On Thursday, January 28th, at 1:40 PM our lives changed forever! Now that my computer is functioning properly I can finally post all about it so here goes! Be prepared this will probably be long, my labor was NOT a short process! I don't expect everyone to read it all, but I want to get it all down.
For about a week before she was born I had been feeling a lot of pressure and having random contractions, but nothing very strong or regular. Needless to say I was pretty uncomfortable, not getting much sleep, and was pretty much over being pregnant :) Steven was also getting impatient and wanting our little girl to come! So when I finally started having regular contractions early in the morning on Wednesday the 27th (exactly 39 wks along), I was pretty sure this was it. I didn't want to jump the gun and go to the hospital too soon so I got up and got some last minute cleaning done around the house while I timed contractions and before I woke Steven up. Around 8 AM they had been every 3-4 min for about 2 hours so I woke him up and told him we should probably get ready. By this time, I was excited but SUPER nervous and anxious at the same time. We got things ready to go, Steven gave me a blessing to calm me down a bit, and by 10:30 we were at the hospital. They hooked me up to the monitors and checked me. 3cm and 80%, same as I had been for 2 weeks. Since my contractions were still coming regularly, they wanted us to stay for awhile and see if anything would happen. By 1:30, not much had changed and they were talking about sending us home. Yeah, pretty sure they forgot about us a few times and we didn't actually get discharged until about 5:30 PM. Annoying. But it turns out it was a good thing, because we both hadn't eaten since that morning and were starving. We stopped at Taco Bell on the way home and by then my contractions were getting stronger but were still about 3-4 min apart. We came home, I took a shower and tried to sleep for awhile.
Around 8:30 PM my contractions were quite a bit stronger and I was definitely in pain! I toughed it out until about 9:30 and finally called the on-call Dr. She said she thought we'd be back and to come on in. By that time I was trying not to cry and contractions were coming every 2 minutes and lasting about 1 min long. We headed back to the hospital and by 10:30 PM, I was admitted and was for sure not going home without a baby! Since I tested positive for Group B Strep, I had to have antibiotics while in labor so they hooked me up to the IV. The contractions were coming faster and stronger still, but I wanted to see how long I could go without the epidural. Around midnight I was DONE and they called for the anesthesiologist. Half an hour, a little prick, and what felt like an electric shock later, I was in epidural heaven! We were too wired to sleep for a few hours, but eventually we both dozed off for a couple hours. Around 6 AM, I started noticing my left side was completely dead but I was starting to feel things on my right side. About this same time, the nurse checked me and I was still about an 8. She commented that if my water broke, things would probably move right along. The Dr. came in about at about 7 and checked me but didn't want to break my water, she wanted things to happen naturally. Yeah, I was annoyed about that. By this time I was feeling EVERYTHING on my right side and luckily when the shift change came, the new nurse upped my epidural dose. About 9 AM, the midwife on call came in and checked me and said "Let's break that bag of water and I bet things will start happening". She did, but things didn't happen as fast as I would have liked them to :)
Trying to stay positive, this was about 12 hours into it
By 11, I was getting super frustrated and just praying for someone to come check me. Shortly after, the midwife did just that and said the magic words: "Let's get ready to start pushing!" As freaked out as I had been making myself about this part, I was SO ready by this point. I started pushing right at noon, and pushed for almost 2 hours. Claire Abigail Hultgren finally arrived at 1:40 PM exactly! She weighed 7lb 3.9oz (not sure why it wasn't rounded up to 4?) and was 20 inches long. She was absolutely beautiful and surprised me with a full head of thick, dark hair. (I was sure she wouldn't have much hair at all, but Steven said all along that she would have lots of dark hair. He always has to be right!) 
Mommy and baby girl. If I look dead tired, it"s cause I was!!
After they cleaned her up and we had a few min with our beautiful little girl, one of the residents that helped with the delivery came in and told us they wanted to put Claire on IV antibiotics for 48 hours. This was because I got a slight fever while pushing(umm, who wouldn't?!) and she had a little fever when she first was born. Since I was GBS positive and even though I had gotten 4 doses of ampicillin, they just wanted to be safe. Poor baby, but whatever was best for her. Steven went with the nurses to give her a bath and get her hooked up to her IV. He helped with the bath and tried to stay for the IV, but after they poked her a few times to find a vein, he said he couldn't watch anymore. 
Not enjoying her first bath. She still hates them!
Before getting her IV
After the IV
Look how huge that thing is! :(
So, there you have it. Two long days/nights and at least 18 hours of labor. Yikes! It was totally worth it! We think Claire is beautiful and we fell in love with her the second we saw her. The whole process was surreal. It's amazing how life can change in a matter of a few seconds and how someone so small and precious can bring so much joy!
Our first family picture!
**More about her first few weeks to come!**
