In short, In long

In short...I gave birth 3 weeks ago to a baby boy who has a head full of dark hair and chubby cheeks. We named him Luca Makakoa Harrington and he weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and measured 19" long. We are all healthy and (mostly) happy. Poor Ollie is feeling a little love starved, but I think he's starting to warm up to the idea that he's a big brother.

In long...I woke up on Wednesday September 10th at 6 am with some contractions. I wasn't sure if these were the real deal so I decided to try and sleep a bit more. At 6:30 am, the contractions appeared to be pretty consistent so I started timing them. I remember thinking to myself, oh my gosh if the baby is coming today I need to clean my house pronto. I called my mom to pick up Ollie and I ran around my house cleaning frantically while the contractions were still manageable. I didn't have a birthing ball, so I set up a chair next to my bed and stacked about 5 pillows and a large fluffy blanket on the bed that I could lean into and get comfortable. Taylor set up his laptop next to me and worked while I turned on my hypnobabies CD's and let them run through. I was really able to focus and use visualization that my hypnobabies course taught me all the while munching on a tortilla and sipping water. I did not change positions or make a peep until 2:15pm when one of my contractions made me feel the urge to push. I figured going to the hospital was a wise idea. When we were driving to the hospital when I had Ollie, I remember how immense the pain was and thinking that was the worst 20 minutes of my life. This time, the car ride was easy and comfortable. I started to get worried that the nurses would turn me right back home saying I wasn't progressed enough. I mean, the pain wasn't that bad so I started to psyche myself out and almost made Taylor turn around. We arrived at the hospital, checked in and were brought back to a room. I asked the nurse if she would start filling up the tub because I was ready to start laboring in the water since I found the hospital bed uncomfortable. (They told me at my doctor's appt that it takes an hour to fill up the tub once I get to the hospital). She kind of blew me off and continued tapping away on the computer saying she wanted to check me first to see if I was even dilated that much. She finally checked me and that's when things kicked into high gear. I was dilated to an 8. She quickly got on her radio asking for a tub to get filled immediately and then my midwife showed up. The tub filled slowly with water and my midwife told me that I could not have a water birth if my waters were not broken. That made me upset because I knew that if she broke my water, then the pain would really intensify. So I layed there on the bed contemplating if I even wanted to have a water birth. I told her I wanted to wait a bit longer and she started to get really antsy. In the course of 20 minutes she probably asked me 6 times if she could break my water. I continued working my way through each contraction and I saw my midwife put on all her gear because she knew that the baby was going to come at any moment. I really did want a water birth so i agreed to let her break my water. And what do you know, the pain was amped up 50 times and I started to lose that focus that I'd had the entire day. I tried to stand up to get into the tub but the pain and pressure was so intense that I told the nurse I couldn't do it. With some nervous coaxing, the nurse and midwife managed to get me from the bed to the tub and plopped me in. The following 15 minutes were not a quiet 15 minutes. I was screaming at the top of my lungs with each contraction (video footage proved that I sounded like a cross between a cow and hyena). My sweet husband was sitting behind me trying to rub my back and be helpful, but when you are giving birth naturally, you just need to do your own thing and can't be bothered. I reached down and felt the baby's head coming out of me and it was the craziest feeling. The midwife was coaching me to scream a "mmmmmm" sound instead of an "aaaaahhhh" sound which actually really helped give me more control. Out popped the baby's head and I lost all urges to push. It was the strangest thing. My midwife looked at me and said," His head is out and you need to push."I just looked at her and said "I can't!". I tried anyways and the baby came out in 2 seconds. It was amazing, beautiful, surreal and emotional.