7/12/2000

My birth story is a long one, but I just wanted to give you all the
highlights, I'll probably post more details later. 

Clara Marisa was born on 7/11 at 8:11 PM after about 32 hours of
unmedicated labor, 18 hours of which were at the hospital where we
delivered. She was born weighing 7 lbs, 2 oz, and 19 inches long. She is
beautiful! 

I had a lot of back labor and that slowed things up. But then I felt a
really tough contraction, and I felt her rotate around the right way and
that made it a bit easier. I was WONDERFULLY supported by my Awesome and
Wonderful DH, and a Wonderful professional doula named Karen. DH and Karen
took such good care of me, I was practically having fun up until
transition. Transition was about an hour long, and was terribly intense,
but I made it through to 10 cms at last. I was complete and ready to push.
After nearly 3 hours of exhausting pushes, with a lot of pushing in the
hands & knees position, I turned over to the lithotomy position and 15
more pushes later, saw her head finally come out! The pain was over at
that moment and i was so filled with joy and love! 

The doctor, shouted HIP HIP HURRAY when she was born and said, It's a girl
(we didn't know her sex until then)! I could not believe my eyes. 
Well she's just a joy to care for, nurses wonderfully and is alert and a
great little person! We'll be home from the hospital tomorrow morning. 

Pam