Birthing Alice

 After waiting and waiting to go into labor my water broke about 3:30 in the morning on October 2nd. I was obviously sleeping. I felt a strong cramp and then a slight gush of fluid. I wasn't sure if I peed in my underwear or if my water broke. After going to the bathroom, I was sure that my water had broke. We called Jen and Trav to let them know we would drop the kids off and quickly packed my hospital bag(yes, we procrastinated that until the last minute, literally). We were out the door about ten minutes later since earlier my doctor had given me strict instructions that if my water broke I better be ready to walk out the door. On the way to the hospital I had my first contraction around 4:00 am. By the time we got to the hospital I was having contractions about four minutes apart. My fluid was leaking all over, nothing could contain it! It was pretty gross. When I got checked in the nurse checked my cervix and told me that I was dilated to a 6. She continued to ask more administrative questions while I breathed through each contraction. They were painful but very manageable with deep breathing. When she was done she allowed me to get in the shower. I really couldn't have asked for a better nurse and she was all about natural child birth so she was very helpful. I felt like I had a doula. As soon as I got in the shower my contractions got much closer together. The nurse stopped in before she was going to leave the room and asked how I was doing. I told her that my contractions had gotten a lot closer. She asked if I had any pressure or desire to push. I told her that I felt like I could go to the bathroom. We decided that I better get out after being in there for about five minutes. After getting dried off and back in bed the nurse checked me again and told me that I was now at a 9. They called the doctor and luckily she was already in the hospital for something else cause after three contractions I was ready to push.  After four more contractions I was holding my baby at 5:57 am. It all happened so fast. Doing it natural was not as hard as I was expecting but with that being said I didn't really have an empowering feeling after it either. I was surprised when Andrew said he preferred the natural child birth as compared  to the ones with an epidural especially since he wasn't that keen on my choice to do it natural. I think the part that I enjoyed the most was to experience first hand the physiology of the birthing experience instead of just reading about it.  Might sound kind of weird but I love learning about how the body works. We are all doing well. The kids just adore their new sister. They are a little stir crazy but hopefully we can hold them over tell Grandma and Grandpa get here to entertain them. We want to thank all of you for your thoughts and kind words!