Meet Lilla (my baby girl's birth story)
I know I haven't been the most active member, but wanted to be sure to come over and share our news...
Our third child, and first daughter, Lilla, was born at 4:27 pm on May 15, weighing 9 pounds even. She's 20.5 inches long. We had a very fast and easy home birth (full story below)...
We had our 41 week appointment with our midwife, Karen, on Tuesday morning. Since I was over 41 weeks she said she could strip my membranes if I was favorable and maybe it would jumpstart things. DH and I decided we did want to have her check and go ahead and do it if I was favorable. Karen started to check, but stopped pretty quickly. She said "her head is right here, she's VERY low". Then she said "wow... you're 8cm dilated and 100% effaced". It was crazy, I was 8 cm dilated and I felt totally normal. How long had I been walking around like that? (She later told me I was an easy 8cm, but I was actually stretching to a full 10 at that point.) She didn't strip my membranes, we wanted to get my MIL here to care for the boys before we got anything started. Karen left to go to another nearby appointment and said she'd be back in a couple hours unless we called, then she'd come right back.
We called my MIL, I ate some fruit and yogurt, we got the bedroom all set up for the birth, and then we just hung out waiting for Karen and her assistant to arrive. When they got here they suggested I eat a little more while they got their equipment set up. Once everyone was ready we decided to just break my water rather than strip the membranes. She checked my cervix one more time and I guess she must have aggravated something that morning because I was now fully dilated. I somehow managed to get all the way to 10cm without having any painful contractions. She broke my water at 3:30pm and contractions quickly started. Even though I was already 10cm my body wasn't ready to push yet. I had to let the contractions intensify to prepare my body to push. It didn't take long before I was ready to push though. I'm not sure how long I pushed, but the whole thing took only an hour. She was born at 4:27 pm.
Lilla was placed on my chest and she cuddled there for a little while, then she was ready to nurse. She had a beautiful latch right away. We had my MIL bring the boys in and they got to meet her. I was worried Topher (my younger son) was going to be jealous seeing her nursing, but he wasn't. He just said "baby eat" and watched her. After the boys left DH held her for a few minutes and then she was weighed, measured, etc. I got in the shower and then settled back in to bed with her.
Everything since has been great. Both boys are completely in love with her and want to help with everything, especially with diaper changes. I've been tandem nursing her and Topher and they've both been doing very well with it. While I was pregnant Topher had been rubbing my belly while he nursed, but now he rubs her arms and legs, it's the sweetest thing.
Here are a few pictures:
Just born-
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7076/7...dfde5910f8.jpg
Topher meeting her-
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7223/7...00da5f8142.jpg
My husband helping Nathan hold her (excuse the mess, they were setting their mattresses up because Nana (MIL) was going to have a camp out in the living room with them that night)-
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7230/7...b0ac681772.jpg
