Reed William McClarty

I want to share Reed's birth story mainly to document the story for him, sadly the details get fuzzier each day, so before I forget much more here it is:

 On Monday September 19th, 2011 I began having contractions around 2:00 pm. They were about 10-15 minutes apart so I didn't bother calling Jon as I knew he would be home from work within a few hours. Around 4:30 pm Jon got home and I told him about the contractions. We were both so excited - I was two days past my due date at this time and was scheduled to be induced that Thursday (which I really wanted to avoid). Who knows if it was the raspberry leaf tea, the spicy foods, the long walks, or any number of the other things I tried, but finally I was in natural labor - just what I hoped for!

At this point my contractions were coming every 8-10 minutes so we hoped we would get to leave for the hospital soon. Jon went into our room to try to rest up for the long night ahead and I made a grilled cheese sandwich knowing I wouldn't be allowed food once I got to the hospital and wanting to have eaten something to give me energy to help me through the labor process.

Not surprisingly Jon wasn't able to get much rest and after tossing and turning for awhile he emerged from our bedroom a little before 6:00 pm. At this point my contractions were now coming every 5 minutes. For the next two hours I walked, I rested, we talked and the contractions kept coming every 4-5 minutes. Because we are about 40 minutes away from the hospital my doctor wanted me to come in when my contractions were at 5 minutes apart for two hours.

At 8:30 pm we got in the car and headed to the hospital. My big thing was that I didn't want anyone to know I was in labor until I was admitted to the hospital - no point in exciting the troops just to be told I was in false labor and then have people calling me every five minutes for updates. Jon plays on an indoor soccer team with some friends, including his sister and her husband who live just around the corner from us. As luck would have it they were pulling out of their driveway just as we drove past. Jon had already told Chelsea he was going to stay home with me and miss the game so when they saw my Tribeca speed by they knew something was up. We immediately got a call and a text questioning why we were in a car headed towards Fresno. We decided to make up a story, figuring that they would understand when, hopefully, in a little bit we told them the real reason for the outing.

We arrived at the hospital, Jon filled out a bunch of paperwork and we were escorted up to the Labor and Delivery wing. I was examined and told I was only dilated 2 cm. I was in active labor, but they didn't expect the baby to be coming anytime soon so I was given the option of leaving and laboring in the comfort of my own home. We chose to go home and left the hospital at 11:00 pm. The car ride was horrible and all I could think was that I would have to do this drive again with contractions that would probably be much more intense.

By the time we got home my contractions were much closer together (2-3 minutes) and much more intense (lasting about a minute each). I was also having horrible back pain due to the positioning of the baby. By 2:00 am I was only getting about 30 second breaks in between contractions and figured that we should probably head back to Fresno. To say the car ride was bad would be the understatement of a lifetime. I'm surprised there aren't permanent finger imprints in the seat and door from me holding on to them so tightly. I was practicing different relaxation techniques and breathing but there was still a lot of pain.

Back at the hospital I was examined and was hoping to be told I was dilated to somewhere in the 5-7 cm range, then the nurse delivered the news . . . I was still at 2 cm. What!?! my contractions were so intense and so close together how can I not have progressed? I was admitted and put in a labor/delivery room. They started fetal monitoring which I actually found really neat because I could see the baby's heart rate and know everything with him/her was okay.

At 6:00 am I was examined again and told that I was close to 3 cm dilated. At this point I had been in labor for 16 hours and couldn't imagine how long it would take to progress the next 7 cm and still have the energy to push. My doctor was great - he listed my options and together we made the decision to start an epidural. My vision of a completely natural labor was out the window, but I would have relief from the pain and he thought my body relaxing could really help me dilate further. At 9:45 am I was examined to see if the epidural had helped. It had definitely been an easy few hours as the pain was pretty minimal. Again I waited for exciting news and again I was let down . . . I was still only at 3 cm. My doctor then broke my water and started me on the lowest dose of pitocin to help encourage the contractions and continue the dilation process.

At 1:00 pm I had made to to 5 cm - Yay, I was finally headed in the right direction. 3:15 pm . . .6 cm (not as good as I hoped for but still progress), 5:15 pm . . .6 cm, 8:00 pm . . .6 cm. What how can this be? Somewhere between the 5:15 and 8:00 pm exams I was given more drugs to see if they could continue to get labor to progress. By 8:00 pm my Doctor sat down with us and gave us our options. Pretty much I was headed for a Cesarean but he was willing to let me have another hour or so of labor and if I progressed we could reevaluate. I spent the next 45 minutes willing myself, visualizing, and doing everything in my power to maintain at least one part of my original birth plan. It wasn't meant to be and at 8:45 pm they started pre-op procedures on me.

I was so drained both emotionally and physically at this point, but the worst part was that the epidural had worn off a few hours back and I had been laboring with quite a bit of pain again. Once the decision was made to have a C-Section every contraction was horrible, it no longer served a purpose. The anesthesiologist was attending another operation and I had to wait about 45 minutes for an epidural. Not fun!!!

After approximately 31 hours of labor it was time to meet our little one and all of the other stuff didn't matter. Jon reminded me that even though things hadn't gone according to "the plan" it didn't matter because we were still headed to the same end . . . a happy and healthy baby.

I really did try to abbreviate this story as much as possible. There are so many details to share; from our parents and Chelsea and Drew being in the waiting room all day to how incredibly supportive Jon was through the entire process. But for now I will leave you with this:

Reed William McClarty

Born 09/20/2011 9:46 pm

8 lbs 1 oz and 21.5 inches in length

Quite simply . . . The Love of Our Life