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Arwen Jane

Just an email to let you know that Arwen Jane arrived this past Sunday, September 21 (which was International Day of Peace) at 6:45 a.m. Although I was getting pretty uncomfortable being pregnant (the last week was a struggle) and even though I was a few days past my due date (the 18th), I was in denial that I was really in labor Saturday night. I think this was because it was so different from my first labor, which started with my water breaking (an obvious sign of labor!).

Here is what happened . . . Friday night was uncomfortable, I felt irritable and crampy. Saturday, we went to an Obama rally and walked around a bit. When we got home that afternoon I had went into a cleaning/tidying frenzy during which I had some minor and short contractions. By the time I was done with the to-do list...about 6-ish, I noticed that I was having a number of contractions still short and minor...I thought I had just over done it. By 8-ish, Dale was thinking that I was going into labor but I wasn't totally convinced. We called our midwife around 9:30-ish and she told me that it was not likely to be false labor at this late date and that I should get rest.

We got Luke to bed (sort of...he didn't fall asleep until midnight, the stinker!). I did get some sleep until off and on. By about 2-ish, the contractions were slightly more intense (but not that bad) and about 7-5 minutes apart. We started talking about what to do with Luke when he woke up...thinking that I wouldn't have the baby until later that day. By 4:30ish the contractions were coming between 3-5 minutes so we called our midwife. I still didn't feel that the contractions were that intense so I told her to take her time getting to our house. We started filling up the water birth tub. Nancy, the midwife, arrived at about 5-ish...I was glad she did because by the time she arrived the contractions were getting quite intense. I hopped in the tub and worked the short/shallow breathing techniques. At a certain point I started thinking what the hell was I thinking with natural childbirth! I felt the baby come down so fast this time. By 6:30 I felt like pushing. I decided to get out of the water and pushed from 6:35 to 6:45. It is great to have Arwen with us but a little strange to no longer be pregnant after all those months.

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