Here she is

So I'm getting requests for 1- photos and 2- birth story. Here you go with 1- Moments after her birth and looking quite messy.

Hours after her birth and much cleaner and sleepier.

1 Day old with Dad. I am euphoric with love and gratitude for these two.

Shortly after getting home today.

So I don't think the majority of people would really want to read a boring birth story, but there are a few out there that have asked me to. So I'll comply. I absolutely do not expect you all to read it. For those of you that just want the quick details, I'll do that first.

I was induced. It took forever. There were a few hiccups that made the whole process a little harder. But she finally got here after a very long and difficult labor Wednesday morning at 5:08 am. She was 5 lbs. 15 oz. and 20 " long. She and I are both home now and recovering just fine.

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Long birth story version for you nutty people who really want to know.

I had planned to have a very natural birth. I did a lot of reading and took classes and was all set to go for a completely unmedicated delivery. I had a midwife and a doula. My two worst fears as I prepared for her arrival were these: First that she would be breech. Becca was breech and getting her turned while I was in labor was a nightmare!!! Second, that my labor would be so long I wouldn't be able to handle it. Both fears were realized.

So as it turned out, at 37 weeks, 3 days pregnant, I needed to be induced because my blood pressure was just too dangerously high. I was concerned that having to be induced would make the delivery harder because pitocin causes such intense contracting. I also worried that since she was having to come out early and I was not dilated at all I was gonna be in the for the long haul.

On Monday night they had me start citatek. By morning I was only dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced. Kind of a bummer. Contractions were starting and they felt like progress was looking good enough to start pitocin. So I started pitocin very early Tuesday morning. Contractions picked up a bit more. After hours of that though, there was no further dilation. Soon they realized that she had turned to have her feet coming first (breech) and that she either needed to be turned, or they needed to do a C-section. I honestly considered the C-section because of my experience with having Becca turned. But I decided to go ahead and let them turn her. It was painful and a bit scary, but not as bad as it was with Becca. What's better is it was a success! So then things started to move forward a bit better. They wanted to break my water even though I was still at a 2 to kind of help keep her head down. So they did that and immediately contractions got very intense.

I had never done a natural delivery before. I never had the desire to try it before this pregnancy. I thought I knew a little of what to expect. Afterall, I had labored to a 5 with Jonah without too much problem and without any pain medication. But I was in for a treat. It was much harder than I expected. The pain was pretty intense. I had no idea a uterus was that strong!

I managed to deal with it though until I was completely dilated. They told me it was time to push. I pushed for about an hour. But nothing seemed to be happening. They were getting a little concerned. They told me they thought that she was turned again in a way that was going to make it extremely difficult to deliver. They said that she was in a position in which some women just opt for a C-section rather than to try to do vaginally. She had her head down, but it was like sideways or something. They said in order to still deliver her vaginally, they would probably need to put their hand up inside of me and turn her head. At that point, I hadn't slept in two nights, and had been laboring so long and hard. So I was like "GIVE ME THE EPIDURAL NOW." Thankfully the anesthesiologist quickly came in and took care of business.
They did their thing and successfully turned her again. Then I started pushing again. With the epidural it seemed like no problem at all. I think I pushed for about another hour and she was finally delivered!
I was overcome with relief and joy. I couldn't stop kissing her and telling her I loved her. Tears couldn't be held back either. It was wonderful. All things checked out and she looked good.

About a couple of hours after delivery I started getting a massive headache. It was a strange one. If I layed down flat, it went almost away completely. But if I raised my head at all, it was miserable. They told me I had a spinal headache from the epidural. Apparently it only happens 1 in 200 epidurals. I was ordered to lay flat and hope that it would get better on it's own. It didn't. This morning they said that it could last weeks and the only way to fix it was to either lay flat as much as possible, or to get a blood patch. I opted for the blood patch as taking care of a newborn while laying flat on your back 24/7 isn't really reasonable.

The blood patch was really strange. It was basically like another epidural. They put the needle in my back while I curled up and I held that position while they drew blood out of my arm and put it directly into the epidural needle in my back. It felt really weird. Then I had to lay flat for about an hour. When the hour was done, my headache was completely gone! But my back was in bad shape. It still is. It feels like I'm getting electrocuted when I try to move or walk or anything. But at least if I stay still I am ok. And I can be upright and feed the baby and such. So I think it was a decent trade off. I'm hoping my back gets better soon though.

Charity is doing well. She is feeding well and looking good. She has been spitting up tons of amniotic fluid and has choked on it as well. Last night she stopped breathing for a minute and scared the life out of me. She turned very blue and I quickly gave her a little mouth to mouth and she started breathing again. So she kind of scares me and I feel like I have to watch her or have Steve watch her all the time. But otherwise I think she's doing well.

That's the long drawn out version. Hope it wasn't too boring!