He FINALLY came............a Labor of LOVE!

GRANT DAVID CLUFF

Grant was born on September 21, 2009 @ 5:56 p.m.

He weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20 inches long

His head measured 13 and his chest 12.4

He was born at Banner Gateway Hospital in Gilbert

Ahhh....... holding onto his Daddy's finger how precious!

This is our Wonderful Dr. Susan Kudlinski! She has delivered all our kids and we just love her! For the last three kids we have traveled down to Gilbert just so she could be our Dr. I have never been so happy to deliver a baby in my life and Grant is our forth kid! So here is how his story begins.............we went in on Sunday September 20 at 3:00 p.m. for a scheduled induction. They started me on Pitocin around 4:00 and around 7:30 I started to have contractions. The contractions got stronger and we walked the halls to try to help things along. I was at the maximum dose of pitocin but nothing was working to get me to dialate, so at midnight the dr. decided to stop the pit and give me a sleeping pill to let me just some rest and we would start again at 6:00 a.m. Did I mention I had no pain killer during this whole time because I was waiting to dialate so I could get the epidural! YIKES!!! The nurse came in at 5:30 to wake me up so I could take a shower before we got things started. I got started on the pit and this time they were more aggressive jumping the doses up in large increments to try to jump start things. Well it finally worked, slowly but surely. Around 11:00 they said I was in active labor and was at a 3 so I got my epidural and was much relieved! I started pushing around 4:15 and pushed for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I was about 5 to 10 minutes away from having a c-section. I kept telling myself that if I wasn't close to having him out by 6:00 I was done. It was the hardest labor I have ever had. I always have to push a long time but for some reason this time was more wearing. Maybe because I had spent 2 days having strong contractions up to this point I don't know. We had a fabulous nurse RaKay Dance. She did such an amazing job helping me through the birthing process and Justin of course was a wonderful coach! The nurse said I was luck to have such a patient Dr. because she said most Dr. wouldn't let me labor so long and hard. I am grateful things worked out and I didn't have to end up having a c-section after all that time working to get Grant here.

One funny thing happened, once Dr. Kudlinski came in and I was still pushing she was getting her gloves on and she looks down and says in a paniced voice, "Stop Pushing I Need to Get My Gloves On!" I said , "Really stop pushing?" She hurried and was able to catch Grant! With all our other kids Dr. Kudlinski was in the room the whole time I pushed, but this time she just kept checking in on us because she said we were in good hands with our nurse RaKay, and she was right. My mom was in the delivery room with us just like she has been for all the other kids deliveries. This time I think she got pretty scared because I was having such a hard time getting Grant out. She said she cried much of the drive home, she knew how close I came to having a c-section! One Happy Daddy! Justin was such a great coach this time. Usually he is pretty quite and doesn't say or express a whole lot, but this time was much different. He said all the right things and really helped me keep going when I felt like I had labored as long as I could. Thanks Sweetheart for helping get Grant here! We are so grateful to have this new, sweet spirit in our family! The next day all clean and sweet as can be!