Bella

Sorry this is a little late. I had needy kids all weekend!

Bella's Birth
We found out I was pregnant in May 2002. From that first day I was convinced the baby was a girl. I just knew. I had promised back on my wedding day that as soon as I got pregnant I would tell my medium sister first. She was babysitting for a family so I hurried over to let her know. I handed her the pregnancy test and she asked what it was. I should have known a junior in high school wouldn't have a clue! It finally clicked and she was super excited. We went to tell my mom later. She was very excited also. The news trickled down pretty quickly. From weeks 6-12 I was incredibly sick. The rest of the pregnancy was very uneventful thankfully. I felt great minus those six weeks. On January 15th I had my last prenatal visit. I would be 42 weeks on Saturday and my midwives said it was time to get the show on the road. I decided to try a castor oil induction the following morning. For those of you who don't know you drink 2 oz mixed in with juice take a hot shower and repeat. I started this just before lunch on Thursday. I had to drive to Walgreens just a few minutes away in the middle of a huge snowstorm! The girl who rang me up said her mom did the same thing to go into labor with her. That made me feel a little better. The rest of the day was pretty boring. I was anxious for something to happen. My darling husband painted my toenails for me and we went to bed around 9pm. I woke up at 1am thinking I just peed on myself a little bit. I hurried to the bathroom and peed but it felt weird kind of like a UTI. I thought, oh great I won't go into labor but I will have a UTI. After another one of these sensations about 5 minutes later I realized they were actually contractions. They didn't feel how I expected them to feel. I woke DH about a half hour later. We timed the contractions for about a half hour. They were coming every five to seven minutes and very mild. I couldn't sleep so we started a movie "About A Boy". That movie will always have special significance to me! We finished the movie and by the end I was getting uncomfortable. We called our midwife to let her know what was happening. A friend (nurse/doula) who photographed the birth for us came around 6 am to start my antibiotics for Group B strep. She also checked me. I was at 4 cm. That was easy! We called my mom to come over and a dear friend who was acting as a doula for us. I labored in the tub for quite a while. The contractions were easy at this point just requiring a bit of breathing. Around 10 or 11 our midwives came. Baby was doing great so they went to the other room and just periodically checked the baby's heart rate. I sat on the birth ball for a while and then back into the tub. Around 3:30pm I was tired and really uncomfortable through the contractions. I thought I couldn't possibly do this any longer I was so tired. My support people were amazing! I had to do lunges with my foot up on the tub to help the baby descend. This was extremely difficult. Thank you R for encouraging me and telling me you had to do the same thing! I got back in the tub and after a few minutes told my midwives I needed to push. It is such an incredible feeling for your body to take over! I pushed for about 45 minutes. After not being able to do anything pushing was wonderful! I felt focused and ready to see my baby. I was able to sleep between contractions. Finally, they could see a good portion of the head. I reached down and felt her head. "I can feel hair!" One more push and her head was out. I had another contraction right away and pushed her body out. I caught her and brought her up out of the water. "It's a girl. She looks just like Dad." Everyone (but my mom and DH) mistook this comment to mean she looked like my DH. She looked a lot like my Dad. Definitely my side of the family. She was so beautiful and perfect. Covered in vernix! I don't think she was as late as everyone though. She weighed 8 pounds even and was 21 inches long. She was very content and alert from the beginning. My sweet baby! I love you sweet girl!