A Birth Story... Well this has been an exciting week in our household, and we are now a community of five! Our newest daughter joined us on Tuesday night at 2:30 in the morning and weighed just over 8lbs - a nice change of pace from my other nine pounders! Her labor was very quick, well a quick four hours plus the three weeks of prodromal labor!

Okay so I admit it, I drank castor oil, and I would do it again if the circumstances were similar. Under the recommendation of my midwife we decided to try to gently encourage things along. I had heard how miserable it was and really I did not find it miserable at all, perhaps my perception is clouded by the misery of the three weeks that preceded it. But honestly I drank it so fast, two ounces of castor oil mixed with two ounces of orange juice and a chaser of just plain juice. I didn't stop to breathe until I was halfway through the chaser so I never tasted the castor oil or it's consistency. Then it was 8 hours before anything else happened, I was beginning to get disillusioned again. Then a half hour of unpleasant runs to the bathroom, that were not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. Then the contractions began, within an hour we knew we were headed to the hospital. It was a rainy night and the drive took us about an hour. We walked into the maternity ward and I was clearly on my way.

Into the room for the dreaded "20 minute tape" that the hospital requires where they hooked me up to the machine to monitor the baby's heart rate and the strength of my contractions, which were quite strong as i had begun transition in the car I believe. I rolled around on a birth ball on the bed and couldn't believe how long it took to get into the tub, those twenty minutes seemed so much longer. Into the tub, I was dilated to an 8. My midwife went to check on another patient who was in labor and to call in help since she had two patients. After three amazing contractions in the tub I was telling Serona he needed to get someone NOW because I was feeling pushy. At first he didn't believe me, but soon headed out the door for the nurses station. The midwife came in, I had only been in the tub 10-15 minutes and she measured me and said "Okay, let's just have this baby right now, out of the tub!"

The hospital we were at does not allow under water births, so i complied. Onto the bed, first push my water broke and the head crowned, two or three pushes later and our daughter joined this world, three and a half hours after the first contraction of the night. It was so quick I did not really believe it was done. The birth was so beautiful and our recovery is going very well.

For obvious reasons things will be quiet here for a little while. Hope all is well with you and your families.

Peace,
Tenn