Happy Birthday Alisha!

Yes, we have two December birthdays in our family. Alisha's original "guess date" was on Josh's birthday. But she decided she wanted her own day. Alisha is a happy little girl who loves My Little Pony's, putting on imaginary makeup(and mommy's when she not getting caught), loves dancing, and is just a little people pleaser(which worries me sometimes). I wrote a little more about Alisha down below.

Preparing for Alisha's birth exciting for me. Jacob was only 6-months-old when we learned we were going to have another baby. So I was fighting a lot of conflicting emotions, but after Jacob's birth I knew I wanted to have a better birthing experience. I needed to. I researched a lot of different birthing methods, but the one that caught my eye was Hypnobirthing. I ended up doing a lot to get ready. I practiced my scripts faithfully and started reading up on my rights in the hospital. I coupled the Hypnobirthing with the Bradley method, because their birthing philosophy's, while a little different, were pretty much the same. The Bradley method helped Josh prepare to be my doula. I was confident that her birth would be a good one.

So her guess date came and went and I thought she'd never get here. lol! Josh's sister Theresa came out to spend time with us and add some extra help when the new baby arrived. So we were ready, just needed a baby.

At 4 p.m. on December 11th I noticed that I was having some regular birthing waves. What impressed me is that they weren't painful like they were with Jacob's birth. I dismissed them as Braxton-Hicks and went on with my day(which is a very common thing for hypno-moms to do, most don't even know they're in labor). Around 8 p.m. they were becoming more intense and closer together. I clued in and called Josh to have him come home from work(he had crazy work days), that is was "baby time". We hung around the house for a couple of hours packing bags and doubting whether or not we should go. Because don't most birth education classes tell you to come to the hospital when the birthing waves are 3-5 minutes apart? They became three minutes apart so we went. I still wasn't in any pain, just strong pressure sensations.

So, we get to the hospital around 11 p.m. I'm still in no pain. Into triage, no pain. The nurse checks me, I think I'm probably around 3 cm's. The nurse freaks out,"Holy cow, you're 7 cm's!". All hell(yes, I said hell!) breaks loose. Nurses start yelling at me and my husband about how it was irresponsible that we waited so long to come in. Everyone is rushing to get set up. By now I'm scared(no woman in labor should be yelled at) and yes, now I'm in pain. The classic fear-tension-pain syndrome was kicking in. 30 minutes after my arrival my water broke on it own. Hello! The flood gates hath opened! Nurses are running me down the hall in the gurney I'm on. They start asking me if I want an epidural, while another nurse is trying to start an IV. It was crazy. My dr showed up and ask if I wanted an epidural. Good grief, I had a birth plan, my dr had one, as well as the nurses. Did they not read the big bold print that said, "PLEASE DO NOT OFFER ME AN EPIDURAL!" Gah! 30 minutes later I'm getting a huge urge to push, and I dr's telling me not to. Hahaha! Guess what? I'm pushing and there's not a damn thing you can do about it! lol! I pushed for a good five minutes and I birthed my beautiful 7 lbs. 5 oz. 19 in. baby girl.

I was totally euphoric after her birth. I felt so great that I was able to walk myself to my post-partem recovery room, much to the dismay of the nurses. I went home sometime the next day. I just felt so good. Looking back, I realized that my labor with her was painless until I got to the hospital. When I became pregnant again with Miri, I knew that if I was in my comfortable familiar surroundings I would feel safe. And for me, feeling safe means painfree.

Funny story, while I was pregnant with her we picked out her name. We had planned on naming her Angela, after Josh's older sister who passed away during birth. But sometime later Josh dreamt of a little girl who came to him and told him her name was Alisha. He wrote the dream down and we stuck it on our list. WELL, as soon as they laid this beautiful girl on my tummy, we saw that this was not Angela. Alisha was her and she'd named herself. It took us about a month to kick the habit of calling her Angela. lol!

Happy birthday baby girl! I love you dearly. I love your silly little laugh, the way you roll your eyes when you think mom is being ridiculous, your love of reading, and the way you sense what other people are feeling. I love that you are completely open to loving other people unconditionally and are always so forgiving. You are truly a precious gift to our family.