She's Here!

Ava Louise was born yesterday at 5:14 p.m. Her middle name is the name of Steven's grandmother who died a year to the day before Ava's birth. Ava measured in at 19 inches long and only 6 pounds 4 ounces which is, by far, my smallest baby.

To give the short version of the story, it was one of my hardest labors; even though it was wonderful to be able to do a home birth. Who would guess that my fourth (and tiniest) baby would produce an over 17 hour labor!?! Looking back, we realized that her hand up by her head which is why she came out with bruised fingers and was "stuck" for so long. My water broke at 1 p.m. on Sunday, but it took long walks and castor oil to convince my body to start labor. My official labor finally started at midnight. I was very slow to progress and had to work hard going up and down the stairs or getting in uncomfortable positions to try to keep my cervix dialating. Finally I got stuck around 8 cm. with my contractions almost totally fizzling out. There was a point where the midwives were about to transfer me to their birthing center to use more aggressive forms of making my body do it's job. Ten minutes before my "deadline" to transfer, I finally started getting contractions. I never was able to fully dilate and had the urge to push at 9 cm. It was the most painful, intense pushing I've ever done. But after about a 1/2 hour, we went from not even seeing the head to her suddenly popping out. I was so grateful because, not 30 seconds before, I was screaming that I couldn't take one more minute; and by God's grace, I didn't have to. But now she's here and so sweet and beautiful; so let me share some photos and a little video!

Meeting her brothers:

Sisters!:

Getting weighed by the midwife and birth assistant: