My baby is here! Eve arrived yesterday (May 14) at 4:44 pm. I'm writing from the hospital, just waiting for my midwife to come discharge me. I had an amazing birth experience, and I feel so happy with how everything went! And I have my little girl! 
I woke up feeling yucky in my stomach yesterday morning. I had gone out the night before for a local "urban legend" labor-inducing pizza. It had a *lot* of roasted garlic and I thought it just wasn't sitting well. I started having labor-like contractions, but they were all over the place: 6 minutes apart, then 10, then 12, then 4, and so on... Baby was posterior and I had been having a lot of "early labor" type contractions for a few weeks so I still wasn't sure if this was the real thing. I called my husband at work but told him to wait until he was done teaching his classes at 10:30, and then to come home. By the time he got home around 11 things had started picking up but were still pretty low-key and unpredictable. We watched a show, ate some lunch, went for a walk to the park and let our 2.5 year old play a bit. DH put DS down for a nap, I took a bath, and then when I got out of the bath things really picked up. Contractions started getting really intense and went from 10 minutes apart to 2.5 minutes apart in about 30 minutes. DH decided it was probably time to go to the hospital. I still wasn't so sure; I thought we had plenty of time and wanted to wait until DS woke up so I could say goodbye to him, etc. We got in the car (as I picked up things off the floor and obsessed about nothing important on the way to the garage) and drove to the hospital. My contractions were really bad by the time we pulled into the parking lot, and I think it was right about the time we checked in that I was in late first stage and started going into transition! We got settled in, when I was checked at some point after arriving I was already dilated to a 7 or 8 (can't remember now). I started throwing up as the nurses were trying to put my Hep. Lock in and before my midwife had even gotten in her scrubs I was feeling the urge to push! My body could not be stopped, and even as I was being begged not to push (to avoid a tear), I just couldn't control it. It was so bizarre, and amazing! About an hour after we arrived at the hospital, Eve Marie entered the world, weighing 9 pounds, 5 ounces, and measuring 21.5 inches long! I didn't tear at all and I feel pretty great now! I am so ecstatic that I got to have the birth I wanted (If I wouldn't have gone into labor yesterday, I had a scheduled induction for this morning! I was dreading it!).
And I know a lot of women do it, but I feel like super woman for having done it with no medication. I am so proud of myself, of my husband for being such a great labor support, of my baby for getting herself into the right position to be birthed naturally, of my body for just knowing what to do.
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I woke up feeling yucky in my stomach yesterday morning. I had gone out the night before for a local "urban legend" labor-inducing pizza. It had a *lot* of roasted garlic and I thought it just wasn't sitting well. I started having labor-like contractions, but they were all over the place: 6 minutes apart, then 10, then 12, then 4, and so on... Baby was posterior and I had been having a lot of "early labor" type contractions for a few weeks so I still wasn't sure if this was the real thing. I called my husband at work but told him to wait until he was done teaching his classes at 10:30, and then to come home. By the time he got home around 11 things had started picking up but were still pretty low-key and unpredictable. We watched a show, ate some lunch, went for a walk to the park and let our 2.5 year old play a bit. DH put DS down for a nap, I took a bath, and then when I got out of the bath things really picked up. Contractions started getting really intense and went from 10 minutes apart to 2.5 minutes apart in about 30 minutes. DH decided it was probably time to go to the hospital. I still wasn't so sure; I thought we had plenty of time and wanted to wait until DS woke up so I could say goodbye to him, etc. We got in the car (as I picked up things off the floor and obsessed about nothing important on the way to the garage) and drove to the hospital. My contractions were really bad by the time we pulled into the parking lot, and I think it was right about the time we checked in that I was in late first stage and started going into transition! We got settled in, when I was checked at some point after arriving I was already dilated to a 7 or 8 (can't remember now). I started throwing up as the nurses were trying to put my Hep. Lock in and before my midwife had even gotten in her scrubs I was feeling the urge to push! My body could not be stopped, and even as I was being begged not to push (to avoid a tear), I just couldn't control it. It was so bizarre, and amazing! About an hour after we arrived at the hospital, Eve Marie entered the world, weighing 9 pounds, 5 ounces, and measuring 21.5 inches long! I didn't tear at all and I feel pretty great now! I am so ecstatic that I got to have the birth I wanted (If I wouldn't have gone into labor yesterday, I had a scheduled induction for this morning! I was dreading it!).
And I know a lot of women do it, but I feel like super woman for having done it with no medication. I am so proud of myself, of my husband for being such a great labor support, of my baby for getting herself into the right position to be birthed naturally, of my body for just knowing what to do.
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