She's Here!!!

I know, I know, I've been a bad girl. Rowan is one month old TODAY and this is the first time I'm writing about her. Sorry :( It's just hard to blog when I have her in my arms ALL the time!

So, our precious baby girl came to us on Saturday, September 5, '09; 4 days before her due date. She weighed 7 lbs 15 oz, and was 20 1/4 inches long. We so exciting to have her!

Here's the birth story if you're interested, and if not just go on down to the pictures and see how CUTE she is!

Friday afternoon (Sept 8), my sweet Mom and I sat on the couch most of the day trying to keep the contractions away since my sister Michelle was not going to be arriving until Sunday morning. No luck. By Friday evening I was having pretty close contractions, but they were somewhat irregular. Well, I didn't want to go to the hospital and then have them just send me home again, and I rather wanted to labor mostly at home since it's more comfortable. So we stayed at home and timed contractions nearly all night. I would sleep for

about 3 minutes at a time...that is to say, in between each contraction. Ben was already exhausted from school and such so he fell asleep. Mom went to bed and I timed contractions through the night. Around 4 am I came out to the living room and rocked on the glider chair and then Mom came and timed my contractions from then on (btw, contractionmaster.com is the best and easiest for timing contractions). Around 5:30 am they were SUPER strong so I said it was time to go. We were already all packed and ready since the night before we weren't sure if we would be going or not so we got ready anyway.

We drove to the hospital (thank goodness it wasn't far away). Once we got there we checked in and then they took their sweet time coming down for me. Finally they got me up to triage, I gave them my birth plan and I was still set on going natural. I did think for one second..."Hm, I could get the drugs and then I wouldn't feel anything...um...no, not worth it." That was the only time I ever thought about it. The nurse told Ben to go ahead and set up the labor tub in the other room, then she checked me and said "Good girl, you're already at a NINE! He might not even have time to fill up that tub."

YESSSS! I was almost there! And it wouldn't be long at all!!!

Then another younger nurse came in and said that she was going to put in a saline lock..."Um, no thanks." Then she said she needed to draw some blood..."I'll just become weakened or faint, no thanks." Never saw her again.

Finally I got to my labor room and got in the labor tub. Highly recommend these tubs, they're amazing! It felt so good to sit in the hot water while laboring. My midwife, Ramona, arrived and said that once I was ready to push to get up on the bed. I still hadn't decided on a laboring position for delivery when I was ready to push. I had kind of planned on the squat, but it just didn't feel right so I laid on the bed. Ramona had to break my water (I figured she would since they had to do that for my Mom and Michelle for many of their pregnancies). After that I pushed for about 20 mins or so and she was out at 9:09 am! It totally didn't feel like that long, actually I could've sworn that the whole morning only took 1 hour instead of 4! Ramona was so great. I highly recommend a midwife, but especially her. She was so supportive, gave clear directions, and was there the WHOLE time! I just love her!
The whole experience was amazing! I'm totally not afraid of labor at all. It's hard, I'll never say it's not. But I think it's all about endurance and relaxing through the contractions. If I relaxed my whole body through a contraction, well it's hard to do, but it actually was less painful and I swear it made me dilate quicker. Actually, I had Ben help me by repeating to me to "relax, relax", that way it was more like taking orders and easier to do.

Rowan and I were in the hospital for just under 2 days, we left the next night. Our staff was amazing, THANK YOU GUYS! Michelle still arrived Sunday morning, and she and Mom were the BIGGEST help the following week, I'm so grateful to them! Especially when Rowan was trying to figure out her feeding/sleeping schedule and probably figure out why she was out in the open instead of cozy inside of me, they took shifts during the night to help Ben and I sleep. Love you both so much!!! Thank you for taking time away from family and work to help us out, and thank you to the families back home that let them come and help us. :)

We are still adjusting to our little babe, but figuring her out more and more all the time. It's just so neat to have a little person with tiny little fingers and toes, and eyes and lips, she's so precious!!! It's amazing to me how she came together perfectly! I just don't understand how people can see that miracle and not believe in God. I'm grateful to have been able to be a part of that miracle. Though the greater challenge, I'm sure, will be the lifetime role of being a good mother. I hope I do well at that, 'cause that's what really counts. We love Rowan so much and feel truly blessed.

WARNING: Lots of photos::

Here is me in labor at home. WOW! I was HUGE!

(Sorry about the size of the pictures. First they were too big, now they're too small. Well, I'll go and resize them, but for now this is what'cha get.) (And blogger is being weird and won't let me write in between the pictures, but they're pretty self-explanitory. Enjoy!)