Avery Ann Smith was born Monday, January 12th at 3:05 am. She weighed in at 8 lbs even and was 20" long. She was much bigger than we all thought she was going to be! I went to see my midwife Sunday at 5 pm to get checked, since I was now 1 week past my due date. I was only 2.5 cm dilated and about 70% efaced. I went home and gulped down some Castor Oil to see if it would get things going, and boy did it ever! At 8 that night, I started having contractions and they were right on top of each other, no breaks in between!!! I labored at home until 10pm, and then we went to the birthcenter (2 mins down the road!) Our doula arrived at 11pm and helped me deal w/these contractions that were giving me no breaks. We decided to break my water at midnight. After that, the contractions were completely different.. much stronger! I now wanted to get into the tub to help with the pain. The warm water surrounding my body gave me such comfort and helped me relax. Brian was doing such a great job helping me get thru each contraction. After only an hour in the tub, I started to feel the earge to push, so back to the bed I went. I pushed for 40 mins, and Avery was born! She was absolutely perfect! We were expecting to hear a screaming baby like you see on tv. She was completely silent, which worried us at first, but our midwife assured us she was just fine. She was breathing wonderfully, and already starting at us wondering what the heck just happened! Within 10 mins, she was nursing like a pro. We stayed at the birthcenter for 2 hrs and then came home to start our new lives together.
