The miracle of birth! What an experience! God is so faithful!

A week ago Sunday, Paul and I headed out for church...I was in the worst mood...4 days past my due date and I was so ready to hold my baby! When we got to church I realized that we forgot the baby bottles of change for the Pregnancy Center...so I, in my bad mood headed back home pouting that I still hadn't felt any hard contractions and I had to go back to church and face everyone...on my way out to the car I thought "I wonder why God would have me go back home right now?...I don't really need to get the baby bottles but I just really don't want to be at church right now..."

When I got home I fiddled around wasting time, pouting, and then I sent out an email to my midwife. I wrote to her asking what I could take to try and get this baby out because we had company coming the next day and I had to have the baby before they arrived...then I wrote "I am having the hardest time trusting the Lord...I know He knows that I want to have this baby before company comes..."

Literally 30 seconds after I wrote the email I went to relieve myself before dragging myself back to church...MY WATER BROKE! Yay! God is so faithful and I am lacking so much faith! I was so excited and so nervous I didn't know what to do...I had the car at home and Paul was still at church...how was he going to get home...so finally I called Paul and he didn't answer...so I called the church 3 times and finally Pastor Tim answered and he sent Paul home.

Finally, we called the midwife to tell her that my water had broken around 9:00am. She said that she wanted to get the baby out so that I didn't have to leak water much longer. She suggested doing an enema because I had been constipated. Then she said I should wait for contractions and if that didn't start them then I should take castor oil and follow it with Blue Cohosh. So at 12:00pm I did the enema and it wasn't that bad! After doing the enema I waited and I still didn't feel any contractions. So, at 3:00pm I took the castor oil and went for a walk. Still nothing, so at 6:00pm I started 2 droppers full of Blue Cohosh every 15 minutes for an hour, and still nothing. At 7:30pm I called my midwife and told her I had done everything I could to start labor and still nothing. She suggested I go to bed because the contractions would start before the night was over. So I went to bed at 8:00pm thinking, "there is no way I am going to have this baby tonight or anytime soon because I feel NOTHING!"

We had waited all day for labor to start and finally at 10:00pm labor kicked in! Paul and I started timing the contractions they were 6 minutes apart, lasting 30-45 seconds! How exciting! But very uncomfortable! I was doing okay. I could handle these. I was thinking "this isn't too bad." Paul ended up falling back to sleep while I attempted to sleep in between contractions. Finally, the contractions started coming about 4 minutes apart and lasting about a minute at 1:00am...it was time to call the midwife! Boy, was I ready to beat these contractions. It was time to find a new position. I was getting really uncomfortable.

The midwives arrived at 3:45am and they checked me and I was 100% effaced and dilated about 5 centimeters...I was sooooo disappointed because I wanted to be 8 centimeters! The midwives told me to try the pool for a different position, well that didn't work for me. I couldn't get a comfortable position to feel that I was still in control. So I labored for a few more hours pushing my birth ball into the bed, rocking back and forth, and BREATHING. Paul kept pressure on my hips with every contraction and it really helped! Labor got harder and my contractions got longer...every other contraction was like double time...every other one lasting two minutes...they were painful but I could still do it! The midwife checked me again at 6:00am and I was finally 8 centimeters...within the next half hour I felt it...the urge to PUSH! Yay! It was finally time! So at around 6:30am I started to push on the birth stool...when the head came out the midwife realized that the shoulders were stuck. So I moved carefully but quickly to my knees so my midwife could reach in while I pushed the body out and within the next few minutes Paul and I were looking at our sleeping Lily...oh how precious! And, I did it! We were able to welcome our 8lb, 11oz baby Lily into her own home. She nursed right away and didn't leave my arms for hours! Paul and I were so proud and excited to finally have what we had been waiting for...for two and half years! God is so faithful and gracious that He would trust us with this beautiful gift of our Lily Elizabeth!

After delivering the placenta the midwife told us that my placenta was bad, meaning that I wasn't absorbing nutrients well, but that the baby was perfectly fine. She told us that the placenta had a second lobe which meant there was a start of a second placenta.TWINS?? She said there may have been a twin at one point.