On April 2nd (my due date), I started having contractions. I told Nathan he should probably not go to work (although I was unsure if what I was experiencing was indeed contractions). We spent the day taking walks through our neighborhood, hanging baby clothes, timing contractions, eating well (I wanted to have lots of energy for labor), taking final pictures of my big belly, and double-checking the suitcase.
The bookcase Nathan and his dad built:
Our first cloth diapers (Frank was helping):
A few hours after these pictures were taken, we headed to the hospital. My contractions had picked up to less than 5 minutes apart and I had a bit of nausea. When we arrived at the hospital, most of our family members were already there (crazy people!). I wouldn't be giving birth for another 8 hours or so. Before being admitted, I was checked in triage (only had to wait an hour or so for this, and of course I had to lie on a table the whole time) and was at 5 cm. I was checked into a room and met my nurse, Mary Lou. She was great, and honored my requests without question (no IV, minimal monitoring, not hanging out in the bed the whole time).
I spent all my time either in the tub or walking the corridor. Nathan spent his time rubbing my back, talking to me, walking with me, and cheering me on. I started to feel really hungry, so Nathan's parents tracked down some pretzels for me which turned out to be a bad idea. I got back to my room and was immediately nauseous. Everything was happening pretty fast at this point. The nurse monitored me and had me lay on my side in the bed (this is when I wanted to die). She called in the midwife who checked me. I was 10 cm, so she broke my water and I got out of the bed. I wanted to deliver vertically so gravity would work with me. I pushed for an hour (but it went really fast, despite the pain), and Nathan helped catch our baby. He handed her to me so he could cut the cord, then I got into the bed with her and was just in shock. I wanted to try to breastfeed right then, but her color was off and the nurses wanted to check her out. She was given oxygen, and Nathan and i just watched on. Eventually a NICU nurse was brought in and she tried to wean our baby off the oxygen so I could hold her again. This proved to not be successful. About 30 minutes after our baby was born, Nathan realized he hadn't taken any pictures yet.
Amelia Jane was born at 3:16 AM on April 3rd, 2008. She was 7 lbs, 12.2 oz, and 20.5 inches long.
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