As many of you may know by now, I'm officially a mother. My daughter (beautiful and perfect in every way of course) was born 9/9/05 at 1:48pm.

It was absolutely nothing like what I had imagined or planned on. For months (well, really years. I've been lucky enough to witness four births) I've had in mind what I wanted for the Birth Experience. As I wasn't going to be able to deliver at home or a birthing center (I've seen too many complications from the first and there really isn't any of the latter around here) I wanted the hospital to be as warm and homelike as possible. I'd have my nearest and dearest around me. There would be no pain medication, no watching of the monitor to see the contractions coming, no IV drip, no pain scale. I'd be able to move about freely with my husband by my side. My baby would come into the world surrounded my peace, tranquiltiy and love.

One out of three isn't so bad...

Obviously, that's not what happened. And all of my friends who have children already knew that. sheesh.

I went to my regular appt last thursday expecting (hoping) to be told that I was fairly well on my road to labor and delivery (as my due date was only two days away). Instead, I was told that while baby and I were ready, my cervix wasn't being cooperative at all. Add to that the fact that my blood pressure was a bit elevated and my midwife was a bit concerned. After a brief consulation with the OB, it was decided that in order to minimize potential risks to the baby (and me) and to ensure the fewest medical interventions possible, I would go into the hospital and be induced. I took a deep breath, accepted this change to my plan and asked when (figuring I'd have time to go home, shower, clean the house up a bit and tie up any loose ends). The answer? Right now. I left the office, went downstairs called E- to tell him parenthood was imminent, work to tell them I wasn't coming back and then walked across the street to the hospital.

A few weeks ago, I realized (after much discussion with E- and my midwife) that I was possibly going to have to let a lot of my Birth Plan go. I was going to need to be flexible in case of any possible outcomes. And I'm soooo happy I started to open myself up to other possibilities.

I'll skip a lot of the guts and gore. Suffice it to say, just as my midwife predicted, once I was actually in labor, my body was good to go. I was only in active labor for 4 hours and pushing for about 15-20 minutes. And while many people say that was pretty cool and I was lucky it was short, the fact of the matter was that it was so short that I was in *lots* of pain (technical note: I went from 5 centimeters dilated to 10 in one hour. Something that was expected to take about 5 hours). There was absolutely no time for an epidural even if I had decided I wanted one. At the point that everyone expected me to be only 6 cm dilated, I was in such pain that I honestly didn't know how I was going to make it through four more hours. I gave in and asked for Nubane to "take the edge off" as they say. And I wish I hadn't. Because 2 contractions later, I was ready to push (an annoucement that made my nurse pale, apparantly). All the nubane did was make the first few hours after delivery into a bit of a drugged haze. But hey, live and learn.

So, I was confined to bed, internal monitors were utilized (cause my daughter was too squirmy to get accurate reads otherwise), I had a bit of meds and though I didn't have an episiotemy, she was born so fast that I need a few stitches on either side.

And with all that, it was absolutely perfect.

D- was born with a full head of light brown (almost blond!) hair, enormous dark blue eyes, ten fingers, ten really really long toes and is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. Not that I'm biased or anything.

E- and I just can't stop looking at her, amazed at what we created. It's been a rough couple of days for me as the I have hit the Can't Stop Crying For No Good Reason phase of post-partum. But I hear tell that's normal. Otherwise, things are well. I'll post more as time allows.