ooh where do i begin?? well i’ll start off by saying how blessed i was with this pregnancy. it wasn’t perfect but i know it could have been worse. i will admit that i enjoyed every bit of it…even all those weeks of morning sickness, lack of energy, and those few crazy mood swings. ;) i will never forget those months i had her inside me. (i will warn you that this is probably the longest post i have ever, and will ever write. but i wanted to remember all the details so i didn’t want to leave too much out.) :)

well i guess it all started on a saturday, although i did not know at the time. this was when i started feeling my first cramps. i didn’t think anything of it then, but this was the start of my early labor. i still went about my business…even went and got a pedicure that morning with my friend charissa (thank goodness, i was in desperate need of one). of course i did lots of research and read that early labor can last for hours, days, or even weeks….that didn’t really help me much. lol. the cramps were irregular and not worthy of timing. they lasted throughout the day and the next day, and next, and the next. went in for our weekly appt on tuesday morning and everything looked great. 3 cm dilated and 95% effaced. sooo now it’s tuesday night and we planned a last minute dinner date with our good friends bobby and elisha. the goal was to have one more outing before the baby arrives (perfect timing!). went to maudie’s, delish tex mex place, and unknowingly enjoyed my last dinner as a pregnant lady….even though i made about 4 trips to the ladies room and felt those lovely cramps through the whole dinner. said our goodbyes, went home, got in bed, and then woke up 4 hours later (3am) to some hardcore cramps!!

woke husband up and told him what’s up. being the cute/nerdy tech person he is…he downloaded a “contraction timer” app on his phone. i told him “it’s starting!” and “oook it’s done” and he had a nifty little document of the contractions, durations, frequency, etc. if you have an iphone i highly suggest that app, so helpful! for the next three hours we laid in bed, i held my husband’s hand really tight and found myself swinging my legs back and forth during the contractions…and thankful for those short breaks in between (which ranged from 5-10 minutes). about 6am, husband called our midwife to let her know what’s up, and to see what we should do since it’s getting close to rush hour traffic and us living about 45 minutes away from the birth center…wanted to be safe with timing! she said my 4 hours of sleep wasn’t going to cut it and i needed to do the “trick” and try to get some sleep. didn’t think it would be possible to sleep at this time but i did the trick (2 ibuprofen, glass of wine, and nice warm bath) and surprisingly i slept through the active stage of labor…waking up for the stronger, longer, and closer together contractions and sleeping between. did that for about 2 hours and boy did that make a difference in my energy. i felt like i could have a baby now. :)

called midwife again, was told to eat a good breakfast and then head in! husband made me scrambled eggs and oatmeal. super sweet. ate it while having some good contractions. called/text the family and let them know what’s up, paced around the house making sure we had everything. last minute checks…squatting every now and then during contractions and getting super excited. i did manage to write a little “baby?!” post for you readers right before we left. :) couldn’t forget about y’all. left our house and our sweet dog…knowing it’d be the last time we leave the house as just a couple. eeek! then found out we needed gas. of course. typical of us. ha. got gas…made the 45 minute car ride. pretty sure i was a sight to see if people looked at me in the car. lol. it was about 10am by the time we arrived at the center (which is really just a little house behind our midwife’s house…very nice and cozy). i was smiling entering the center knowing that the tub was nice and warm and ready for me! i immediately got in. enjoyed it. at this time i was already 7 cm. crazy! mother in law showed up during this time and we chatted and she encouraged me through the tough ones. it was at this time i was in transition. contractions were definitely super close together and i remember saying at that time how i missed the longer breaks in between. :) but i knew…and kept saying, that each contraction is one more contraction closer to seeing my baby! and of course thanking God for giving me the strength to get through this. i always wondered how i was going to react to natural childbirth. surprisingly i didn’t yell once. :) i mainly hummed my way through contractions. loud humming. lol. and then 2 hours later it was time. they wanted me to try to go the bathroom, which i thought was crazy talk. i could barely stand up without another contraction already coming. but i managed…and next thing i know i’m upstairs pushing. my parents arrived at this time too! nice timing.
husband was standing behind me the whole time while i did the squatting technique. squat, push, push, push, stand….wait…squat, push, push, push, stand…wait…etc. did this for about an hour. which doesn’t seem long (esp for first time mamas) but it was a lifetime. lol. i almost fainted during one push. i really wanted to get her out so i really pushed and almost blacked out. it was weird. midwife told me to get on the bed and now it was go time. husband on one side of me and m-i-l on the other. mom taking pics and dad downstairs. lol. about 20 minutes of intense pushing and then midwife told husband to pull baby girl out. he was a little confused at first…thinking he would catch her…not pull her out. but he did. he did wonderful. apparently she had the cord wrapped around her neck and shoulder and was purple! i had no idea. all i remember was them putting a precious screaming baby on my chest. i was happy she was screaming…i didn’t even realize her abnormal color. midwife immediately had to suck out two tubes full of amniotic fluid from her. then a few minutes later she was a normal color! praise the Lord! she was perfect. it was so fast and seemed so unreal. i couldn’t believe that what was growing inside my belly for so long was finally here and in my arms. couldn’t stop staring, kissing, holding, loving, and praising God for her. unreal. she came into this world at 1:19 pm on 1.19.11. :) i don’t know if i can speak for all other mamas who gave birth naturally, but it honestly wasn’t as bad as i thought. don’t get me wrong it was painful, but totally doable. (now that i’m fully recovered, i can say that i’d do it all over again for the next one too) :)

we snuggled for a little bit, which was wonderful. husband wanted to say a prayer over her before anything else. it was so sweet. there were lots of sniffing. :) husband cut the cord. and then we handed baby girl to our parents to immediately spoil, while midwife fixed me up. now this was not the fun part so i will not go into detail. all i can say is that the stitches and blood clotting i had afterward were more intense than giving birth to her with no drugs. lol. when that was over with (thank goodness) i was able to feed our child. i have heard tons of nightmare stories on breast feeding so i was a little nervous, but she did awesome. no troubles at all. then we watched as they did all her measurements and testing. she did amazing. a nice 7 lbs 12 oz, 18 1/2 inches long, and as healthy and alert as can be.

midwife and apprentices left us to ourselves and we hung out with the family. ate some food, which was amazing. and just soaked it all in. stayed the night at the birth center which was an interesting night. poor husband didn’t know he was going to be our nurse for the night, but he did such an amazing job and am so thankful for him. took our sweet baby girl home the next morning and started our new life.


i just wanted to say thank you to all my friends and family who helped out in any way. pretty sure we could not have done it without them. our little family is so blessed. i have been waiting for this moment for a long time and she’s finally here. :) words can’t describe the love that we have for her.

well thanks for sticking through and reading all of this. :) this is a moment i will never forget. here’s to many more memories i will never forget.

peace and love
xox