Announcing. . .

.. . . our beautful, sweet, perfect little baby!!!!

Our newest wee baby-sprout was born on Thursday, after about 4 hours of
back labor. We are totally, blissfully in love.

What a completely fantastic birth experience! I can't believe I ended
up with another posterior baby. LOL. If you've got to do back labor,
though, short and sweet is the way to go.

I was having very irregular contractions all evening (one an hour,
etc.), and they slowly started to get closer together. We put Sproutkin
to bed, and I tried to sleep between them, and took two or three hot
showers. I started timing them at 10 minutes apart, and when they were
5 minutes apart (and at that point very painful, with that familiar fire
in the back that didn't go away between contractions -- ugh!), we left.
We dropped sleeping Sproutkin off at my mom's house, and were off to
the birth center.

When we arrived, I was checked at 4 cm. "Disappointed" doesn't even
begin to describe the despair I felt to hear that. The whole hellish
labor I had experienced with Sproutkin seemed to be repeating itself,
and I knew that, at least in her case, I would still have an endlessly
long night of impossible pain ahead of me. I couldn't have been more
wrong! A (quite intense) 40 minutes later, I was almost completely
dilated. I couldn't believe it. The midwife reached in to hold back
the last lip of cervix, and with that huge, gut-churning THA-LUMP, I
felt the baby turn around. She smiled and said, "You're complete."

I said I wanted to get into the birth pool -- and ahhhhhh, the hot water
felt wonderful. My body did that 10 minute "rest" period before the
pushing contractions started. It was a sudden moment of peace and
stillness -- the candles flickering, me completely relaxing in the
water, with my head on DH's shoulders. The midwife took some beautiful
pictures of that moment. Then UNGH! I'd forgotten what hard work
pushing is. I spent 10 minutes pushing in the birth pool, decided I
wanted to get out (and the midwife said I had a better chance of not
tearing if I were side-lying where she could help support things with
her hands), so we went over to the bed. I spent another 10 minutes
pushing on the bed. DH and I reached down and "caught" her, and brought
her up to my chest. And --


It's a GIRL! A perfect, tiny, shell-pink little daughter. I was
laughing and crying both; I could not believe it was over.

Everything after that was so gentle -- no suctioning, no poking at the
baby at all. The midwife put a warm blanket over us, and retreated into
the corner, taking some pictures. We held her and stared at her, and I
got her latched on right away. After about 20 minutes, the cord stopped
pulsing. DH cut it, and a few minutes later I felt my last contraction,
and delivered the placenta. We scooted up to the head of the bed,
cuddled up together with the baby in our arms, and the midwife left the
room. We stared at her, she stared at us. We named her. I was still
in shock that it was over, and was feeling the rush of exhileration and
birth high coursing through my system.

Baby Elizabeth was born at five o'clock on Thursday morning, weighing
just over 6.5 pounds and just over 19 inches (almost exactly her
sister's stats), with Apgars of 9 and 9, and just as beautiful as could be.

After 20 minutes, the midwife came back and did the newborn exam --
weighed and measured her, put a diaper on, gave us the eye goop waiver
to sign, and prepared the Vitamin K shot. I asked if we could do it
while nursing, so we got her latched on and then did the shot. That was
the first time we heard her cry: an indignant wail, and then right back
to nursing. She must have spent 3 of her first 4 hours on earth nursing
-- she was born with two little sucking blisters on her wrists, so I'm
thinking she's going to be quite the comfort nurser.

DH was exhausted from being up all night, and baby Elizabeth was content
to nursenursenurse. The midwife turned out all the lights and left us
to get a couple hours of sleep before discharging us (she said we could
leave after 4 hours, rather than the standard 6, if we wanted -- which
we did). I felt EXCITED and happy and energetic and like I could scale
a mountain! LOL. DH slept, the baby nursed and then fell asleep, and I
drank some juice and stared at her. It was dark except for the candles
in the room, and once again time slowed down and imprinted that moment
of total peace and stillness onto my brain.

I feel great! Wow, what a difference between the four stitches I had
with Sproutkin and an intact perineum. I remember at this point last
time I was easing myself out of bed, using a peri-bottle to pee, and
generally moving around slowly and feeling pretty ouchy. I can't
believe how normal I feel already, energy and everything else.
Sproutkin is doing well with the transition (she really wants to be
touching and holding and helping, *all* the time). She fell asleep last
night across my lap, as I patted her back and nursed the baby in my
other arm, and she said sleepily, reaching out to touch the baby's hand,
"Dis... is... my... sister." DH is spending a lot of time with her,
going to the playground or the ice cream store or the grocery store or
the mall, and all in all, she's adjusting well. I know, I know --
newborn is the easy part, it's when the baby starts getting into her stuff!

