Watching baby: Day 1 and birth stories

Welcome Liliana, indeed. We are awed, amazed, delighted and completely in love with our little girl. Thank you all for the support, good thoughts, and overwhelming love you have showed us as we waited for her to arrive.

For those of you looking for quick details:

5:57 PM. 5 lbs. and 15 ozs. 21 inches long. Think stringbean ( :

Mother and child are extremely healthy and happy, as is Dad. Now, the whole story:

Wednesday afternoon our midwife Tracy came over. She came to discuss induction and birthing in a hospital, as 42 weeks is about as far as they're comfortable with for a home birth. We were disappointed, and scared- we've done a lot of preparation to be able to birth naturally in our own home, and we'd come an awful long way to give up. So, we didn't. Marita had taken castor oil on Christmas, to no avail- Wednesday, she took it again. We went for a walk, ate dinner, laughed and cried, and were probably the most relieved people in the world when Marita went into labor late Wednesday evening.

We spent the night shuttling between the bathroom and our room- castor oil is some nasty stuff, y'all- and finally got some sleep when we walked downstairs at around 4 in the morning and Marita realized just how comfortable the recliner is. A couple of hours later, we would transfer the chair upstairs- Marita labored in it pretty much the whole time and we highly recommend it for comfort, although we think we broke it- so not necessarily for durablility ( :

In the morning, we had some breakfast- those of you who know Marita should not be suprised that she was able to eat, even in labor ( : Marita is a champion. She was amazingly relaxed and completely at peace throughout the labor. At around 1:00 PM, with contractions getting closer, and after a brief bath (which brought on intense contractions that were VERY close together), we called Tracy and told it was time for a midwife to arrive upon the scene. Until that time, it had only been Marita, Ian, and the most extraordinary support of Cynthia and Rachael, Marita's mother and sister, who were present throughout the birth and are 2 of the most wonderful people we could hope to have with us- they were beyond awesome.

When Tracy showed up, we decided to examine Marita's cervix- only one problem, though- it was gone! Fully dilated! She was amazed, not just at how patient Marita had been with the pressure and pain of contractions, but also at the beauty of being ready to give birth, less than 24 hours after our difficult and emotional conversation about giving up on our plans for a home birth. Time to push!

After about 2 hours of pushing, we were ready for the baby to come, but there was a problem. The baby was having trouble coming out. We could see her head, but that last little bit was proving a struggle. To compound the difficulties, the baby's heartrate was dropping each time we pushed (we would later find out this was most likely caused by her arm being across her chest, applying extra pressure). Tracy is unbelievable. She completely took charge without causing stress, nor adding undue panic to the situation. At the same time, she was assertive and clearly conveyed that it was VERY important to follow her directions closely at this point. First, she cut Marita's bag of waters, creating a little bit more space. When that didn't help, she gave Marita oxygen on the next push, to help her push more strongly, all the while gently encouraging Marita to push harder - "the next push is the one that will bring your daughter into the world". After the next contraction, she had us all help Marita move from the chair to the bed, where Marita, now on hands and knees, was finally able to push Liliana into the world. Marita was amazing throughout, staying relaxed and focused, and making sure that our daughter was able to free herself, and slide into her father's waiting hands. I have never been more simultaneously nervous, excited, and ecstatic in my life.

The rest is pretty anti-climactic. We relaxed in ber with our child feeding her and fawning over her while people cleaned and fussed around us. Mike brought us taco bell, Uncle Andy and Aunt Gabby came to meet their niece, as did Grandpa Russ, and we slept a whole 2 hours before Liliana woke up hungry again. It should also be noted that this child had more than your average amount of poop (okay, meconium) in her. But we traded our castor oil for olive oil to clean her up and fed her some more- after all she's kind of skinny- she needs to eat.

We've attached a slide show to the blog with 27 pictures (for Dec. 27th) of the girl herself. They can also be seen by following this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/ianjames/LilianaNevaDay1Blog

Enjoy. Marvel. Life is a little bigger today than yesterday.

aloha,

marita, ian, and especially liliana.