A Birth Story

I find it incredibly hard to believe that it has already been a month since Anita was born.  As I think about this, and about how much she has changed already, I find myself thinking once again of the day she was born.

Josh had been hoping that Anita would be born on Sunday November 10th so that we'd have a really good excuse not to go to church.  No such luck, so off to church we went.  We spent much of the rest of the day baking and jokingly reading about how to get labor started.  That evening we curled up on the couch together and watched Shakespear in Love.  By the end I was having irregular contractions, and not paying any attention to them.  By 8:30 Josh started jokingly timing the contractions and they were actually quite consistently 9 minutes apart.  We decided to stick to one of our midwife's advice to deny as long as possible, so we took the dog out for a walk to try to settle the contractions down.  By the end of the walk, I was starting to accept that these were not just braxton hicks contractions cause they were getting stronger.  By 10:30 contractions were about 4 minutes apart so we called our parents to let them know we were pretty sure this was it.  We waited about another hour before paging our midwife.  She was just finishing up a c-section delivery and said she'd be there within the hour after getting something to eat.  When she arrived I was very pleased to discover that I was already in transition and everything was progressing really well.  Transition sucked, but it wasn't long before I was ready to push.  Our midwife at that point called for a second (that way once the baby is born there is one to look after the baby and another to look after mum).  After about an hour of pushing, at 3:18 am Anita May Vanderstelt was born, weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces and measuring 50 cm long.  Josh was by my side through the whole thing, and I definitely couldn't have done it without him.  Around 4:15 Josh called all the parents again to let them know Anita arrived safely and that we all were doing really well.  The midwives hung around until around 5:30 (or maybe a little later - I don't quite remember) by which point Anita and I had settled into our beds to try to get some rest.  We all slept for about an hour and then it was time to begin a new day.

If you read closely you will notice we never mentioned going to the hospital -- because we never did.  It was such a joy to have Anita born in the comforts of our own home (not to mention it was absolutely wonderful to labor and recover in the comfort and privacy of our own home).  It was a day (or perhaps more accurately a night) I will never forget.  Getting to meet Anita for the first time... smelling her little tiny head... holding her close...

And here we are, one month later, and I can hardly believe how much I love her, and how fast time flies.  She's awake much more than she was at first, and is gaining weight really well.  She has officially grown out of her newborn sleepers and has Josh and I both wrapped around her tiny little fingers.  I am treasuring every moment I have with her, and am looking forward to the years ahead of us that we will get to share.

Happy One Month Anita!!

 Anita at 3 days

 Anita at 1 month