Such a wonderful birth. Thank you, everyone, for your support and
encouragement over the last nine months! Maybe next time I'll get that
anterior baby, eh?

Mary S.
mommy to two beautiful girls

Mary S. wrote:

. . . our beautful, sweet, perfect little baby!!!!



Oh, wonderful! And she has one of my favorite names.
How big? Congrats on your lovely birth and sweet girl.
(We love having two girls!)

Mary W.

congrats!

Mary W. wrote:



Mary S. wrote:

. . . our beautful, sweet, perfect little baby!!!!



Oh, wonderful! And she has one of my favorite names.
How big? Congrats on your lovely birth and sweet girl.
(We love having two girls!)

Mary W.

: Baby Elizabeth was born at five o'clock on Thursday morning, weighing
: just over 6.5 pounds and just over 19 inches (almost exactly her
: sister's stats), with Apgars of 9 and 9, and just as beautiful as could
be.

Congratulations!! What a fantastic birth experience!!

: I feel great! Wow, what a difference between the four stitches I had
: with Sproutkin and an intact perineum. I remember at this point last
: time I was easing myself out of bed, using a peri-bottle to pee, and
: generally moving around slowly and feeling pretty ouchy. I can't
: believe how normal I feel already, energy and everything else.
: Sproutkin is doing well with the transition (she really wants to be
: touching and holding and helping, *all* the time). She fell asleep last
: night across my lap, as I patted her back and nursed the baby in my
: other arm, and she said sleepily, reaching out to touch the baby's hand,
: "Dis... is... my... sister." DH is spending a lot of time with her,
: going to the playground or the ice cream store or the grocery store or
: the mall, and all in all, she's adjusting well. I know, I know --
: newborn is the easy part, it's when the baby starts getting into her
stuff!

Wow, I feel like I was there with you. You are blessed!!! Congrats again!

Pics, please!!

:
: Such a wonderful birth. Thank you, everyone, for your support and
: encouragement over the last nine months! Maybe next time I'll get that
: anterior baby, eh?
:
: Mary S.
: mommy to two beautiful girls

~Carol Ann
Mom to Morgan born 3.24.04
http://tinyurl.com/4xfpw ~ September Pics
:

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 12:24:23 -0400, "Mary S."
wrote:

. . . our beautful, sweet, perfect little baby!!!!

Our newest wee baby-sprout was born on Thursday, after about 4 hours of
back labor. We are totally, blissfully in love.

Wow! Congratulations!

I can't quite believe it's been nine months!
--
Linz
YB: 9.5 months, 9.4kgs - 20lbs 12oz, 71cm

"Mary S." wrote in message
...
. . . our beautful, sweet, perfect little baby!!!!

Our newest wee baby-sprout was born on Thursday, after about 4 hours of
back labor. We are totally, blissfully in love.

Oh Mary, how sweet. Congratulations! I'm so glad you have another little
girl, and that the birth sounds like it was wonderful (back labor aside).

Nancy

Congratulations, and what a beautiful name.

Zannah.

In article , "Mary S."
wrote:

. . . our beautful, sweet, perfect little baby!!!!

Our newest wee baby-sprout was born on Thursday, after about 4 hours of
back labor. We are totally, blissfully in love.

What a completely fantastic birth experience! I can't believe I ended
up with another posterior baby. LOL. If you've got to do back labor,
though, short and sweet is the way to go.

I was having very irregular contractions all evening (one an hour,
etc.), and they slowly started to get closer together. We put Sproutkin
to bed, and I tried to sleep between them, and took two or three hot
showers. I started timing them at 10 minutes apart, and when they were
5 minutes apart (and at that point very painful, with that familiar fire
in the back that didn't go away between contractions -- ugh!), we left.
We dropped sleeping Sproutkin off at my mom's house, and were off to
the birth center.

When we arrived, I was checked at 4 cm. "Disappointed" doesn't even
begin to describe the despair I felt to hear that. The whole hellish
labor I had experienced with Sproutkin seemed to be repeating itself,
and I knew that, at least in her case, I would still have an endlessly
long night of impossible pain ahead of me. I couldn't have been more
wrong! A (quite intense) 40 minutes later, I was almost completely
dilated. I couldn't believe it. The midwife reached in to hold back
the last lip of cervix, and with that huge, gut-churning THA-LUMP, I
felt the baby turn around. She smiled and said, "You're complete."

I said I wanted to get into the birth pool -- and ahhhhhh, the hot water
felt wonderful. My body did that 10 minute "rest" period before the
pushing contractions started. It was a sudden moment of peace and
stillness -- the candles flickering, me completely relaxing in the
water, with my head on DH's shoulders. The midwife took some beautiful
pictures of that moment. Then UNGH! I'd forgotten what hard work
pushing is. I spent 10 minutes pushing in the birth pool, decided I
wanted to get out (and the midwife said I had a better chance of not
tearing if I were side-lying where she could help support things with
her hands), so we went over to the bed. I spent another 10 minutes
pushing on the bed. DH and I reached down and "caught" her, and brought
her up to my chest. And --


It's a GIRL! A perfect, tiny, shell-pink little daughter. I was
laughing and crying both; I could not believe it was over.

