She's here!

Well, Mia Juliet finally decided to make her entrance! She arrived at 11:50 am on Wed. Nov. 11. Birth story: Early in the week I was feeling a little discouraged and anxious about labor and my chances for a VBAC. It seemed like the baby was high up, barely any dialation--deja vu from Bianca's labor and birth. I went for repeat accupuncture on Monday evening, but didn't feel much change. My water broke around midnight on Tuesday night. I felt some crazy baby movement and all of the sudden a -pop- like a balloon bursting. I never expected my water to break pre-labor--I thought you had to be much more dialted for that to happen (shows what I know!). No contractions at that point, so we stayed at home and headed into the hospital at 2am as labor was starting. After working with very intense contrax for about 7 hrs, I was only dialated 2 centimeters, and baby was still at -3 station (very high). This was almost exactly what had happened with B. I knew that baby was going to be very stubborn about moving down. It didn't take me long to decide on an epidural. It was in place by 9am, and things started to fly after that. By 11 am I was fully dialated and ready to push, and Mia was born 50 mins later. Not bad for a first-time pusher!!! (My doc and doula both told me to expect to push for a couple of hours.) After she was born, the doctor put her on me and Steve leaned over and told me that it was a girl. I was crying, and I just couldn't believe that it had happened. The experience was very intense and emotional for me, especially toward the end. My tears started to flow at 9cm when I realized that I was really going to push this baby out. My mom had five c-sections despite her best efforts to have first a home birth, then VBACS. After hearing about my mom, my old doctor had told me that "maybe there was something with my anatomy" that wouldn't allow me to have a vaginal birth. I definitely had doubts but I'm glad I decided to face them. I'm so grateful that I was able to assemble an awesome support team this team, including my doula, Kelli Hancock, who firmly believes that women make babies that fit out of them. Steve was an awesome support and coach. He surprised himself by watching the birth and even taking photos of Mia coming out.

One thing that helped was that I had a sort of "customizable" epidural--they set the medicine at a lower level and allowed me to adjust the dosage as needed. So during pushing, I was able to feel the pressure of each contraction and know exactly when and where to push. I felt Mia kicking and poking as she moved down and I was able to feel her come out into the world. It was a truly amazing experience.

A funny moment from labor--early on while we were in triage, the admitting nurse (who took literally hours to get us into our delivery room) told me "You look kind of irritable". I was sitting there thinking--why would she say that...to a woman in LABOR? How rude! I mean, I was feeling pretty irritated, but I didn't know that it was so obvious. :) Later on we clarified that she had meant my uterus looked irritable (i.e. she had thought the early contrax might be dehydration and not true labor). So that was the running joke during labor, anytime things were taking longer than we wanted, someone would say "I think she's getting kind of IRRITABLE!" :)
Photos!!!

Hello, sweet girl.

Her nails were really long and she'd been scratching herself in the womb!

Ready to go home. Outfit knitted by Farmor (Steve's mom).

Welcome home sister!

Birthday boy with his brand-new girl.

We're happy and cozy at home with our two beautiful girls. Mia is very sweet, not quite as spirited as Bianca was, but very active. She's very vocal and loves to coo and squeak, I love listening to her. My milk is in and she's a happy nursling. I feel richy blessed in this incredible season of our lives, with our own girls, and growing families, weddings, new houses, new jobs, and other adventures happening all around us for our friends and family. It's just amazing, and I'm so thankful.