The arrival of our dear son, Owen Alexander, on 08/14/08

On Wednesday, August 13th my mom, Ian and I had a great day of picking blueberries, eating ice cream and just enjoying the nice warm weather outside...little did I know I wouldn't be sleeping that night! In the late afternoon I visited some friends at the park with Ian and picked up my Azure order. Stocked up on bread, cleaning supplies and ice cream! (plus a few other things...)

In the evening Ian learned how to ride his pedal bike that he got for his birthday, all by himself, without training wheels! He was so proud and excited that he rode and rode his bike until it was too dark to see anymore. It made both momma and daddy so proud to see that he got over his fears and was now enjoying his new sense of freedom and independence. :D

After the bike ride we all sat down to watch a movie. The movie ended around 11:30 and I had the feeling that I just may not get any sleep that night...Contractions were getting a little stronger and were about 10 minutes apart. I was right. Moderate contractions about 10 minutes apart kept me up all night long. I watched another movie and tried to get some rest between contractions. I called my midwife at about 2 am to let her know that something was "brewing" and she said that was great and she would call me later in the morning but if things got more intense to call her back. Contractions stayed about the same, slightly more intense but nothing I couldn't handle. At about 5 am I called my amazing friend and doula, Shasta to start heading over and we also started filling the birth tub with water. Shasta arrived about an hour later and the tub was still filling up. Ian was still sleeping and Rob got up to start the tub filling and went back to bed to rest.

Shasta helped me get through some strong contractions and put some great pressure on my back and rubbed my feet. (I told you she was amazing!) She also made sure I ate and drank and kept my energy up since I hadn't slept in quite a while. I talked to my midwife in the morning around 8:30 and she said she would be over after one of her 9 am appointments. She arrived at about 10 am I think. I had one stronger contraction and then she checked my progress. My contractions had been kind of irregular, some 8-10 minutes apart and those ones were stronger and then some "lighter" ones that were 4-6 minutes apart. I also had a lot of back labor which was helped tonnes by what Shasta was doing. :D When my midwife checked my progress I was fully dilated but baby was still pretty high up in my pelvis so we had to work on concentrating on pushing him down. After about an hour of changing positions and working on actively pushing (at this point I was in the birth tub) he was down and my body took over the pushing. Robert put some strong pressure on my lower back and sacrum to help with the pain and I could tell my mom wasn't liking seeing me in so much discomfort. All of a sudden "POP" the bag of waters broke and things REALLY got intense. Rob had his pressure on my sacro-iliac joints and my contractions were really strong and happening on their own. It was definitely the hardest part of the whole labor for me. Thank goodness it didn't last too long. Rob and my midwife heard (and Rob felt) my sacro-iliac joints release and out he came within moments. Our new baby boy had arrived!

Upon inspection of my placenta and cord we realized that I had a very short cord so it was probably impeding our son from getting down into the pelvis earlier and since the bag of water was between his head and my cervix I didn't get any real urges to push until it broke at the end of the labor.

Ian, my mom, daddy, my midwife and my friend Shasta (and me of course) were in the room when baby arrived at 11:55 am on Thursday, August 14, 2008. Ian really wanted to see the baby come out and was in the tub with me for awhile earlier but it was taking longer than in the videos so he was getting impatient. :D He decided to watch a movie and told us to call him when the baby was out. :D Daddy video taped a little and Shasta took some pictures for us.

We still haven't decide 100% on a name, hopefully soon!

Our little boy was 7 lbs 15 oz and 20 1/2 inches long at birth.