Everything after that was so gentle -- no suctioning, no poking at the
baby at all. The midwife put a warm blanket over us, and retreated into
the corner, taking some pictures. We held her and stared at her, and I
got her latched on right away. After about 20 minutes, the cord stopped
pulsing. DH cut it, and a few minutes later I felt my last contraction,
and delivered the placenta. We scooted up to the head of the bed,
cuddled up together with the baby in our arms, and the midwife left the
room. We stared at her, she stared at us. We named her. I was still
in shock that it was over, and was feeling the rush of exhileration and
birth high coursing through my system.

Baby Elizabeth was born at five o'clock on Thursday morning, weighing
just over 6.5 pounds and just over 19 inches (almost exactly her
sister's stats), with Apgars of 9 and 9, and just as beautiful as could be.

After 20 minutes, the midwife came back and did the newborn exam --
weighed and measured her, put a diaper on, gave us the eye goop waiver
to sign, and prepared the Vitamin K shot. I asked if we could do it
while nursing, so we got her latched on and then did the shot. That was
the first time we heard her cry: an indignant wail, and then right back
to nursing. She must have spent 3 of her first 4 hours on earth nursing
-- she was born with two little sucking blisters on her wrists, so I'm
thinking she's going to be quite the comfort nurser.

DH was exhausted from being up all night, and baby Elizabeth was content
to nursenursenurse. The midwife turned out all the lights and left us
to get a couple hours of sleep before discharging us (she said we could
leave after 4 hours, rather than the standard 6, if we wanted -- which
we did). I felt EXCITED and happy and energetic and like I could scale
a mountain! LOL. DH slept, the baby nursed and then fell asleep, and I
drank some juice and stared at her. It was dark except for the candles
in the room, and once again time slowed down and imprinted that moment
of total peace and stillness onto my brain.

I feel great! Wow, what a difference between the four stitches I had
with Sproutkin and an intact perineum. I remember at this point last
time I was easing myself out of bed, using a peri-bottle to pee, and
generally moving around slowly and feeling pretty ouchy. I can't
believe how normal I feel already, energy and everything else.
Sproutkin is doing well with the transition (she really wants to be
touching and holding and helping, *all* the time). She fell asleep last
night across my lap, as I patted her back and nursed the baby in my
other arm, and she said sleepily, reaching out to touch the baby's hand,
"Dis... is... my... sister." DH is spending a lot of time with her,
going to the playground or the ice cream store or the grocery store or
the mall, and all in all, she's adjusting well. I know, I know --
newborn is the easy part, it's when the baby starts getting into her stuff!

Such a wonderful birth. Thank you, everyone, for your support and
encouragement over the last nine months! Maybe next time I'll get that
anterior baby, eh?

Mary S.
mommy to two beautiful girls

"Mary S." wrote in message
...
. . . our beautful, sweet, perfect little baby!!!!

Our newest wee baby-sprout was born on Thursday, after about 4 hours of
back labor. We are totally, blissfully in love.


Congrats!!

Denise

Congrats! What a wonderful birth story, I'm glad things went differently
this time :-)
Intact perineums are great, huh? ;-)

--
Amy,
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04


"Mary S." wrote in message
...
. . . our beautful, sweet, perfect little baby!!!!

Our newest wee baby-sprout was born on Thursday, after about 4 hours of
back labor. We are totally, blissfully in love.

What a completely fantastic birth experience! I can't believe I ended
up with another posterior baby. LOL. If you've got to do back labor,
though, short and sweet is the way to go.

I was having very irregular contractions all evening (one an hour,
etc.), and they slowly started to get closer together. We put Sproutkin
to bed, and I tried to sleep between them, and took two or three hot
showers. I started timing them at 10 minutes apart, and when they were
5 minutes apart (and at that point very painful, with that familiar fire
in the back that didn't go away between contractions -- ugh!), we left.
We dropped sleeping Sproutkin off at my mom's house, and were off to
the birth center.

When we arrived, I was checked at 4 cm. "Disappointed" doesn't even
begin to describe the despair I felt to hear that. The whole hellish
labor I had experienced with Sproutkin seemed to be repeating itself,
and I knew that, at least in her case, I would still have an endlessly
long night of impossible pain ahead of me. I couldn't have been more
wrong! A (quite intense) 40 minutes later, I was almost completely
dilated. I couldn't believe it. The midwife reached in to hold back
the last lip of cervix, and with that huge, gut-churning THA-LUMP, I
felt the baby turn around. She smiled and said, "You're complete."

