The Mickelsons: Clara's birth story.

Clara Sophia is here!!

Born at 9:03 pm on May 25th.

5lbs 2 ounces.

17 inches long.

Here's her birth story:

Friday night, Michael gave me a beautiful blessing. It was much needed and made me feel very excited and blessed to be welcoming another little spirit into our home.

I am so grateful to be married to a worthy priesthood holder.

It definitely is a blessing in our home.

We woke up on Saturday morning around 6:30 am.

Although I had been awake a while. I hardly slept that night.

It's hard to explain the feelings I was feeling because there were so many different emotions.

So much excitement and relief with a little bit of nervousness all at the same time.

We got to the hospital around 7:30 am. I had already preregistered so it took less than 5 minutes.

Before I knew it we were in our room and I was putting on my lovely hospital gown.

The nurses did the usual blood pressure and temperature and then started an IV.

The nurse struggled getting it in my left arm, so she had to restart another on my right.

After she did this I started to feel extremely light headed. And even though I was lying down I felt like I was going to pass out any second.

I was given water, a wet rag, and a barf bag.

(Michael was in the bathroom for this part and was a little surprised to come out and see me with a rag on my forehead holding the barf bag up to my mouth. He was disappointed he missed all the action. I told him not to worry there would be plenty of that later!)

Apparently it is common to feel that way after getting an IV.

So luckily I started to feel better shortly after.

My doctor came in and checked me.

I was still a 2 and 70% effaced.

He told me that they were ready to start the petocin.

The would start it at 0 and then increase it 2 points every 30 minutes.

And so it began.

The seconds, minutes, and hours passed by.

Very slowly.

I was having regular contractions every 2-3 minutes although I swear I didn't feel all of them.

Some were stronger than others and I was definitely feeling them in my back.

But thanks to a heating pad and the movie Shes the Man I was able to distract myself a little bit from the pain.

Sometime during all of this I started to get extremely emotional. And just started bawling.

This is not like me at all.

And at first I couldn't put my finger on it, I just felt so weird and so empty.

And then I realized. I missed my Olivia.

I felt guilty for not being as good of a mom as I know I could've been the past 9 months, I felt sad that this was it. She would no longer be my only baby. It wouldn't just be her and I anymore.

Michael called my mom up so that we could talk to her.

I couldn't. Just hearing her cute little voice made me cry even harder.

My mom said that she would bring her over if that would make me feel better but I didn't know if it would because I knew that at some point she would have to leave again and that would just make things harder.

It took a while for me to get control. I'm sure part of it was definitely hormonal because I usually am not known for being an emotional person.

I decided that since Michael's parents and sisters were coming up they could bring her by for a bit because I really did just want to see her.

In the mean time I was starting to get more and more uncomfortable and my back was really hurting.

The doctor came in to check me to see how things were progressing.

This was probably around 12:30 pm.

And I was still a 2. Nothing had really changed and I was on the maximum dosage of petocin.

(Oh by this point my mom was here and Michael's parents were with Olivia.)

So the doctor decided that it would be best to break my water.

Oh my gosh was that a treat ha. With Olivia I had already gotten an epidural at this point and so I don't really remember them breaking my water.

But since I didn't have my epidural I felt everything and holy cow it the weirdest feeling ever.

I seriously felt like I was peeing all over the place. Every time I moved it felt like I was peeing my pants. And I just kept saying that to the nurses, Michael and to my mom. Who definitely thought I was crazy, but it was such a funny feeling I just couldn't stop talking about it.

This went on for 15 or so minutes. Apparently it takes that long for all the fluid to drain out.

At this point, I also decided that I wanted an epidural. I had never had any intention of going natural and wanted to make sure I had it in time for the pushing phase because I did not want to feel any of what would be going on down there ha.

My anesthesiologist was amazing and did such a good job of explaining every little thing he did.

If he said it was going to feel like I hit my funny bone on the table then it felt like I hit my funny bone on the table ect. It was a little painful but definitely so worth it. Michael stood by my side the whole time with his hand on my shoulder. Having him with me was so comforting and I knew that everything would be alright as long as he was there.

