Ok, it's 2 weeks later, but here's Niva's birth story (sorry it's

long!)... oh and Niva is pronounced 'Neeva'.

Niva wasn't due until Oct 1, but we were hoping to speed things along

so DH and I had a little fun on Monday night. Sure enough I woke up a

few hours later (~3:30am Tuesday) with mild surges ~7-10 minutes

apart. I stayed up checked email and surfed the web until 5:30am when

I woke Aaron up to ask if we should call our doula yet. I called her

and said that everything was still very manageable with surges every

5-7 minutes by now, but I still wasn't sure this was going to be the

day yet. The surges were just not very intense and my mucous plug and

bag of waters were still in tact. I stayed in bed until ~9am with

Aaron, he rubbed my back during surges and I dozed between them. At

9am we got up, he made breakfast and we ate and read the paper till

~10:30am. I was still feeling good with surges still ~5-7 min apart

and decided to make a couple of loaves of banana bread for us and the

nurses at the hospital. While making the banana bread the surges

became progressively stronger and closer together so that I had to

stop and concentrate on my breathing during them, then go back to

baking between. It was a great distraction to bake during this early

birthing time. By 12:30 Aaron was getting ancy to go to the hospital,

but I was feeling so comfortable and I wanted to make sure when we

did go, we wouldn't be sent home. By 12:30-1pm my surges were finally

3-5 minutes apart and Aaron called ahead to the hospital to talk with

the nurse and we decided to drive in. I used what I learned in

hypnobabies and hypnobirthing and breathed slowly through the surges

as they intensified while Aaron gave me cue words "release, relax and

peace". In the end this worked beautifully during the dialation and

pushing phases, but not as well during the transition as you'll see

shortly.

Around 1:30pm we arrived at the hospital. I was not happy to be away

from home and not yet settled into our delivery room. By the time we

reached the elevator I was on the verge of tears. It didn't help that

we didn't know which floor to get off and almost got off on the wrong

one. As we walked into L&D another surge started and I leaned on the

nurses station desk and breathed. When it passed they shuttled us

into the `intake' room where a nurse hooked me up to monitors to

check surges and baby's heart rate. I cried for a few minutes from

just wanting to be settled into a room. A few minutes later the

midwife came in to check me. She was my favorite midwife in the

clinic which put me put me at ease. She also told me I was at 4 cm

and would have a room soon. What a relief! Minutes later we were

settled into our room and the nurse had already drawn a bath, which I

jumped right into. Felt so good to be in the warm water! While in the

bath our doula and good friend showed up, around 2-2:30pm, and we

chatted between surges. My sense of time from 3pm on gets fuzzy but I

remember the surges becoming more and more intense, requiring my full

concentration to keep my body limp and my breathing long and easy. We

also had a birthing pool in the room, which I'd hoped to deliver in

but only ended up laboring in for an hour or so. This worked just

fine until I started to feel `pushy' around 5:30pm. The midwife

offered to check me and I was at 8 cm with the amniotic sac bulging.

The pushy feeling intensified over the next half hour and she offered

to break the sac which would relieve some of the pushy feeling and

pressure. I obliged and for a few surges this worked, but then the

pushy feeling returned. At this point an anesthesiologist walked into

the room (I wasn't exactly quiet) to ask if he was needed. I heard

him introduce himself to the nurse "Hi, I'm the anesthesiologist" on

the other side of the room. To which I replied loudly, "Get out!" The

midwife quickly shuttled him out  After this little exchange the

midwife stepped out to see another birthing mom. I was starting to

feel pushy again, but the nurse, Aaron, and doula didn't know if I

had progressed to 10 yet, so they continued to urged me to not push.

This was the hardest part by far, having my body want to push (and

sometimes it did!) and trying to keep it from pushing. Not fun! Forty-

five minutes passed this way, dealing with the super pushy feeling,

until Aaron, getting worried, finally asked the nurse to page the

midwife. She returned immediately. This was the only time I felt `out

of control' and later realized that this was the transition phase.

Aaron told me later that he was worried at this time because I had

said "I can't do this," when they told me not to push, but my body

was taking over. What would have helped me during this stage was if

Aaron and the doula had said 'open, open, open', which I was saying

in my head during surges. The 'release and relax' cues didn't help

because my body was trying to push and I was trying to keep it from

pushing - not exactly 'relaxing'. But 'open' would have helped me to

dialate more.

As soon as the midwife returned, she checked and I was 9 cm with just

a lip of the cervix left undialated. She held back the lip through 2

surges so Niva's head could descend and I could finally push. That

was uncomfortable having her hold back the lip, but worked great and

I finally felt back in control. I could finally push!! As she held

back the lip, the midwife said, `The second stage is going to be

quick, this baby is descending fast!' Sure enough ~20 minutes later,

Niva made her entrance to the world. The pushing phase was the best,

I could finally let my body do what it'd wanted for the past hour and

a half. My favorite part was as Niva descended and crowned, I reached

down every few pushes and felt the top of her head. It surprised me

that it felt soft and squishy. It was also full of hair! Her head

came out, then her shoulders and I expected the rest of her body to

easily slip out but it didn't. The midwife said, `her arms are

crossed, that's why she's not moving any further' and I could feel

more stretching than I had felt from the delivery of her head. Within

seconds the midwife slipped her fingers under Niva's armpits and

basically pulled her out.

Aaron cut the cord as they lay her across my chest. I looked at her

in awe as she opened her mouth and wailed. The nurse covered us both

with a warm blanket and I looked up at Aaron to find him crying as he

looked from Niva to me. He leaned down, gave me a kiss and said `I

love you.' We just stared at her as she lay on my chest and began to

breastfeed. The nurse then asked, `Well do you know what you have

there?' We looked under the blanket and I said "she's a girl." We

both wanted a girl, but funny that we didn't look when they first

handed her to me. Then she let us know what she thought of this whole

birth day affair and pooped right on my belly! I could care less. The

nurse joked when she later weighed and measured Niva (7lbs 14oz,

21inches long) that if she hadn't pooped first she would have been an

8 pounder.