Kalei

  She is here! She made her debut at 1:02 am on Tuesday August 10th 2010. I'll now give the disclaimer; this is a birth story, if you happen to be squeamish, do not proceed!

  For the last few weeks I have been more than ready for this day. Mom arrived on Friday so we were anxious to get this show on the road so I could take full advantage of having a little extra help.
  Monday was my appointment with Rebecca (my wonderful midwife), we went in at 11:00 am and I expressed my desire to get things started, we discussed some options that might safely get things moving provided Kalei was actually done cooking. We decided on a mixture of blue and black cohosh, and what a handy little concoction that turned out to be. It is an herb that basically invites the baby to come, it will bring on contractions and if you are ready to deliver, the contractions will continue once the herb wears off, if not, they will simply stop. Luckily for me, we were indeed ready. The contractions started around noon and continued through the evening. At about 6:00 pm I called Rebecca to see if this could be for real, she told me it probably was, I called Russ and told him he'd probably need to come home from work, by 7:00, I insisted that he come home. I labored at home with the support of Russ and my mom and Grandma Cindy came over and played with the kids and took pictures. I had Rebecca come over around 11:00 pm, we monitored her heart rate and she seemed to be dropping farther down with every contraction. Taevin and Ryler were having a great time helping to fill the inflatable tub but we finally got them into bed a little after eleven. I climbed into the tub and we waited... and waited... and waited, all the while the contractions getting much more intense, every time one would hit, I would grab onto Russ and try to breathe my way through it. I was exhausted and felt like this would never end, in fact, for the last 30 minutes or so I would cry during these contractions, I was convinced that she was never coming, and assured Russ that we were definitely done having kids. I've learned that there's a good reason they call it "labor". I finally felt somewhat of an urge to push, so I did and little by little, she moved. I reached down and felt the bag of water that hadn't broken yet, there was so much pressure that I was practically begging Rebecca to break it, I gave one more big push and felt a pop, finally it was broken, aaah, the relief! I reached down again and felt her head, a couple more good pushes and I felt what has appropriately been named "the ring of fire", her head came out, everyone was telling me that we were almost there, my head was spinning at this point and all I could think of was getting her out, one more good push and it was a done deal, I reached down and grabbed her and pulled her up to me.
  I remember Russ saying "she's so cute, you did it!" She didn't cry right away but Rebecca could tell that she was breathing given that the cord was still pulsing, we sat in the tub and cuddled for a while, I was exhausted but triumphant. We tried to wake up Taevin to meet his little sister, but to no avail, he was oblivious despite his insistence on being woken up for the big moment, so we sent him back to bed. Grandma Shaffer cut the cord and I gave her to her daddy, I took a quick rinse in the shower and delivered the placenta then climbed into bed.
  Rebecca didn't want to leave but she had another patient in labor so I insisted that she go. She came back in the morning to follow up.
  Kalei fed well and is determined to continue to do so, and as she should given her whole 5 lbs 14 oz birth weight!
  We are so grateful to have had such a wonderful birth experience and a beautiful daughter to show for it, and I must say that I couldn't have done it without Russ, he was there with me every step of the way. Our family is complete and we are thrilled!