I was given my little button that I could push every 15-30 minutes if I felt like I needed a little more.

Oh how I love that button.

About 10 minutes later my legs started to feel heavy and I knew the epidural was doing its job.

Don't kid yourself though, I was obsessed with squishing and pinching all parts of my lower half to make sure they were numb.

It wasn't necessarily that I was scared to feel pain from my contractions because I wasn't, it was that

ever since my episiotomy with Olivia I have some sort of anxiety of having another one or tearing and being able to feel it. It just sends shivers down my spine to think of it. So it was crucial that I be numb.

My right side was a lot more numb than my left side but the nurses kept reassuring me that I was numb enough and that if the epidural wasn't working right I would be feeling it. Although I was still feeling occasional contractions they just weren't very painful.

Michael's family stopped by and brought Olivia for a little bit.

It was so good to see Olivia even though she showed absolutely not interest in me ha. She was loving all the attention from her grandparents and aunts:)

After they left the hardest part began.

The waiting.

I was thinking that I would be in labor for 8 hours or less since with Olivia it took me exactly 8 hours and they say that you usually have a shorter labor with your second.

Well let me tell you that is so not true!

At around 5:30 pm or so the doctor came in to check me.

And what do you know, I was a 5.

Yay! Ha.

I'm not going to lie both Michael and I were a bit disappointed and began preparing ourselves for a long night. Thinking she probably wouldn't be born until at least midnight.

Although even though my pregnancy and labor and so far been the complete opposite of Olivia's, I still had hope that once I got to a 6 she would come very fast like Olivia did.

So at around 8:25 pm the nurse came in and said that the baby's heart rate was starting to dip a little bit with the contractions which is often a sign that things are getting close.

So she checked me and I was a 6! But apparently her head was very low.

So she left and told me to call her if I felt any pressure.

Michael called my mom (who had gone home to put Olivia in bed) and told her she better come back.

About 15 minutes later I started to feel a little more pressure and just when I was about to call the nurse she came back in and said the baby's heart rate was still dipping and that she wanted to check me again.

I was an 8!!

At this point I knew I was close and was starting to panic because my mom still wasn't there.

Michael called again and said you better run!

Well 5 minutes later I felt even more pressure. The nurse checked me again and said I was a 10 and that the baby was right there.

She told me not to push and ran to get the doctor.

My mom arrived and we were ready to go.

About 5 contractions later, our baby girl was born.

Things got a little intense with my last two contractions because her heart rate was dipping extremely low and the doctors were starting to get a little worried.

Luckily I'm a good pusher and had her out in no time:)

When she came out she was not crying.

They placed her on my chest and began rubbing and patting her back.

Encouraging her to cry.

Her heart rate was still quite low.

I know I probably should have been worried, but I wasn't.

I knew everything was going to be just fine. My baby was here and I couldn't have felt more relieved.

After a couple minutes she finally started to cry and her heart rate started going up.

I'm telling you, that skin to skin stuff really works!

The nurses didn't try to take her but instead let me lay there and hold my baby.

I loved this. Because with Olivia they took her right away from me.

I was able to hold her for over an hour before they took her just over to the other side of the room to get her stats and such after which they brought her right back to me.

I could not stop looking at her face.

She was absolutely perfect and I already loved her more than I could ever say.

She's my precious Clara.

After about 30 or so minutes. (I tore a little bit so it took the doctor a little bit to get that all fixed up Sorry if this is way to much detail but I want to remember these things. Oh good thing my epidural worked right?:))

Michael's family had been waiting at the hospital with Olivia and it was time for her to meet her new "baby ta."

At first when Olivia sat on my bed and looked at her she looked a little scared. Like she had no idea what was going on.

But within a couple minutes she was laying down right next to me.

Clara had her eyes open and was looking right at Olivia who was looking right back.

It was the most precious thing ever.

Michael and I both started crying.

I think at that point we knew that our two little girls without a doubt already knew each other and were very excited to finally be together.

To be sisters and best friends.

Enjoy the pictures!