Sorry it's taken so long, but once I get my internet hooked up, I'll get a bunch more up. Thank you for all of your wonderful comments. We are so blessed to have so many people who care about us!