Zoë Isabel Sakura was born Tuesday March 22 at 5:02am at our home.
8lbs1oz, 20" long
Here's her wild birth story:
I started having light contractions around 5:30pm, felt nauseous and barfed, didn't feel like eating dinner and wondered whether they'd keep up or peter out as they had several times in the past week. Wondered if this was the beginning, or the flu that's been going around... we cleaned up a bit, put DD to bed around 9 and I went to bed. The contractions were still happening, but so super mellow and not in any pattern or timing. I woke up around 11 realizing that they were coming more regularly, so I got up and started timing them. DH started setting up the birth tub, wrapping and putting sheets on the futon etc. and I called the midwife to let her know things were happening. She came over around 1:30am. I was still feeling really mellow and happy at this point - light contractions, feeling excited and chatty. She checked me and I was 3cm and mostly effaced. We kept it light and had a good time. She was the same midwife as at my DD's birth, so we know each other pretty well. In the next couple of hours, the contractions started getting heavier and more intense as I walked around, sat on the toilet and squatted, barfing a couple more times and trying to keep up the gatorade and water to keep some energy going. I could feel the transition feelings starting - anxious, emotional, teary and I wanted to get into the tub. The midwife checked me again in the water and I was only 4cm! I was so disheartened, really low and having big doubts that I could sustain this intensity for a lot longer. How could I be feeling like this with such little progress? But she gave me a good pep talk and I realized if I didn't get my head around it, it really would be terrible, so I decided to get over it, and I started talking to the baby between contractions, telling her how ready I was and how she should just come out. I had a couple more contractions in the tub and then my midwife told me she was sending me outside for some fresh air and thought taking the stairs out would help intensify things. I put on my bathrobe and slippers and a pair of my DH's underwear and went out into the hallway of our building (thankfully it was 4:45am and no one was around!) I had 3 contractions on the one flight of stairs and when I got to the lobby I had a huge contraction where I felt like pushing. My water broke with a pop and I remember looking at DH and saying "I need to go back upstairs RIGHT NOW!" We turned around and started back up. I had another contraction on the stairs and was stripping off my bathrobe as we walked back into the apartment. I sat on the toilet and the midwife asked me to reach inside and see if I could feel the head. It was only about a cm from the outside. She crowned right then on the toilet and I hobbled numbly into the living room holding her bulging head in my hand. As I stepped into the water the rest of her head popped out and her body came just after I sat down in the water. She was a big, healthy, week-overdue 8 pounder! DD slept through the whole thing, so DH went and woke her up and she got to see Zoë just a minute after she was born. We moved onto the futon to deliver the placenta and DD got to cut the cord with her papa just like she wanted. It was such a wild ride... from 4cm to birth in about 30 min. We were all laughing and so amazed that it could happen just like that!
She's our perfect rosy little cherry blossom!
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