Clover Anna Marie Breinholt

Clover Anna Marie

Born: December 22nd 2009 @11:28pm
7lbs 5oz, 20 1/2 inches.
Current Status: Totally awesome.

Last night my wife had our baby. She started labor at 3:30am yesterday morning, and continued through until about 11:30pm last night. Yep. You did the math right. 20 hours of labor.

When I woke up for work, at 3:45am, that morning she was on her side of the bed in the “cow” yoga position breathing in a pattern we learned a couple weeks ago a Lamaze class. I asked her if she was okay, she said yes. According to her it was just another cramp. I explained to her that she was pregnant, not menstruating, and these were not cramps, they were contractions, and cramps make me feel like something is going wrong. She said “Okay, it’s a contraction, I’m fine.” I gave her a hug and kiss and went to work.

It was raining this morning. I always like the rain. When I was kid, anytime I had an experience which resulted in a visit to the emergency room, it was always either raining already, or started raining on the way there, for as long as I can remember. For me, rainy days are good days, especially when hospitals are involved… not like a visit to hospital could make a rainy better in any case except this one, but like rainy days make hospital visits okay for me. I also realized, while talking about the weather to my boss at work, that most of my pets had their litters on rainy days. I remember one day in particular that it rained cats and dogs at my house… literally. Anyway, the rain was a good way to start my day.

While I was at work I was talking to my boss during the wee hours, before the crowd wakes up and needs coffee, about the scene before I left for work today, I explained about how the day before (Monday) Kristin went to the doctor and had no change from the week before, 1cm and 0% effaced, and therefore, I should be able to finish out the schedule this week, and maybe Clover will come on her due date, December 26th. My boss later joked that maybe since it was my wife’s’ first baby, she would be late. I explained that according to my wife’s research, only about 10% of first time babies come late, and only about 3% of all babies come on their due date. She (my boss) said “hmm.” I thought about it for a minute, and realized that there was about an 87% chance that my little Clover bear would come early… My mother in law called my store about 15 minutes later… 100% chance my Clover bear was coming early.

The phone rang literally at least 25 times. When it was finally slow enough, business wise, boss lady sent Tito to go answer the phone. I was in the Drive thru and someone hadn’t shown up for work yet so it was busy… Real busy, due to the rainy morning. Tito came out of the back and said:

“Pete, your mom (Kristin's mom) is on the phone.”

“Hang on a sec.”

“Want me to just take a message, and have you call her when we get a second?”

“Sure.”

He went back in the back and came out a minute later with the message:

“Your mom says that your wife is bleeding (it was just the plug, not a complication, but I did not know it at the time), and they are going to the hospital.”

“That is not funny Tito. That is not a funny joke. You better tell me that is not what just happened.”

“That’s what she said.”

“Not funny Tito.”

“That’s what the phone call was”

“If you are screwing with me I will break your legs Tito.”

At this point Kristi (my boss) piped in and was like “Amy will be here in 5 minutes Pete, can you hang on till she gets here?”

Sure… It still hadn’t quite hit home yet. I can keep working. It took a minute to sink in. It wasn’t until one of my customers came in and was like “No baby yet?” My reply, that made it all hit home was “I just got the call.” (repeat silently in my head: “I just got the call… I just got the call… holy crap my wife is on the way to the hospital… I just got the call… I am having a freaking baby… Clover chose this rainy morning to come say hello… I just got the call. Holy crap I need to go.”) Right when the adrenaline rush hit home and I realized that today was the day, and I needed to leave, Amy walked in. Thank you Amy for coming to work on time, even a couple minutes early so I could leave when I finally realized and acknowledged that it was time to go. I went home. I called my mom on the way to start the reverse 911 to let the planet know that today was the day. It was about 6:30 am.

We got to the hospital, and checked in around 7am. This was it. I was so pumped my face hurt from grinning ear to ear. After the first inspection, 1cm, 30%... still. Hmmm. We waited an hour and it was 1cm, 40%... time to go home. We stopped on the way home got a Big Carl combo (for me), Broccoli and cheese soup (for Kristin), and gas (so I could make it back to the hospital when it was time… I was planning on filling the tank after work… that didn’t happen.)

We went home, had some food, and then sat down to let pregnancy move forward. We watched “A Knight’s Tale.” I mean, I watched “A Knight’s Tale” and Kristin had contractions. I was just the timer and back massager, Kristin was doing most of the work. Pretty much all of the contractions were holding steady… about 2:50 apart, and about 1 minute along. At about noon, the movie got over and we started another one. I can’t even remember what it was… not important… the contractions were getting stronger, and I was having trouble paying attention to anything else besides the time. I decided that if things kept going steady as they were we would call the doctor around 1pm. At about 12:30 in between contractions Kristin grabbed my shirt with both hands and asked with tears in her eyes, “CAN WE PUHLEEEESE CALL THE DOCTOR NOW??!!” I called the doctor; we went back to the hospital.

On the car ride on the way there, Kristin said that she didn’t know if she would be able to handle it… She was planning on doing a drug free birth. I told her that if she chose to get an epidural, I would not have a problem with it. She would not be a failure, which was her main concern. I didn’t care how she had the baby, I just wanted her to have it safely, and judging by the way she was shaking and crying and in utter pain told me that this was not the safe way. After explaining to her that having a baby without getting any sort of medication would be like finding a payphone to make a phone call instead of using my cell phone, we have the technology, maybe it would be best for us to use it. She agreed to have medication, to my greatest relief.

We were readmitted around 1pm. Awesome. They didn’t even send us to triage. Sah-weet. 2cm, 90% effaced… phenomenal progress. My Clover was on her way. Amy, the nurse, not the Amy that came into work earlier, but a new one, was super good about getting the anesthesiologist in ASAP, and within half an hour of getting checked in, Kristin was a happy, baby having mommy.

Fast forward to about 3pm… 3cm… cool stuff… the water broke… meconium… not cool stuff, but not a horrible problem either… 5pm… still 3cm… borrrrring… Fast forward to about 7pm: 7cm… awesome… new Amy goes home, and Dawn is now our nurse. 9pm: the epidural is no longer effective. Mom is getting upset… 9cm… so close… but not quite… 10:30pm: call for another bolus, mom is starting to push as well as appear to be in phenomenal agony. Her mantra in between contractions and sobs is “I just want her out, please get her out, owie owie owie, I just need to be done now.” 11:00pm: call the doctor, cancel the bolus, Clover is coming out.

One of the worst things for me about this is that Kristin actually pushed harder and faster than was expected by anybody, nursing staff included. As a result I could see the tip of little Clover’s head poking out, but Kristin was not allowed to push her out yet because the doctor was not here yet. The contractions were still coming, but she had to just do little baby pushes and try to breathe through it. I was crying my eyes out. I could see Clover’s little head, my wife was in pain, and I was helpless.

The doctor came. WOOT WOOT!!! The doctor suited up, Kristin started to push, and after breath in, push, breathe in, push, breath in, push, breath in, push, and there she was. Just that fast. Seriously, the first contraction after the doctor entered the room was the only contraction the doctor got to see. I was sobbing, Nylene (Kristin’s mom) was in Kristin’s face keeping her focused (I had lost the ability to do so about an hour before that) and Paul (Kristin’s dad) was photographing the whole thing. I sent a text to my older brother Jake. I really appreciate him being there the whole time in spite of the distance between the two of us. I felt like he was there too. It was 11:28pm. I rounded it to 11:30 when I initially told everybody, but then I found out that that was the wrong thing to do, it was 11:28pm.

I lost it. I am a dad. Clover Anna Marie came to earth. She was here, and looking precious. I still cannot find the words to describe what I felt… feel… anything… I feel like it would be easier for me to explain trigonometry to a gold fish, in an understandable fashion, than explain the complete flood of emotion that came along with Clover. It was wonderful, she is wonderful, her mother is beautiful, and I am truly joyful.

Because of the meconium, Clover was running a temperature and breathing a little too fast… Kristin was also bleeding a little worse than the nursing staff felt like she should have. As a result, we did not get to leave the delivery room to our post-natal suite until about 1:45am. We got settled in, and I promptly fell asleep… facedown, half off the chair, still wearing my shoes. I was only planning on taking a small breather then going with the nurse to do a post inspection and bath with our baby. I crashed. Kristin thought it was so funny she had her mom take a picture; mind you the picture that she took was after I had rolled over and was given a blanket, and is also posted on facebook.

Clover is fine, her mother is fine, and we are good. We are expecting to be able to take our family home around dinner time on Christmas Eve.

With the story told, I would like to make a few acknowledgements. My heavenly father, thank you for providing a way for me to experience the joy of bringing one of your children into this world. Thank you for having the faith in the combined parenting skills of my wife and I, to place a perfect soul in our charge. My beautiful wife, thank you for growing Clover. Thank you for taking care of yourself and our child. Thank you for being patient with me over the last nine months, as well as trusting my judgment and respecting my opinions and requests. My parents, thank you for providing me with the love and support and example of a path one can take through life. Thank you for loving me and supporting me through my own journey even if it wasn’t at times anywhere near the journey you would have liked to see me on. It is my sincere desire to be as inspirational and as good to my child, and future children, as you have been to me. My brothers and sisters. I love you all so much. Thank you for being with me even though you weren’t with me. I felt a strong presence of family in the delivery room last night, and I know it was because you all love and care about me, and my new family. Thank you. My Everybodies, Thank you so much for the support, both spiritually and physically that you have offered over the last year in general, and the last couple days specifically. I have felt your prayers, and thoughts, and am grateful for all your presence in my life. My Clover, thank you for choosing to come to earth. Thank you for choosing me to be your dad. Thank you for doing your best to be alive and healthy, and not being sick in spite of your adventure of swimming around in your own poop for awhile inside of your mother. Among the spirits I felt in the room with me the other night, I felt some of my family who are no longer walking on the earth. Thank you for staying in touch. Thank you for providing me with such a powerful lineage, and presence on this earth. Thank you for taking care of my parents, and my parents parents, and my family, and watching over me as I begin my own small branch on our family tree.

As I write this right now, I think of putting that I could not be happier man… I don’t do it because I know that this is just the beginning. As I follow the births and lives of those near to me, I know that all I feel right now will only grow with every day I get to spend with my beautiful child… I will say that I never imagined that life could ever be so good.

Good night, I love you, thank you, merry Christmas, good night,

Peter Josiah Breinholt