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Our little girl, Lilah Jade, finally made her debut!  She was born on Feb 2nd (only 12 days past her due date -heh) and weighed in at an even 9lbs.   I know how much I love reading birth stories, so here's the story of Lilah's arrival:

I woke up with contractions in the wee hours of the morning on Feb 2nd, but wasn't sure if it was the real thing as I had experienced a false start the morning before! Turns out they were the real thing as they continued to get stronger and closer together throughout the morning. 

As this was my first, I assumed I'd be in early labour for quite some time, but by 9:30am my contractions were approaching the 5-1-1 stage and getting difficult to handle. Our doula arrived at our house  at around 10:00am to help us out. I continued to make good progress through the morning (the birthing tub was a god send) and my water broke at around noon.  

Unfortunately when the midwives arrived they discovered that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, which meant we'd have to transfer to the hospital for precautionary reasons (pediatrician needed to examine and aspirate the baby after she was born to clear the meconium from her lungs and make sure she was healthy) So we made the trek to the hospital while I was in transition  (8cm dilated when we left the house) good times! Luckily the hospital is only a 20 minute drive away.  But of course I had to be admitted and assessed before I could move upstairs to the comfy delivery suite.  Although the entire transfer probably took less than an hour, it felt like eons - haha.

We arrived in the delivery room at around 4:30pm and I laboured for another hour or so until I was given the go ahead to push.  Finally, it felt like i was able to DO something about getting my little girl out -instead of just trying to get through the contraction I could finally work with them-and boy was that a relief! And after 40 minutes of pushing, Lilah Jade made her entrance into the world.

 After a slight delay she let out a lusty cry, which meant we were able to have the delayed cord clamping we were hoping for.  She hung out on me until they cut the cord and then the pediatrician checked her out.  My husband stayed with her while they aspirated the meconium/amniotic fluid from her lungs.  She received a clean bill of health and he brought her back to me so we could all share some family bonding time.  

We went home that evening but ended up back at the hospital the next morning as Lilah's respiratory rate was a bit high and there was concern that it might be the sign of a brewing infection (risk factor when there is meconium in the amniotic fluid).  Since infants with infections can go downhill quicker than they can get blood cultures back to show if there actually is an infection, the pediatrician felt it was best to begin IV antibiotics for the next 48hrs.  Luckily the cultures came back negative and so after two nights in the hospital we were sent home.  And all has been great ever since!  She is the most wondrous little thing; i often catch myself staring at her while thinking - i cant believe we made this perfect little thing!  Heh

Picture to come!

And here's the pic: