The Birth Story and More Pictures

She always keeps her hands up by her head

I had a baby shower on Tuesday that some of my friends put on. We played some games and ate some good food. :) We got lots of cute clothes, toys and other supplies. It was fun getting together for my last night with all the girls (though I had no idea at the time). I went to the midwife earlier that day and she said I was already dilated 2 centimeters, but I didn't think much of it because I hadn't been having any contractions.

Early the next morning I began to start feeling a few light contractions but it mas nothing major. I went to institute and then picked Cisco up later from class. By 10:30 AM my contractions were coming every 7-8 minutes, so I called the midwife just to let her know. She told me to give her a call back in a few hours to see how I felt then. I was going to wait that long but by 11:30 they were every 5 minutes and getting more intense so I called her again and she said she would come over. She showed up around 12 PM with her two assistants and checked in with the baby and I.

After that we got settled in and the contractions got more intense and closer together. After a few hours, I was getting pretty tired so I asked her to check me and I was already dilated 8 centimeters. It was a relief to know that I was actually progressing and getting pretty close. I spent a lot of time in a birthing tub that we had set up and some time out of the tub around the house, wherever it felt comfortable.

The birth went pretty quickly and well, and after not too much pushing she was born at 4:14 PM! It was a lot of hard work but so worth it! It was so nice to have her born at home. We all felt really comfortable and the midwives let me do what I wanted as far as walking, kneeling etc. which was great. They also didn't mess with her and just let me hold her right after she was born. I got to take a bath with her and clean her off. She loved that. After the midwife left, it was nice to be able to get into our own bed and spend our first night with just us and Emery.

Here are some more pictures of our little Emery Cassandra (We picked her middle name today).

Sleeping with Daddy

Her favorite thing to do- (besides eating)