Claire Day Fowles

Posted by Mama Chick January 14, 2019

Claire Day Fowles

Here I am at 41 weeks to the day. It was September 1st. Somehow when I was first given my due date of August 25th I knew in my heart that she wouldn't be born then. I kept having the impression it was going to be September. As much as I resented that thought, I now see it was a blessing that enabled me to endure that last 'overdue' week. I started having inconsistent contractions the night before, but decided to try to go to bed. If they persisted then I'd know, otherwise I just needed to get my much-needed sleep and strength for what was about to come.

The next morning my contractions started back up again. Weirdly enough, my contractions would only stay consistent if I stayed moving. If I sat down or stayed still for a prolonged period of time, the contractions would also slow. That was true for all the contractions up until the final one. The last few, I just had to stand up for a moment and then the contraction would come, and I would promptly fall back on my birthing ball.

Anyhoo, I had to go see my midwife that morning to monitor baby's heart to make sure everything was on course. At that point my contractions were 20 minutes apart. She said to call her when they were 5 minutes apart. She seemed skeptical, but I told her I'd be seeing her sooner than later. I saw her at 10am, and I had to call her at noon to come to our home as my contractions had jumped to 6 minutes.

While at home, I was prepping dinner, doing final loads of wash before the baby arrived, cooking special GF cupcakes and cleaning. All while taking contractions. The midwife arrived, set up her equipment and just watched me for an hour. My contractions were all over the place. Sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 12. She then said (after an hour) that she was going to leave for an hour and come back. She said many women would subconsciously go into 'entertaining mode' while the midwife was there and thus their contractions would be crazy. Sure enough, after she left, my contractions came back steady and hard at 5 minutes apart. This is when the 'moaners' started coming.

The contractions became more intense and thankfully the midwife came back. Alex hilariously said to Adam 'mom is making so much noise, and it's kind of annoying, but I know her yells are helping her to get baby here'. Alex also was heard yelling for Adam in our backyard saying 'DAD!! WHERE ARE YOU, MOM NEEDS YOU!!' while I was taking a particularly hard contraction. Bless him.

I had three really hard bearing down contractions. At this point we were waiting for the additional nurse to come who helps the midwife deliver, monitor, clean up, etc. I told the midwife I couldn't wait any longer and this baby was coming. I got down on all fours on my bedroom floor and right then the nurse walked in. The contraction came and I pushed HARD for what felt like a full minute and Baby Claire was here. One really BIG, HARD contraction. That was it. I had done it. I had had another baby naturally AND at home. I'd never felt stronger in my life. It was an amazing high.

Not even thirty seconds later, Alex, Lily, and Elliott rushed in. I was kneeling on the floor, holding baby sister and the cord was still attached. There was a plastic sheet protecting the floor and it, of course, had all sorts of blood/fluid on it. Their faces looked confused but I was happy to reassure them that this was all normal, and I was fine and sister was fine. They were so happy to see their brand new sister. Adam then hustled them back out so that I could get cleaned up and re-situated.

Interesting side note: I didn't tear at all. This was the very first time. I'm confident it was because I didn't push when I wanted to at first. My midwife told me to hold on as long as possible. The birth canal was able to stretch more gradually because of it.

The next part surprised me the most about having a midwife. With all my other babies, the nurses whisked the baby away and weighed them, cleaned them, stuck their heel with a shot and a host of other things within the first minutes of life. My midwife and nurse just wanted me to hold the baby. They didn't check her weight or any of that until an hour later. We also didn't cut the cord for a long time. Everything was so peaceful and relaxed. I just loved it.

Before Claire came we had a list of names, as usual. We liked Amelia, Emma and Claire. I went into the birth with the expectation of naming her Emma. While I was holding her I started addressing her with those names in the order above. When I got to 'Claire', I became very emotional and knew that Claire was her name. I didn't say anything to Adam, just handed her to him. After a few minutes I asked him what he thought her name should be. He said, 'what do you think' and I said I felt it was Claire, and relayed my experience. He said he had the same thing happen to him when he ran through the names. It was really cool that we both independently came to the same conclusion. The name Claire means bright. We liked that meaning as it has many positive connotations. Adam decided we should put my maiden name 'Day' for her middle name. Her name now means 'bright day'. We like it.

I don't want to forget my wonderful midwife, Rebekah. She was so sweet, calm and peaceful. I never doubted that I was in good, capable hands. My only regret is that we didn't do this with more of our kids, but I'm grateful I got to have a midwife with my last one.

Here is our first photo as a family of SEVEN! That's a big number man!

I just love, LOVED having all my kids around me right after birth. It felt so right to have them be a part of the process.

Alex was smitten from the get go. Here he is holding Claire for the first time.

I think Lily was happiest of all to FINALLY get a sister. I was so happy for her.

Look at this proud Daddy! Adam is so smitten with Lily. Heaven help him now that he has two daughters. LOL.

I loved all my squishy baby snuggles. I loved that I got to sleep in my bed and eat my food. I know many people love being taken care of at the hospital, but I always hated it. I just wanted to go home. I always went home after 24 hours.

My nurse came to check on my healing two days later. My swelling was totally gone. She said she didn't hardly see anyone heal that fast. I felt it was because I wasn't stressed at all, whereas I always was in a hospital.