Leah Marie's Birth Story and Pictures

I am finally getting around to writing up Leah's birth story. We have had a nice two weeks of just relaxing and getting to know our new little girl!
To truly appreciate Leah's birth, if you haven't already read the birth stories of Samantha Jo and Noah, you might take a minute and do so. (Just click on their names).

With this being my 6th child, I started having Braxton Hicks contractions very early on in my pregnancy; so I was used to the "uncomfortable feeling" of the contractions from early on. The Sunday before Leah was born, I began having some more consistent contractions. That evening around 9pm, I called my midwife to let her know and give her a heads up just in case they turned out to be the real deal. Well, needless to say, they petered out about 2 hour later and stopped all together.

Monday evening, the 22nd, the contractions started up again; not too long after I had some Eggplant Parmesan for dinner (for the story behind that read Noah's birth story). At about 10pm I called Dinah, my midwife, to let her know that they were getting pretty consistent - about 6 minutes apart. After talking with her we decided that I would try and lay down and get some rest and see if they slowed down or progressed. I decided to go ahead and take a shower to try and relax. (I told hubby that he might want to go ahead and try and get some sleep just in case this little one decided to make his/her entrance later). After I got out of the shower I got a bag packed for the birthing center and a few last minute things ready for baby. I decided to lay down to try and get some rest. After about thirty minutes, my contractions started getting closer together and began to get more intense to where I was having to really concentrate and breath through them. My back was beginning to feel the brunt of them and it wasn't feeling good (I have back labor with most of my babies).

About 1:00am I called my midwife and gave her the update and we decided to go ahead and go in. Neither of us thought we were as close to delivery as we ended up being. As soon as I hung up with her, I had another contraction that I all the sudden felt as though I needed to "push through". They began to really hurt and I was beginning to have to groan through them. We rushed to the car and called my mother-in-law on the way out to let her know we were on our way to the birthing center. We had planned to just have her come over first thing in the morning so she would be there when the kids woke up, but she said she already had her bags packed and would go ahead and come over.

We got to the birthing center at around 1:30am. The whole way there, with each contraction, I was bearing down and groaning through them. We drove up and my Midwife and her assistant where there waiting for me. She was very surprised at the noised coming out of me as these were "pushing" noises. They helped me in and at 1:45am my water broke.

I had hoped for a tub birth, but this little one ended up kind of stuck behind my pelvic bone, so we had to move to a few different positions to get her around it, and the tub just wasn't conducive to the positions I needed to be in. I ended up birthing her on the bed, on my side. She came at 2:22am. What sweet relief! Another successful vbac!

It was a tad funny, however, as the whole time during the birth, we were referring to "her" as "he". Then when she came out they laid her on my stomach face down and I said has anyone turned "him" over to make sure he is actually a he? We did and low and behold "he" was a "she"!

The birth went just about as beautifully as it could. Afterwards, I did loose a little bit extra blood than normal with the after birth contractions. I ended up having an IV to pump back in some extra fluids and a shot to help with the blood loss, but other than that everything went wonderfully and we were home by 7:30 that morning!

Leah Marie was my biggest baby yet, weighing in at a whopping 10lbs 2oz and 21" long. With the exception of a tad bit of jaundice during her first week, she is perfectly healthy. From the first day we brought her home, she has been an excellent sleeper, sleeping anywhere from 4-6 hours between feedings at night!

We are enjoying welcoming little Leah into our family. Her brothers and sister love her to pieces.

She had her first outing to the zoo this past week and next Sunday she makes her first debut at church!

We are so thankful to the Father for His faithfulness during this pregnancy and birth. His timing was, of course, perfect. I pray we bring glory to Him as we raise this child to know and love Him just as we do.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com