Baby Miranda - a few photos

 My parents brought the kids to see us at the birthing center about 5 hours after Miranda was born.

 Ellia thinks Miranda is awesome!

For now.

 Marissa is in baby heaven.  

 The next day - we had to leave the birthing center section of the hospital to regular mom/baby postpartum in the middle of the night so someone else could use the room.   

 Grant is pretty smitten with his 4th daughter.

 Corban has decided that a 4th sister isn't such a bad thing. 

Annika with Miranda

Is it Baby Time? Labor Day Post 7

Introducing Miranda Kathryn -

born at 12:05 p.m.

9 lbs 5.6 oz

21" long

Labor got pretty difficult for awhile, probably around 10:30 or so. Grant was my awesome support and helped me focus on relaxing through some pretty brutal contractions.  I ended up pushing for about 15 minutes.  Wow, was that intense. No tears or anything, praise God!  

I'll probably write a more detailed birth story sometime soon, but for now, all is well, Miranda is beautiful and perfect, and I'm feeling very good, thankful for some Motrin for those afterbirth pains.  

Is it Baby Time? Labor Day Post 6

9:50 a.m.

Breaking of the waters definitely picked things up - contractions coming every 2-3 minutes and are pretty intense, but I'm handling them just fine.  Baby was perfect on the monitors. 

Hopefully it won't be too much longer!!

Is it Baby Time? Labor Day Post 5

We've had a change of shift, so I have two new nurses, Connie and Jessica, and a new midwife also, Blair - who was actually the one I was hoping for all along, hurray! At around 9am Blair checked me and I was dialated to 5cm, but she thought that I was not really in active labor since my contractions have been irregular. So she suggested breaking my water to get things going. As she broke my water I stretched to 6cm, 100% effaced and the baby's head at zero station. Things should start moving along faster now. I'm also now required to stay on the monitors for 15 minutes to make sure the baby is reacting well to having the waters broken.

Is it Baby Time? Labor Day Post 4

7:00 a.m.

Arrived at the hospital/birthing center around 6:00 a.m.

Had a 20 minute monitoring session, the baby sounds great.  My contractions slowed down while resting in the bed, but are picking back up now that I can move around.

Dilated 3 cm. 

Things are quiet here at the center - very nice.  My nurse is named Karen. She seems really nice.  Nurses can make a big difference in how things go, so that's a relief!

Is it Baby Time? Labor Day Post 3

5:15 a.m.

Contractions are still 4-6 minutes apart, but now a little over a minute long.  Definitely stronger.  

We're gonna head to the hospital now.

So thankful that it's early on a Sunday morning and we don't have to worry about tunnel traffic at all. 

Is it Baby Time? Labor Day Post 2

4:00 a.m. 

I called the answering service - the midwife on call is Beth.  There are four midwives in the practice, and Beth is the newest one and I've only seen her twice.  That being said, another one of the midwives, Jennifer, I haven't seen at all - every time I've been scheduled to see her, something came up like a labor or she was sick, so I'm glad she isn't the one there today!

Beth thought I should wait at home a little while, that since my contractions are not yet a minute long (45 sec), I was still a bit early in labor.  

I woke Grant, we both got showered and dressed, and now we're just taking care of last minute things before we go. 

Haven't woken my parents yet, although Grant's coffee grinder might have done the trick.