Announcing....Natalia Joy!

She's here! I know it's been 3 weeks since she was born, but hey it's hard when you have a new little one. So here is her birth story: (written from me to her)

Okay so on Monday I thought my water had broken in a trickle so I called the Midwife, Pat, and she said to come in and get checked. My water had not broken and I was still only about 2cm and not very effaced, but very soft. I asked her if she would strip my membranes and she did. It hurt but I figured that was a good thing. The rest of the day I had contractions off and on. Aunt Vickie and I walked around Walmart in the evening and I had good contractions but by the time we got home and I got settled for the night they were gone. I woke up at about 4am with little tiny twinges but they weren't too bad. By 5am I realized that these might be decent contractions because they were coming regularly. By 6am I realized that they were about 4 minutes apart. I woke your Daddy up and told him that I thought this was it because it felt like my other labors once they were nice and established. So then he showered and by 7am he was off to vote. A few hours later we could tell that this was going to be it so we called Aunt Vickie to come watch the other kids so I could go vote and so that she could be here when the baby was born. By this point labor was starting to get strong so we asked Daddy's cousin across the street, Chrissy, to watch the older kids so that I could vote before we got too far into labor. When we arrived at the polling station the lines were kinda long but everyone was so nice when they saw me and realized I was in labor. I went straight to the front of the line and they let me vote really quickly, then I had a whole gym of people congratulating us! It was great. I started to tear up pretty good and Daddy thought that was cute. So we got home and labored some more. By this point Aunt Vickie was here and her and Daddy did basic things around the house while coaching me during the contractions. (They had spaced out to about 5 minutes but were getting stronger and longer). By about 11am I thought it might be time to go, but Daddy read through the bradley book about emotional signposts again and said he wanted to hold out until 12, maybe 1 o'clock. By this point I was pretty much tuning everyone out during contractions and in between. By noon we thought we should go in so we called the Midwife, Pat, and she said yup come in. (Daddy made the receptionist laugh because when he called she said "can I help you" and he said, "Yes, I'm in labor." She laughed pretty good.) On the way to the hospital with Aunt Vickie, Savanna, Russell, Katerina, Daddy and I, we got a low tire. Daddy pulled over and then announced it wasn't low enough to stop him. ( I think he was worried he'd have to deliver you), then he was talking to family members on the cell and missed our exit to the hospital. Looking back it's pretty funny. During though I was kinda spaced out and didn't care too much. After we arrived Pat said I was 5cm, 80% and nicely established and so we walked, and rocked in a rocking chair and stood. By this time we had Grandpa Clare, Grandma Allison and Aunt Shirley join us at the hospital so it was like a party in the room. While standing I suddenly felt weird so I thought my water was breaking, when the nurse got me on the bed I started trembling really bad. All of the sudden I knew I was in transition and I kicked everyone out of the room (except for Daddy). The nurse checked me and said I was at 8cm and fully effaced. Daddy says that she seemed to panic a little and ran off to call Pat back. It seemed like only a minute and Pat was there. When she checked me she broke my water. Up to this point I was doing great without any pain meds, but once she broke my water it got much harder to tolerate it. She kept asking if I felt like I should push yet and I kept saying I wanted to push, but wasn't sure if I should yet. Finally after throwing up 3 times I felt a tad better and she suggested trying to push. That hurt! (at this point I let Grandma Allison, Aunt Vickie, and Grandma Lila in the room to see you be born) I backed off from it for a second until Daddy and Pat said they could see your head. Then I opened my eyes and 3 more pushes later you were here! You were born at 4:14pm. You weighed in at 7lbs 9ozs. And 19 inches long. You had such a big thick umbilical cord that it was hard for Pat to get the clip on it. Your birth was beautiful! I've never used a Midwife before and I've never gone totally natural before but this time I did both and it was absoutely awesome!