Technical Difficulties

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't been updating recently. I've been having technical difficulties getting pictures to upload. I'm going to try uploading some at my friend, Melissa's, house.....she's got high speed internet, much better than my slow dial-up.....stay tuned!

Alayna's First Doctor's Appt.

Today we took 5-day-old Alayna to her Pediatrican for a checkup. As you know, she weighed 7 lb. 1 oz. at birth. Just before leaving the hospital, she weighed in at 6 lb. 12 oz., which is completely normal to lose a little weight in those first few days. They say they like them to gain it back within about two weeks. Well, today, 2 days after she was weighed at the hospital, she weighed in at 7 lb. 2.5 oz.....so she gained her weight back plus an ounce and a half in two days!!!! Alayna is officially a Mama's Milk Junkie! By the way, today is my due date.....feels very weird.

Alayna 3 days old

Alayna and her Mommy

Alayna with her big brother Gavin

Alayna 5 Days Old

Alayna Patricia Harris is HERE!!!

I did it! After a very long, hard 21-hour labor, Alayna Patricia Harris entered the world at 11:01 p.m. on Sunday, June 4, 2006, a successful VBAC natural delivery. If anyone would have told me before everything started that I'd labor drug-free for that long, I would have told them they were nuts! In fact, I came SO close to completely giving up and begging for an epidural, but timing is indeed perfect and right at that moment my good friend Melissa came to my aid and coached me through most of my contractions for the final 8 hours. Ok, so details (warning, these are the GRAPHIC details, if that bothers you, you might want to consider just not reading much further): Around 1:30 in the wee hours of Sunday morning I woke up for one of my many bathroom trips. I noticed I was having some light contractions, but I had been having those in the middle of the night for several nights leading up to that one, so I really didn't think it was a big deal. I went back to bed and laid their until about 2 a.m. when I felt my water breaking. I bolted to the bathroom and realized that, yes, this was it! I woke up Chad and started timing the contractions. They were VERY mild.....I'd describe them as mild annoyances, not even painful at all. However, they were coming every 4 to 5 minutes which made us feel a bit conflicted. Chad wanted to go right to the hospital, I wanted to stay home for awhile. So, I called my doctor to let her know and see what she thought we should do. She said if I wanted to stay home for a couple more hours, that would be fine. So, we called our doula, Shari, and she came over shortly thereafter. I woke Mom up (yes, she had JUST arrived from Michigan the day before!) and we all sat out in the living room waiting for things to progress. Around 4:30 or so I realized that the intesity of the contractions was picking up and I was ready to go to the hospital. I had hoped that I'd be dilated to maybe 3 or 4. I was a little disappointed that I was only at 2 cm. Every couple of hours I was checked and it seemed like 1 cm was added each time. That got VERY frustrating. I had hoped things would move along more quickly. I definitely began to give up and became very fearful of each contraction. My contractions began to slow in both frequency and strength and my desire to "speed things up" was basically non-existant. That's when Melissa (my angel) walked in. All I remember is seeing her walk toward me, look me in the eye and say "you are such a strong woman...you can do this!" I felt like she carried me through most of my remaining contractions. I don't know how she did it, but she knew exactly what I needed to hear to get through each and every contraction. After what seemed like forever, the nurse told me that I was complete (10 cm!) and could begin pushing. I pushed through a couple of contractions and then was told the bad news. I had some sort of "lip" on my cervix that was preventing me from being able to push effectively. She wanted me to breathe through some more contractions. I swear that was the hardest thing ever.....my body was saying PUSH and I had to do quick breaths to prevent it from pushing uncontrollably. For quite some time (I still don't even know how much actual time it was) all I heard was "you're at 10, no you're at 9, no you've got a lip, ok, you're complete, no you're at 8, no you're at 10 you can push, no you've got this lip, we have to wait." I wanted to yell "please God let my cervix stay open" (in fact, I probably DID yell that!) FINALLY, I got to push consistently. By this time I was SO SO SO tired, I didn't care if I ripped myself in two, I just wanted her OUT! That last contraction was amazing. With the mirror positioned so I could see her coming out, I probably pushed 6 times in that contraction (I know at least the last two were well after the contraction had ended), I felt her plop out of me. Hearing her sweet little cry was music to my ears. They put her on my chest and she was just perfect! Overall, I am just so happy that I was able to do this without involving surgery. My recovery has been just unbelievable compared to the last time around. I got to do everything I wanted to do. I labored in the jaccuzzi (3 times actually), I walked the halls, I sat on the birth ball (an excercise ball for the non-birthing world), I got to try different positions. And now I have a perfect little girl. Well, its late and I'm definitely going to try to post pictures tomorrow. If you click on Melissa's blog, I think she's posted pictures already and hopefully that will "tide you over" until I can get mine up.