Number 5

So as with all things lately, I am running behind on updating my blog. :-p My purpose for this blog was to remember the precious things the kids say/do and to update the family who doesn't live close by.  One of those precious memories I want to record is the birth of our kids.  So here goes for number 5:

Miss Alice was due Oct. 14.  My children have a habit of being early or late but never on time.  (Never mind that it is THEIR time, lol.)  She chose the 18th as her day.  I awoke a little before 7a.m. needing to use the toilet and feeling a little funny.  As has happened with each of my other labors, I went into denial and decided this wasn't really labor starting, so I went back to bed.  After a few minutes of trying to ignore things and trying to go back to sleep, I figured I had better wake Ben up and let him know that I "might" be in labor.  He had me call our midwife Paula to give her a head's up.  We started to get the bed ready and he started breakfast for the kids.  By this time, it was obvious even to me that I was really in labor, and we would be welcoming a baby soon.

Paula arrived and the kids were so overjoyed to have her visiting, lol.  Belle, who was working with Paula, came by soon after as well.  Peter loves to tease people by changing their names, and he called Belle the "other Paula" the entire time she was there.  Both midwives were fantastic, letting Ben and me hang out together while they visited with the kids.  The children LOVED it. :-)

I spent most of my time laboring sitting on the toilet as that felt most comfortable to me.  At one point I had crawled into bed but went back to the toilet soon after.  One of the most bizarre experiences was feeling the baby moving all through the labor.  I could feel her kicking and turning, and I had never felt that with any of the others.  I also never got the urge to push.  Ben was (and always has been) very good at talking me through contractions.  I felt the need to get up and lie down one more time.  As I stood up, my water broke and Alice was on her way out!  As I heard later, Paula had been waiting to catch and didn't even have time to get her other glove on it all happened so quick.  This was the first time I have ever birthed while standing!

The kids had asked if they could see their sister be born.  We didn't have a problem with that, but let it be their choice.  Samuel got a little squeamish and didn't wait around too long.  The other three stayed close by, and I could hear their play by play as they watched their new sister make her arrival.  Alice Rosalina made her entrance a little before 11:30.  She was our heaviest baby at 8lb 8oz.  From the very beginning she has had us all wrapped around her tiny, chubby little finger.