Our Leah finally arrived!

I suck at multi tasking, so, sorry for the lateness!

I delivered our little Leah at home on Thursday, Nov 20th at 10:33am. She weighed 8.5 lbs, 22.25 inches long and is by FAR the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me.

I have to start by saying I had major fears about the pain of childbirth, the fear of doing it at home, no hospital, no pain meds, nothing but the power of thought and guidance of my amazing husband to see us thru it. I would not of been able to go thru 14 hours of natural labor with out him. This is the first time in my life that I have gone completely thru with an incredibly difficult event, and I can honestly say I feel like a completely new woman. Confident and strong. Now on with the fun details!
I started having mild contractions on Tuesday, continuing onto Wednesday, and I wrote each one down and they MAJORLY kickstarted after we popped in the movie "Tropic Thunder" and had our midwife come over and check my cervix to see what it was at; 3 cm 50% effaced. Wew hew. So she went home and came back after she had some supper. By then the contractions were reeeeally kicking in, and coming about every 3 mins. And they got worse and worse, and more and more on top of each other. We walked, we swayed, layed down, stood up, you name it, I tried it...to relieve some pain. About 3am we went outside and walked around and I could actually get thru the contractions by leaning on Jason's shoulders. It was about oh...50 degree's or so outside and I was not cold by any means. I took about 5 hot showers, and by this time I could not eat, and began throwing up. I threw up thru a contraction, that was fun! That actually broke my water, and the contractions continued. By 7am (12 hours later) I was dehydrated, fatigued, beyond pissed that it was taking my body SO long to progress...and then...8 cm....9cm...into the birthing tub I go! My midwife checks me again, and resets the remainder of the cervix around Leah's head and I start to push. I was on my hands and knees making very um...demonic...sounds while pushing but thats all I could do to feel any progress. I pushed and her head would come out, I would breath, it would go back in. Finally I pushed a good one to where her head was completly out and then within a flash they had me stand up, waddle over to the foam pad in the hall on my back and push again to get past the shoulders. It took one push and our beatuiful baby was up ontop of my stomach wide eyed and bewildered. My midwife had to suck fluids out of her lungs with some tubing as she had passed merconium in the womb. We got her warmed up and I got to our bed and fell in love.

View pics here :)

http://www.ourleah.shutterfly.com