Rex & Cristina : April 2014

I woke up at 2am with contractions 20 minutes apart. Around 4am I texted my midwife and she said to take a warm bath and call her when they were 10 minutes apart. I took this picture, my last belly picture, right before I got into the shower.

I layed in the bathtub with the shower running and tried to relax and sleep. Two hours later I got out and let Rex know it was time to go. Rex finally went and installed the car seat (I had been asking him to do it for weeks but of course he waited until the last minute and did it wrong, he put it behind the drivers seat, it should go in the middle) while I got dressed and grabbed everything I would need. My contractions were now 6 minutes apart and getting extremely painful. Rex walked the dogs then we were off to the birthing center.

We got to the birthing center around 10am. They took me to a room and checked my cervix. I was 7 cm and in the most pain I've ever felt. Hence, the ugly face.

Giving the thumbs up between contractions.

And back to being in extreme pain.

We got into the blue room around 10:30. My mom, sister, dad, and paternal grandmother were all there in the room with me while I labored. They kept me talking between contractions which I think really helped me. The nurse I had was awesome. She would put pressure on my back during contractions and helped me breathe through the pain. She kept saying, "don't fight it! Your body's doing it's job. Just relax and breathe!"

Around 1pm my midwife came and checked me. I was almost at 10cm. While she was checking my water broke. She said it happened on its own but I think she broke it. Once I got to 10cm it was time to start pushing.

At 1:45pm my 7 lbs, 2 oz, 19.75 in. beautiful baby girl made her earth side appearance. It was amazing!! She was so beautiful!