Our little girl arrived on June 3rd!
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I haven't decided if I feel comfortable using her name on this blog. So for the time being I won't.
It feels great to no longer be pregnant. I am much more myself than I have been in months. I'm officially done with gestational diabetes. My blood glucose has returned to normal and baby's blood glucose was normal right from the start. I celebrated with a piece of chocolate cake.
I'll have to write a more complete birth story, but this is the story in a nutshell. My water broke around 2:00 pm on June 2nd before contractions. They started just a couple hours later. We headed to the birth center at 2:00 am even though the pains weren't that strong with the hope that the midwife would be able to help speed things up. However, I progressed slowly. By 10:00 am, I was having horrific back labor and the pain wouldn't abate even in the birthing tub. I was only 5 cm dilated. I labored there until 3:00 pm. Then I risked out of the Birth Center because it had been 24 hours since my water broke and I was only 7 cm dilated.
I was moved to the hospital where I decided to get an epidural. I had wanted a natural water birth, but let me tell you that epidural was wonderful. I went from being unresponsive and completely sunk in pain to able to make eye contact and carry on a conversation. Within an hour of the epidural I was fully dilated. But it wouldn't be until just before midnight after hours of pushing that our daughter was born. For those of you keeping track that was 32 hours of labor.
Our midwife was wonderful and supportive. I felt she tried everything she could to keep us at the birth center and once we were at the hospital she continued to be a source of strength and encouragement. At one point towards the 30 hour mark she spoon fed me honey for energy. The labor nurses were also wonderful. I have nothing but good things to say about the whole experience. Well minus my water breaking early and the back labor, but I am assuming those were things inevitable. Fairhaven Obstetrics in Goshen, Indiana was worth the long drive.
Despite my fears, breast feeding has been easy. The baby's got an appetite that can only come from her dad's side of the family. At her two week doctor's visit she had more than gained back her birth weight.
We are settling into our new life. Honestly, it doesn't feel all that new, just rearranged. Jeff and I do a lot of laundry and simple things like making a batch of cookies or dead heading flowers in the garden take several installments.
The baby is now 16 days old and life is good.
