WIP Completed! Lily is here!

My biggest WIP is now done. Lily Mae arrived May 24th, 2005. She's such a precious little thing. So, wanna hear her entry story? Here goes...

We decided to go with a midwife this time around as our last pregnancy went 100% perfect. Who knew it would take me 6 tries to finally get a normal pregnancy, lol. With Lily, I had started contracting and my cervix was changing earlier than what we were comfortable with. Unfortunately a midwife is not allowed to deliver before 37 weeks. So we took it easy for a few weeks to try to get to 37 weeks. I was very doubtful that we'd make it come 36 weeks. Of course I finally make it to 37 weeks (May 24th) and am totally certain that I would be pregnant for another 5 weeks. I guess you could say my outlook was pretty negative. Not one freaking contraction, no 'feelings' of readiness, nothing. I had a midwife appointment at 12:30 and for some reason I took all of my labor items with me. I KNEW I wasn't going to deliver soon so it was weird that this would be the first time I had grabbed these items. Anyway...

Midwife asks if I want her to check me and I said yes because I just wanted to know if anything had changed in the last week. So she's examining me and says, "well, you're a 3....4.....to 5 centimeters and 60% effaced." My heart leaps. She then asks me if it would be ok if I didn't leave. I agree as I've gone from 5 cms to delivery in less than a half hour a few times. I call my husband and tell him to head on over. He arrives at 1:30 and we go in to see the midwife again. Not one single contraction. She asks if she can break my water. Its about 2 p.m. when everything was said and done and I'm 6 cm now. My husband and I go for a walk for about a half an hour. 2 whimpy contractions and I'm 7 cm. Tim runs to the store to get some cold beverages. Nothing is happening. I feel like crying because I'm still not contracting. At 3:30 our midwife has a break between appointments and asks to check me again even though I'm not contracting. I'm at 8 cm. I'm in amazement as I'm still not even uncomfortable or even contracting to my knowledge. So I start pacing and start feeling contractions that are 2-3 minutes apart. No big thang. A little after 4 p.m. BLAM-O my first real contraction and boy its a doozy. Midwife starts getting busy with supplies beside me. Second contraction hits and I panic and say that I can't do it. (Big clue for me...as soon as I 'can't' do it we are almost done). Third contraction hits and I push through it. Fourth contraction and Lily's head is born. Fifth contraction and she's arrived!!! 4:25 p.m. 7 lbs even and 20 inches long. 5 painful contractions. How's that for laboring, lol.