It's a GIRL!

I am thrilled to announce that Julia Elise entered the world today at 2.56 PM via a wonderfully successful VBAC! 12 hour start to finish labor.

She weighed in a 8'4 oz and is simply beautiful. I am feeling positively HIGH with joy. Nate is the best labor support ever and the birth was all that I hoped it would be. Luke met his little sister shortly after birth. Of course disgusting amounts of pictures will follow, but while I am in the hospital you all will have to wait!

Thank you ALL for the love and support, we are so lucky.

Have I mentioned that she is utterly lovely? Sigh. I love her.

Party at our house

Life is good around here. Luke has learned to pick his nose, and I am GBS NEGATIVE. I just got my test results back today, and I feel as though a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

I did not quite have the birth that I had always hoped for with Luke. I got a RESULT better than I had ever dreamed (My amazing, healthy, happy son..... and that part is for life, thank God) but the actual day of his birth was much different and intervention laden than I had always hoped for. It took several weeks before I could talk about his birth without crying. That said, I can now say with utter confidence that it was the best day of my life. With a year of motherhood under my belt I know that the beauty of the mother/child relationship is forged not in the actual day of the birth, but in the falling in love process that happens when you meet and as you grow to know, love, and cherish one another. I could go all into the steps that ultimately led up to the C Section, but that is neither here nor there at this point. Let's just say that I feel that testing positive for GBS and having my water break before labor had begun started a long line of interventions and "rules" that did not go well with me.

That said, I have another birth approaching. I have been a mess the past week as I awaited the results of my GBS culture. (And for anyone who is not familiar with GBS, Google it, it would take too long and be too boring for me to explain). I have the option to schedule a C Section as I am now a CS Mama. I don't want to have another C Section. I would like to say that my motives are totally altruistic and pure......but truth be told I don't want another CS for a few (mainly selfish) reasons.
1. I am admittedly an excitement junky. Knowing and planning the day of my child's birth is too anti climatic for me. One of the penultimate moments of my life was the early morning hours of Feb 13 when I woke up to my water breaking. I have never known such excitement and anticipation, (nor have I ever seen Nate run up and down the steps frantically so many times :)
2. I want to experience a vaginal birth. I don't want to hear my baby cry for the first time again while strapped down to a table behind a drape.
3. I don't want to have to spend 4 days in the hospital again. While those 4 days were absolutely magical and wonderful after Luke's birth ~ staying in the hospital with Nate and Luke while all of our friends and family came to visit us and meet our sweet son.....this time it will be different as Luke will be at home. I will miss him terribly, and would much prefer to go home after just 24 or 48 hours this go round.
4. I worry about healing from a CS while taking care of our new baby AND the 13 month old Luke. My heart breaks to think of not being able to pick up Luke for a week or two after the birth, so anything that I can do to avoid that would benefit our whole family.

Anyway. I could go on and on. I am just thrilled that I feel like I am at least going into this birth on a level playing field, rather than fighting from behind due to my GBS status to have the birth that I hope for.

Suddenly I just have a new found peace and excitement about the upcoming birth. It still may not go the way that I hope, but at least I don't feel like its history repeating itself before we even begin.

Oh, and Luke learned to pick his nose. It's charming. Ugh. Judging from the joy that he seems to glean from it, you will be seeing a picture soon.