Welcome Germain #10!

Adara Josephine arrived on September 29th! All children are completely in love with their new sister... in fact it's a good thing she needs me for her nutritional needs or I might not get to hold her! She's a super easy going baby thus far, even handling her first cold without too much fussiness! She comes to work with me and even has her own bed in the midwives office. All the staff thinks she sleeps too much cause they never get to hold her! I haven't yet gone to a birth since she arrived, but Tonia is anxious for me to... cause she gets to come and babysit. :) Anyway, all is well here... we are recovering from colds and some sort of flu bug, but hopefully it's passed completely now...

And for my midwife friends... here's the quickie version of the birth story.

I started contractions that were more serious around 3 am on the 29th... I hadn't slept pretty much at all that night, so I wasn't really 'in the mood' to be laboring! lol... By 5am I was tired and I sat on the toilet and told God I was just too tired to deal with being in labor and could I please sleep! Amazingly contractions stopped and I was able to get about an hour and a half of sleep before I needed to get up for work. I headed to work with contractions coming intermittently throughout the morning. By lunch my boss insisted on a prenatal that day (and when she insists...) I was 4 centimeters at that point. By 5pm I was definitely tensing up to try to hold the contractions at bay... thus making my back feel horrible. I headed home to try to nap before things kicked into high gear. But having a houseful of kiddos and all the hubbub around dinner and getting them ready for bed wasn't quite condusive to sleeping! By then the contractions were coming every 3-4 minutes, but not really that painful. My boss (and my midwife) had decided that the baby was going to make her appearance that night and so she didn't head home, instead she went grocery shopping for us and supplied us with a bunch of dinner stuff for after the baby was born.

We finally headed into the clinic around 9ish... I got into the tub, but my contractions pretty much stopped, so I got into the rocking chair for awhile. Around 9:40 I was laying down and things finally started to hurt a lot more so I got in the tub again. My back was hurting a lot, but there wasn't that cervical pressure (meaning the baby was still high). I figured by this point I was at least 6cm and we could do AROM (break my water) to speed things along. However when I was checked at 10pm... I was still only 4 cm... (I pretty sure I thought not nice words at this point, but just said 'lovely' and turned my back to everyone)... My midwife suggested I get in the shower and hold my belly up as I had a contractions... that along with some lunges immediately brought her down... and I had the "I need to poop" feeling! I sat on the toilet and told Joe to go away cause I couldn't 'go' with him in the room... With one push I realized something was coming out... I reached down and felt the bag of waters coming out... Joe quickly went and got my boss and the apprentice. I remember her saying "oh.... so we're going to do a toilet birth are we"... and I knew she really didn't want to (cause no midwife really likes the bathroom births... messy!) When on the next push the water didn't break she asked if I would like to move to the bed... (heck NO!)... but I moved... On the next contraction the apprentice did AROM and I really really wanted off my back, but I couldn't get two sentences together so I figured the only way to end the back pain was to get the baby out! By two more pushes out came the head... I waited for the body... but nothing! Seriously, I haven't pushed any of my baby's body's out... they always just slid out! So I pushed again and out she came! (Joe caught her)..They held her up for me to see the sex, but I couldn't see! All I heard was my boss say... "guess I was wrong"... and I knew she was a girl! (She was positive we were having a boy). We had decided beforehand to use 'active management' w/ a shot of pitocin since I had had a couple hemorrhages in the past. I will just mention that pit shots suck, but they work... out popped the placenta on the next contraction and very minimal bleeding... no tear and we were settled in for the night within a couple hours. So... from when I was checked at 10pm till baby out... 48 minutes! They told me the next morning I was actually only 7 when the apprentice did AROM... 81/2 w/ the next push and then baby out with the next... my boss said it's a good thing that my body cooperates since I'm not patient! hmmm... (I could argue that she never TOLD me I wasn't complete, but... whatever!)

So... anyway... our biggest baby yet arrived safe and sound! The kiddos came the next morning and met her before we headed home as a family.

So that's it!