July 16th, Finally, a birthday!

It's funny. Birth and death are never what we plan or expect them to be. And this birth was no exception. All of my "due" dates came and went as well as a few warm up contractions, cool down contractions, warm up labor...false labor. And then, last night at 1:45 AM it was finally "time" and the feeling when it's finally time is like this: all of the other times you're thinking, is this it? I hope it's it....and then when it's really time, you KNOW it's it. I KNEW when I got in bed it would happen last night and I better get a nap before the action went down.

Oh, I left out a small detail....yesterday my water broke at 10:30 AM. So, all day, I'm leaking water. I got in the pool for part of it, wore a diaper, a pad, but then at dinner I had one hard contraction and when I stood up, the kids asked why I wet the floor. It was a moment.

So, last night, after swimming almost an hour and walking almost 2 miles and no contractions...I just went to bed. At 1:45, I woke up with a contraction every 4 minutes, and at 2:30 I texted the midwife and told her what was going on and then let Mark know I was getting in the hot tub (he had fallen asleep about 10 minutes before...hats off to the dads who are going through it more than we are-ESPECIALLY when labor starts and stops for three weeks like that).

So, hopped in the hot tub, had about 8 contractions, time to push, and pushing took awhile. Usually, the head is the hardest part and then the body just pops out. This time, the head was hard, and the body was harder. I could feel the "bigness" and all of the parts on the inside of me. Thank you everyone who prayed for me. There was a point in pushing when I thought, I really don't think I can do this. And, thankfully, between the Holy Spirit and Holly and Mark....Miley Abigail CAME OUT.

She's a quiet little 'er, big, thing. She weighed 11 lbs. 2 ounces and her head measured 14 and 1/2, but the chest and stomach both measured 15 inches, and it FELT like 15 inches of mass was coming out of me. Finally, I pushed to the stomach and then flipped around and just pulled her out...that was pretty cool.

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit put it on my heart when I started to push to take it very slowly...and I had a teeny tiny tear/lesion that was less than any of the other four births. Praise God!

So, another Fessler has come into the world. And how can I complain? When I get down to brass tacks, labor was 2 hours from start to finish. Well, unless I add the other nights of labor in, but the recovery from a little warm up labor is simply....to sleep. Recovery from birth involves sleep, salves, herbs, belly bandits, and more. Although, I will say I feel VERY good this time. I've had two naps and the baby is sleeping nicely, plus I've eaten a car load of food and drunk about 120 ounces of "calm". Such a nice drink.

So, there you have it. Baby number five. I am so blessed....so blessed with lots of babies. And this birth was a good one. Just, so far, I haven't had any "canned" births. They have all been different times, places, dates, but I think God delights in that, don't you?

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven....A time to give birth....." Ecclesiastes 3:1-2