I said I wanted to get into the birth pool -- and ahhhhhh, the hot water
felt wonderful. My body did that 10 minute "rest" period before the
pushing contractions started. It was a sudden moment of peace and
stillness -- the candles flickering, me completely relaxing in the
water, with my head on DH's shoulders. The midwife took some beautiful
pictures of that moment. Then UNGH! I'd forgotten what hard work
pushing is. I spent 10 minutes pushing in the birth pool, decided I
wanted to get out (and the midwife said I had a better chance of not
tearing if I were side-lying where she could help support things with
her hands), so we went over to the bed. I spent another 10 minutes
pushing on the bed. DH and I reached down and "caught" her, and brought
her up to my chest. And --


It's a GIRL! A perfect, tiny, shell-pink little daughter. I was
laughing and crying both; I could not believe it was over.

Everything after that was so gentle -- no suctioning, no poking at the
baby at all. The midwife put a warm blanket over us, and retreated into
the corner, taking some pictures. We held her and stared at her, and I
got her latched on right away. After about 20 minutes, the cord stopped
pulsing. DH cut it, and a few minutes later I felt my last contraction,
and delivered the placenta. We scooted up to the head of the bed,
cuddled up together with the baby in our arms, and the midwife left the
room. We stared at her, she stared at us. We named her. I was still
in shock that it was over, and was feeling the rush of exhileration and
birth high coursing through my system.

Baby Elizabeth was born at five o'clock on Thursday morning, weighing
just over 6.5 pounds and just over 19 inches (almost exactly her
sister's stats), with Apgars of 9 and 9, and just as beautiful as could
be.

After 20 minutes, the midwife came back and did the newborn exam --
weighed and measured her, put a diaper on, gave us the eye goop waiver
to sign, and prepared the Vitamin K shot. I asked if we could do it
while nursing, so we got her latched on and then did the shot. That was
the first time we heard her cry: an indignant wail, and then right back
to nursing. She must have spent 3 of her first 4 hours on earth nursing
-- she was born with two little sucking blisters on her wrists, so I'm
thinking she's going to be quite the comfort nurser.

DH was exhausted from being up all night, and baby Elizabeth was content
to nursenursenurse. The midwife turned out all the lights and left us
to get a couple hours of sleep before discharging us (she said we could
leave after 4 hours, rather than the standard 6, if we wanted -- which
we did). I felt EXCITED and happy and energetic and like I could scale
a mountain! LOL. DH slept, the baby nursed and then fell asleep, and I
drank some juice and stared at her. It was dark except for the candles
in the room, and once again time slowed down and imprinted that moment
of total peace and stillness onto my brain.

I feel great! Wow, what a difference between the four stitches I had
with Sproutkin and an intact perineum. I remember at this point last
time I was easing myself out of bed, using a peri-bottle to pee, and
generally moving around slowly and feeling pretty ouchy. I can't
believe how normal I feel already, energy and everything else.
Sproutkin is doing well with the transition (she really wants to be
touching and holding and helping, *all* the time). She fell asleep last
night across my lap, as I patted her back and nursed the baby in my
other arm, and she said sleepily, reaching out to touch the baby's hand,
"Dis... is... my... sister." DH is spending a lot of time with her,
going to the playground or the ice cream store or the grocery store or
the mall, and all in all, she's adjusting well. I know, I know --
newborn is the easy part, it's when the baby starts getting into her
stuff!

Such a wonderful birth. Thank you, everyone, for your support and
encouragement over the last nine months! Maybe next time I'll get that
anterior baby, eh?

Mary S.
mommy to two beautiful girls

Mary S. wrote:

I can't believe I ended
up with another posterior baby.

Bummer!

When we arrived, I was checked at 4 cm. "Disappointed" doesn't even
begin to describe the despair I felt to hear that.

I can completely relate--I felt the same way with
number two when I was feeling pushy and the midwife said
I was only at 7cm. Previously that had been the case with
hours to go, but that time it was only a few minutes.

It's a GIRL! A perfect, tiny, shell-pink little daughter. I was
laughing and crying both; I could not believe it was over.

Wooo hoooo!

Baby Elizabeth was born at five o'clock on Thursday morning, weighing
just over 6.5 pounds and just over 19 inches (almost exactly her
sister's stats),

My goodness, what a tiny little thing.


I feel great! Wow, what a difference between the four stitches I had
with Sproutkin and an intact perineum.

Yeah, isn't short labor, intact perineum, and second
baby so much easier? Thank goodness! I'm so glad everything
went so well for you. Now, once you get back around here,
I expect to work out some sort of visitation!

Take care,
Ericka