Baby Jane loves to cuddle into her Daddy. It is very sweet. She really just burows into his chest. She does not do this as much with me since I think the milk things are too distracting. Brian has been great both with the new baby and with Colin. I am very spoiled to have him here full time since I know most women have to be alone all day long. It is a sacrifice and has taken some careful planning financially, but it is the best thing for our family right now. Colin has been a little under the weather the last couple of days and I know I could not have handled a sick toddler and a newborn without Brian here. Keeping baby Jane fed is my full-time job right now, but she is getting the hang of it and we hope for many months of successful breast feeding.

Below is a not-so-nice photo of me, but is cute of Brian. This was at the Birth Center about 4 hours after Jane was born (so about 2 am on June 2). I look a little bit like I just had a baby. I kind of wanted to write about her arrival into the world, mainly for me and my handful of interested friends who I have not spoken to.

So I really thought Jane would be born in May, but she had different plans. Several times in the last few weeks of pregnancy it looked like labor was starting but things always stopped. She was postierior (back to my back, which makes for a more difficult delivery) and I felt a lot of back pain with some of my false labors. Lucky for me, she turned from her postierior position, but stayed really high until the end. On June 1, I did not really want to go to church, but since I did not really have a good excuse, I got dressed and we walked over. In Sunday school, I started to feel a few more regular contractions, but nothing serious and nothing outside of what had been happening over the last several weeks. We left church a little early and took Colin on a long walk to get him to sleep. It was a beautiful day, maybe in the low 80's. When we got home I took a nap with Colin and when I woke up I was still having contractions. I took this as a good sign since other times if I layed down everything would stop. By about 6pm, things were getting going a bit more and I thought I should start timing my progress. This is also right about when Brian's parents and sister arrived, but I was not feeling very social. When I started timing things, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. After 45 minutes, the contractions were making me concentrate and I was not able to answer questions during a contraction. We called our midwife around 7 pm and decided to head over to the Birth Center in about 40 minutes. We got there a little late because we had to get some gas, and I had a couple very strong contractions while filling the car. We arrived and settled in and our midwife checked to see how things were progressing around 8:15 pm. I was dialated to 5cm, so I thought we would still be there for hours (as it is fairly typical to progress about 1 cm an hour). My labor was getting pretty intense, and Brian was so great laboring right there with me. He really helped me stay on top of the contractions by staying right with me and giving me counter-pressure on my back. There is no way I could have done this without Brian (obviously since he is the baby's daddy) but he really worked hard to help keep me together. My contractions were really on top of each other and sometimes I did not even have 20 seconds in between contractions. When it was obvious that my labor was not going to stall, the midwife suggested getting in the tube We were in the birth room with the biggest tub, which was great. Also, I was the only laboring women in the center at the time which was so nice and peaceful. The midwife would check in with us every now and again and would check the baby's heart tones, but she really left us a lot of space to just work together. At one point in the tub when things were really intense, I announced that I better be in transition. Since it had not been very long, Brian was a little worried since it still could have been a long time. Not long after that, I felt my water break and announced I needed to push. The midwife and nurse got everything ready and trusted I knew what my body needed to do. They did not even check to see if I was fully dialated, they knew I knew what had to happen. It really is a pretty amazing experience because my body took over to get the work done and there was no stopping it. About 2 minutes later, Jane was born in the tub. I knew a water birth was an option, but I kind of thought I would maybe get out for the birth. But there she was and I insantly felt so much better to no longer be pregnant. There are many more graphic details, but since it is not exactly polite conversation, I will save those things for friends who ask. We are so happy with our Birth Center experience and to not have had a hospital birth. Having a child is one of the most nornal, natural things and I am very grateful for our health and our good expierience.