and she's out!

Merit Alice was born Aug 14, 2009 at 10:16 in the morning after mom's 10 hour "what the hell is happening to me?!" labor. i thought i might describe it, as most people ask how it went. I'm not sure everyone actually wants to know, so if not, skip this post! (blair)
i had absolutely no warning. in my mind everyone's labor starts out slow so you can "do life" as our birthing teacher told us. i mean, people work until their water breaks right? so when i started feeling like i had cramps, i thought maybe by saturday she would come. at midnite, i went to bed. but the cramps kept coming HARD every 15 min or so. i would sleep in between moans. jack was passed out the entire nite. by 3/4am I called nancy to give her a heads up b/c by now they were maybe 5 minutes apart and excruciating. like the worst menstrual cramps ever. and there was the mucous plug....gross. so now i am moaning, bleeding, screaming, cursing, and clawing jack as he sleeps. he would wake up every third contraction or so to pet me and remind me to breathe (b/c i def stopped doing that a lot). by 7:30 i thought i was going to die and just wanted nancy to come over (actually i just wanted to get in the birth tub which i'm not allowed to do until she got here). she had an appt at 8 - and damn it if that bitch wasnt 20 min late! (and i know who you are b/c you make our appts late every friday!) so that made nancy late getting over here. meanwhile i'm thinking "i completely understand drugs. if i was at the hospital i would be begging for someone to punch me and knock me out". and i'm screaming. scaring jack, scaring the dog, probably scaring merit enough that she's rethinking coming out of this crazy woman's uterus. i thought the screaming would help, but it didnt. nancy instructed me to walk around which i tried. i got as far as my bedroom door before another contraction would come. then i'd have to bend over the bed and yell. (i ended up really hurting my throat by the end of it all). FINALLY nancy arrived but wouldnt let me in the tub b/c it was too hot. so i waited while jack changed the water, nancy checked me - 9cm! almost ready to push! i have to admit, if she had gotten there earlier and i was at 5 or even 7 i think it would have really screwed with me and i wouldnt have been able to do as much as i did. so once i get in the tub, its basically time to push. fantastic. the contractions seemed to slow a little bit in the water (or were way less intense) and i was able to sleep - actually sleep between pushes. after the most painful pushing i've ever done (imagine not pooping for over a month and being extremely constipated and then forcing it out. yeah. exactly.) she tumbled out into the water - with her "veil" (my water never really broke so the amniotic sac was still around her) and with her extra long cord wrapped around her neck, shoulders, each arm and chest. it was pretty freaking incredible. i kept trying to sneak counts at her fingers and toes - but they're all there with no extras. and she has all this dark hair - which i love b/c i had black hair when i was born. she's totally cute. and teeny tiny.
and i'm sore. sooo sore. but like everyone says - its totally worth it. although i def won't be doing THAT for quite awhile.
and me being the fantastic geneticist that i am forgot to get her genetic screening done at the dr.'s on monday, so we're venturing out by ourselves tomorrow. everything is going well. i love being at home with her and we're both slowly getting the hang of breastfeeding. she actually slept for 4 hours straight last nite. i have to admit, i loved being pregnant but i am loving this even more.