Happy * Ness: May 2012

It officially has been a whole entire MONTH since I last posted. Completely unacceptable, I know. But I DO have a very good excuse I assure you- I had a baby!!! :D

A beautiful baby girl we named Kaleia Minnow rushed into our lives at 3:55am on May 5th under a super (and ridiculously bright) full moon.

I woke up to my water breaking only a little bit- totally anti-climatic and not a huge gush like in the movies. I started feeling contractions right away. After being in early labor for 2 weeks before and having many false labors- I was skeptical it was actually happening. So I did what I usually did with false labors- had a bath and tried to relax. Two hours of contractions later I woke Josh up and said what I've been waiting to say for 9 months- "It's go time".

We got to the hospital by 2:30am, by this time my contractions were 2 minutes apart after only 2 hours. I promptly told the nurse I wanted an epidural and I wanted it now. Once my midwife arrived I told her the same thing. She said that since it was the middle of the night and there were 2 other ladies in labor that staff was limited and I would have to wait for an epidural. So for the next hour I breathed in laughing gas and laughed/cried my way through the contractions. It was getting to be so painful I cried out again for the effin' epidural but once my midwife checked me she told me she could see the head and that my baby had a lot of hair! So I had to just suck it up and push her out since there was no time. I told her "No- I don't want to feel that!" and she told me to go to my calm yoga place and focus. I told her to go to hell. Lol I was definitely a bit of a drama queen about it. But after only 15 minutes of going to my yoga place and pushing with everything I had, her little head popped out. I reached down and felt her slimy, hairy little head and knew it was almost over, so one more huge screaming push she was out. I had never felt so relieved as I did in that moment. They placed her on my chest right away, she started to suckle like a little pig, and our eyes met for the first time. "Hey baby, I'm your momma, you were just inside me!" I smiled down at her. It's really incredible just how fast the pain goes away once she was out. The endorphins were unreal. I still hadn't cut the cord or delivered the placenta, but the hard part was over so I just relaxed with the baby in a cloud of pure, undiluted joy. She weighed a healthy 8lbs 2 oz, and was absolutely perfect- all smushed and adorable. After I was done and stitched up (only 2 stitches- not too bad), I had a shower while my midwife Michelle and the nurse cleaned and swaddled Kaleia doing all the newborn tests they do. When I came out Michelle gave me some food and asked if I wanted to sleep at the hospital, I said I'd rather go home. So she discharged me into her care and Josh wheeled me and Kaleia down to the car in a wheelchair. We stopped for some Tim Hortons and were home by 6:00am. The whole labor was only 4 hours! I couldn't believe how fast everything happened and that we were already home with our gorgeous new daughter! We made some phone calls and updated our facebook with pics and settled into our bed together for our first family snuggle.

More photos to come! I have a whole month to make up for!