Clementine Eloise Roberts
**All pictures taken by my sweet friend, Mayci. I absolutely love having these pictures as precious reminders of one of the happiest days of my life. Thank you, Mayci!
I really wasn’t sure how soon I would be able to find the time to sit down and write out Clementine’s birth story after she was born. I will say that I didn’t expect it to be so soon. My usual time to write posts is at night, after the kids go to bed. But ever since Clementine was born, I struggle to stay awake once the clock hits 7pm. Clementine has just started to sleep longer stretches the past couple of nights (before that, I was only getting 2-4 hours maximum of sleep) But there’s a 3-4 hour time slot every day when Desmond naps and the 4 big kids pair off and play games together so it has given me the chance to sit down and write.
If you don’t enjoy birth stories, this post is not for you! I love reading other people’s stories and I love to share mine. It is a lengthy post because I always hate to leave out details! If you’re not interested, I will be posting some adorable pictures soon–so check back with my next post! Anyway, here is the story (and a few pictures–nothing graphic) of us welcoming Clementine into this world!
If you didn’t already know, all 5 of my previous children were born after their due date so I fully expected her to be “late” as well. However, my doctor was going to be out of town up until my due date (October 5th) so I did have this slight suspicion that I may go a day or two early. He had been out of town for my last two births so I just had a feeling that he was going to end up missing this one as well.
On the morning of October 3rd, I woke up around 3am for one of my many overnight trips to the bathroom. As I went to lay back down, I noticed a contraction. It wasn’t too bad but it felt different than the normal braxton hicks contractions that I had been getting. I brushed it off and tried to go back to sleep. About 10-15 minutes later, I felt another. This time made me start to wonder if something was going to happen. I had been wanting so badly to deliver with my own doctor so I was hoping this wasn’t really it. 10-15 minutes later, another. Then another. After a few of them, I finally texted Don, who was editing videos in the basement (he stays awake overnights, even on his nights off.) I had been hesitant to text him because I know his personality and I knew he would get in his nervous/excited/”is it time?” mode. Sure enough, he immediately shut down his computer and finished his packing, took a shower, and went to bed so he could make sure he had gotten some sleep before we headed to the hospital. I finally got up around 4 to shower and as soon as I was in there, the contractions pretty much stopped. A little disappointed about the false alarm, I decided to lay back down to try to get some sleep around 5. I was waking up from (still mild) contractions every 10 minutes until I finally got up at 7 so I could finish packing and put on makeup.
Well, wouldn’t you know it? As soon as I got out of bed, my contractions slowed down to almost a stop. I was only getting maybe one or two an hour at this point and realized that, even though this was my 6th baby, I had no idea if my body was actually in labor. I was a little let down by the realization that I wouldn’t be meeting my baby girl that day but I was glad that it was more likely that I would make it to (or past) my due date and my own doctor would deliver our baby.
Around 3pm, we went outside to carve a pumpkin with the kids. I noticed a couple of contractions and that they were a bit more uncomfortable than they had been earlier in the day so I went inside to lay down. They continued as I was lying down but I was afraid they would stop as soon as I stood up. When I did stand up, this time they stuck around. This went on for a couple of hours—still nothing that I really considered labor—until closer to 6 when they started coming closer together and becoming more painful. I finally texted our dear friends, the Lovings, to see if they could come get the kids. I had no idea when we would be going to the hospital but I was finally realizing that we would be going at some point that night and I wanted the kids to be settled somewhere before bedtime.
The next few hours were spent just waiting for everything to progress. I had a few pretty intense contractions and I remember telling Don “I have no idea why I love labor so much. This is so miserable. There’s no way I’m going to forget this pain.” Guess what? I forgot that pain and I wish I could relive that day 😉 haha. God has designed us so wonderfully to forget all of that. We watched an episode of “Once Upon a Time” while I paced back and forth, trying to help my body out so that, by the time we got to the hospital, I would be dilated enough to receive the epidural ASAP. I decided that we could leave after the episode was over even though I didn’t think my labor was as far along as it had been when we went to the hospital for my previous babies. On our way to the hospital, Don and I made guesses about what time she would be born. I guessed 3am, he guessed 1:30am. I thought there was no way she would be born that soon.
We live about 40 minutes from the hospital and by the time we got there at 10:35, my contractions were pretty painful and coming every 3-4 minutes (and any time I tried to move positions.) As I walked in, they asked if this was my first baby. When I told them it was my 6th, they moved quickly to put me in the triage room so they could check for how dilated I was and get me checked in the system so everything would move quickly for me. You get taken more seriously with your 6th as opposed to your 1st 😉 I always go in with a checklist of 3 things that I’m dreading. 1) checking for dilation 2) IV insertion 3) epidural insertion. I got the first item checked off and found out I was 5 centimeters. I was so relieved to know I would be getting the epidural so soon! The funny thing is that even though I was having some intense contractions, most of them really weren’t that bad. They wheeled me up and right away got the IV inserted (crossed off the 2nd item!!) and they put in the order for the epidural.
An hour after we arrived at the hospital (11:30) the epidural was in and all 3 of the items had been checked off!! The best part of the epidural is that it helps my body relax and progress. And it gives me the most chill, happy feeling in the world. I always love the time between the epidural and the pushing. Around 12:25, the nurse came to check the dilation. 7 centimeters! About 15 minutes later I was feeling some weird pressure and I wasn’t sure what was going on. The nurse came back and checked and said I was about an 8-9 and she could feel the baby’s head right there. As she was checking, my water broke and I knew that meant the baby would be here so soon. She told me to call them immediately if I felt any stronger pressure. She left the room and within 2-3 minutes, I was frantically telling Don to run and get the nurse. I was having a lot of pressure.
He ran and got the nurse and as we waited for someone to come to the room, I feared he would be the one delivering our baby. Thankfully the nurses and resident doctors got in there quickly. I was fully dilated and just waiting on the doctor to get to the room to push. Unfortunately my doctor was still out of town because miss Clementine wanted to be unique and make an early arrival. But the doctor who was on call was the same doctor who delivered the previous two babies. So I was thankful for that. They got everything prepped so that I could start pushing as soon as he got in the room.
When he finally got there, I waited for the next contraction and pushed. One more contraction and she was out. On October 4th (one day before my due date) at 1:06am–Clementine was here! Nothing fills me with joy like the sounds of those first cries. As I pulled her to my chest (I always like to help pull the baby out and to my chest) I quickly did a check to make sure she was, in fact, a girl (for some reason I had a fear that she would actually be a boy haha.) And then the ugly happy cry face showed up as I held and kissed our precious Clementine.
The first thing we noticed about her was her chubby cheeks, dark hair, and the dark, defined eyebrows that I don’t recall ever seeing on a newborn baby. She was (and is) so beautiful to me. Part of me wonders if it’s the love of a mother and that I’ll look back and realize she wasn’t as cute as I think she is now. But I think she’s a beautiful baby. She looks nothing like her siblings who came out with blonde hair and very blue eyes.
7lbs 1oz & 19 3/4 inches long. Our tiniest baby. Our darling Clementine.
That little cry face!! Love it!
We have been soaking up every moment of this precious stage. Even the sleepless nights don’t phase me because I’m absolutely in love with newborn babies. The snuggle is real 😉 She’s giving me baby fever and makes me want 100 more babies (just don’t tell my husband haha)
If you actually read all of that, thanks for reading along! Stay tuned for some precious pictures of little Clem that I’ll post as soon as I get the chance. Thank you to everyone for your love and prayers and for sharing our excitement about our new addition!