Bella Natal

It truly was a "beautiful birth". And here is how it all went down:

Chris painted my toes just before we drove to Orem

Super Woman!

between surges
In the middle of a surge
about 3 minutes old and purple!Baby Getting measured

She's about an hour old

dad and baby

On February 25th, the day before my due date, my water broke as Chris walked in the door from work. It was 6pm and the next few hours would allow the surges of active labor to induce. My contractions were no more than 5 minutes apart right from the get-go, but since I was feeling ok and calm, we stayed here in Kamas until 9:30pm. After talking to my midwife, she thought it would be best to make our way down to Orem, where the birthing center would be a little closer than an hour away. We got to the center, appropriately called Bella Natal Birthing Suites, at 10:30pm and a midwife checked me. She told me I was only dilated to 2cm, although my contractions were still about 3 minutes apart. We drove to my grandmothers house in Pleasant Grove to try to get some sleep before the active labor kicked in. It was such a blessing to have a place to stay so close to where we would be birthing- thanks Grandma! Chris was able to get some sleep, while I was up pacing, trying to relax in the shower, laying down, and pacing again, ALL night...again, surges came about every 3 minutes, so it was impossible to sleep. This was seriously the worst part of the entire experience. I waited for as long as I could possibly wait, and what I thought would have given my midwife, Cathy, and my husband enough sleep and finally decided at about 6:30 am that I needed to get into the birthing tub- the planned place of relaxation for my labor. My midwife met us at the center at about 7:45 am...and here is where it gets blurry! I immediately slipped into the warm tub of water and was relieved SO much by the water's buoyancy and anti gravity effect. Ahhh. From then on out, I was in the water except for the few times to get out and walk around, its amazing how just changing positions helped me to dilate and labor progress.
During all of this, I was able to use the skills I learned in a HypnoBirthing class to cope with the new, shall we say, "sensations", associated with labor. Chris was an amazing support for me, reminding me to relax, breath and telling me what a Wonder Woman I was. Our midwife told us she was impressed because it was like she was just there to make sure nothing went wrong. It was Chris and I that were in the zone together and we worked through the time in labor as a team. I'm pretty sure I slipped into a time warp or something, because before I knew it, I was declared complete and the intense urge to push came. I gently pushed for about an hour and our little baby girl was received by her daddy in the tub at 12:59 pm on my actual due date- Feb 26th. Weird huh. So, from the time my membranes released to the time she was born was 19 hours. Some may say that is long time to labor...but for some reason it really didn't feel that long, because I have heard of much longer times. I think I really felt like things were for real once I was able to get into the tub- and that was only four hours. I seriously cannot imagine laboring again without the water. Wow. Gravity and I are not friends! I think there is a reason that I learned how to swim proficiently by the time I was three and have loved being in the water ever since. It is definitely my element! I'm pretty sure it is our little girl's element as well! (She's a Pisces!)
When our little girl was birthed, Chris received her, pulled her up out of the water and immediately put her on my chest where we rubbed her, cooed her and she was just as alert- her eyes were wide open and she just stared at us in awe...probably trying to figure out how to make those lungs work! It didn't take long for her to take her first breath and Chris cut the cord about 10 minutes later. We ended up staying over night at Bella Natal so that I could recover a little longer. I was a little faint, and still am, from loss of blood, and from such hard work. We just slept and bonded as a new little family for the first 5 hours. It was so good to just be in our own place together with little interruption. Family began visiting at about 6pm and our little girl did a good job at staying awake to say hello to them.
We really could not have asked or planned on a more perfect birthing experience. I feel so incredibly blessed to have had such a great support- my husband, a wonderful flexible midwife, my loving family, and of course a loving Heavenly Father who was gracious in answering many prayers.

Ok, so here are the stats: Gender: Girl; Weight: 7 lbs 7 oz.; Length: 21.5 inches; Name: unknown. Yes, it has been nearly three days and our little girl remains nameless. She is just "Baby" right now. Our puppy was nameless for nearly a week- and he was a DOG! This is HUMAN we are talking about, and we are determined to pick the right name that will fit her and that she will grow into throughout her life. Its an important decision!
So thats it. We hope you enjoy the pictures.