Friday, August 20, 2010

The baby has arrived!

Dear all,
Most of you who read this blog have already heard this news. But for those of you who haven't, I am now the mother of a beautiful baby girl named Danielle Grace. She was born on Wednesday morning, June 30th, at 9:22 a.m. after 53 hours of labor. Yes, I know, it was long--and very painful too.

I woke up Monday morning, June 28, at 4:00 a.m. to a contraction. "This is different," I thought. As time went on, the contractions got more intense, until I finally woke my husband at 6:00 a.m. and told him that I was pretty sure I was in labor. I called my midwife and parents a few hours later to inform them. My parents insisted on coming over right away, and took me and Donald out for lunch to Panda Express (at this point, my contractions were not so intense as to keep me from eating, and I needed to keep my strength up). We then went to Costco to get some things we needed, and also so that I could walk around for a while, to try and speed things up. At this point, my contractions were coming about 8 minutes apart.

The midwives arrived that evening, and thus began the long vigil. The contractions were quite painful, but were coming irregularly. Finally, after a long and exhausting night, my midwife told me that I was experiencing Prodromal Labor, and that the baby was posterior. She suggested that I take Benadryl (to help stop/slow down the labor) and try to get some sleep, while she and her assistants went home to get some sleep. I did as she suggested, and woke up 2-3 hours later in full blown active labor (wow, were these contractions even more intense!). I informed my husband that he needed to get the midwives back. They returned, and after 16 more hours of the worst pain I've ever experienced, our little daughter finally made her appearance.

God was so gracious to me during that time, and did indeed give me grace for each contraction. There were many times during those 53 hours, when I was so exhausted that I just knew I couldn't go through another contraction. But when it came, I cried out to God for strength, He gave it, and I somehow got through that one. Christ's words in John 16 are so true: "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world." And truly, when my wonderful midwife handed Danielle to me for the first time, I started laughing and forgot all about the pain of the last few days as I held my little girl. She was definitely worth it!

Since then, I've spent a lot of time resting and trying to recover from the birth, adjusting to motherhood, feeding my baby, and loving her. While I am more tired than I used to be, I am completely happy, and love my little snuggler. :-)
Anyway...there's a brief update for y'all. I'd write more, but alas, due to having a baby, I'm afraid I don't have much time to sit at a computer. :-P

I've included a few pictures in this post, but for those of you who don't have Facebook, and want to see more, here's a link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=375725&id=596110155&l=9033e2ec45. Also, here is a link to some photos taken by Photographer Hope Helms when Danielle was just a week old: http://www.hopesphotoblog.com/?p=1046. Enjoy!

Blessings,
Melody