Clementine Jane

I started having regular contractions around 1:30 pm on Wednesday, May 20th. I called my husband while crying and told him that he shouldn't come home yet because I wasn't sure whether or not I was in labor. He didn't listen and came home anyway and I was grateful because the contractions kept coming. I called my midwife, told her we were headed to the hospital, and we finished packing our bags. 

We arrived at the hospital around 3:30 pm and it took forever to get settled. The hospital makes you answer about a hour's worth of stupid questions. As soon as the nurse left me alone, we started walking. We walked and walked and walked. I was dilated to 3 cm when we got there and expected my labor to go quickly. Lori, my midwife, checked me again at 9 pm and I was only at 5 cm. I was contracting often and regularly while moving, but as soon as I stopped, so did the contractions. I agreed to have her break my water at 10:30 pm and my labor completely stopped. No contractions whatsoever. I was tired, frustrated, and upset. My labor with Finnegan had been similar, but when my water was broken, he was born in two hours.

I asked for an epidural. I am pro natural child birth and am aware of the risks of a medicated birth, however, I was fighting what few contractions I was having and was so, so tired. They started pitocin shortly after the epi was placed. The pitocin was increased four times before my uterus starting contracting. I could feel my contractions start and everyone came back into my room to get things set up for delivery. Clementine Jane was born at 3:30 am, or close to 3:30....I can't remember the exact time, after a few pushes. We had decided to name her Imogen since the name means "last child", but she didn't look like an Imogen. The other names on our list were Filomena after my great Italian grandmother and Mable. The kids didn't like Filomena and my husband didn't like Mabel.