STELLA’S BIRTH REVISITED

This munchkin turns 3 today.  3.  I can’t even believe it!!  She has been the sweetest, cuddliest addition to our family and I\’m so excited to watch her grow.  Her birth was a big deal for me-it sealed my fate of forever being on a natural birth high and grew my passion for un-medicated childbirth.  I wanted to revisit her birth and show a few more pictures of the whole thing.

Initially I posted her birth with a few pics-all very modest and standard.  I went back through her birth pictures for the first time today and grabbed a few more to show how things went.  I can honestly say that everything happened the way I wanted it to-which is almost unheard of when it comes to birth plans.  My Mother, who has never seen a birth before, was here in town (from 8 hours away) for my sister’s wedding and got to witness her birth (she was even 2 weeks early, making that possible!).  My husband was perfect-he brought his swim suit and everything so he could help keep my comfortable squeezing my hips and rubbing my back.  He even snapped these pictures and I am so proud of him!  Katie, my midwife was able to be with me through the worst of it and talk me through my contractions.  And most important of all-she was born healthy and happy with no damage to mom or babe.  That’s my favorite part.

I got to labor in the tub NAKED.  The hospital staff wasn’t too sure about the naked thing, but I was.  Fabric hurts my skin when I\’m in labor.

I made all sorts of neato cow noises to get me through labor.  Vocalizing is definitely a method of pain management for me.

I got them to assess her on my chest.  Keeping her close was very important to me and I didn’t want her whisked away to a warmer-I wanted everything that could be done on me, to be done on me.

Unfortunately they did the cold, hard scale though.  That’s ok, she survived #firstworldproblems

My placenta!  Which is still in my freezer…I should really think about doing something with it…

First latch.  I\’m so blessed with good little nursers.

I\’m probably telling my labor story here.  This pic really sums it up for me-the latched babe, the tousled hair…the fist in the air!  That’s birth.

I can feel myself ovulate when I look at this pic.

Still talking about labor.  Or breastfeeding.  Probably explaining to my Aunt that I didn’t do it un-medicated because we were poor, but that I actually wanted to do it that way…

Once again…ovulating over this one.  I love that both our babes got skin to skin time with Daddy.

I cannot get over her hair.  Can you just seeeeeeeeeeee this hair!!?!  O my goodness.  MMMMmmmmm.  3.  She’s 3.  Can’t believe it.  Love her.

So yeah, birth week continues tomorrow…see you then.