The Briscoe Bunch: Claire Anne Briscoe

On Thursday, December 5, Adam, Lydie, and I went at the mall to take her to see Santa Clause and to do a little Christmas shopping. A little later in the afternoon around 4 I felt my first REAL contraction (not a braxton hick because I had a lot of those the past several weeks). We decided it might be a good idea to wrap things up and head home. They were about 15-20 minutes apart while we went home, but after a few hours they finally got down to about 5-10 minutes apart. I had to keep walking around and going up and down the stairs for them to progress. When I sat down they became very sporadic. We had everything ready to go (I had been packed for a few weeks) and Adam was a little more anxious than me. He kept telling me we should go and had his coat on, but I really didn't want to get to the hospital just to be sent home! I had been tracking them with a contraction app on my phone and I wanted them to be more consistent. Finally around 10:30 that evening they started getting more painful so I called my neighbor to come watch Lydia and we headed to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital they said I was a 4 and having good steady contractions so they admitted me. I had felt all the contractions I wanted to feel for this pregnancy at this point so I got the epidural right away! I am very thankful I did because it was the middle of the night and I was exhausted. While I was progressing I was able to get some sleep.

At about 5:30 Friday morning, my water broke and soon after I was able to start pushing. The doctor had to turn her head around because she was in the wrong position, but once she did it only took a few pushes for her to come right out.

She arrived on Friday, December 6 at 6:52 in the morning. The first thought that came to my head was how much she looked like Lydia. She was perfect!

She was so calm after they wrapped her up and gave her to me. She just sat there staring at me with her big eyes. I'm so glad I got these photos because I don't want to forget the way she looked at me.