She's finally here!!! Clara Jane Whitworth was born on April 9, 2013 at 2:36 am. She weighed 9 lbs and was 21 inches long. She was 9 days late. I thought I was going to die. Hannah was 5 days early, so for me, the wait was excruciating. I'm not actually sure how long I was really in labor. I had been having lots of pain for two days, and I had been having contractions, but they were sporadic, so I had pretty much started to ignore them. Around 6 or 7 the contractions started coming more frequently, but we didn't start timing them until around 9:00. We had been planning a home birth, but when we called our midwife, she already had a woman in labor at the birth center. She wanted us to go up there so that she could deliver both of us, but after a few minutes of considering it, I broke down and sobbed. There was no way I could face getting in the car while in labor again. With Hannah we only got there 15 minutes before she was born and it was an absolutely horrible experience for me and I had vowed to never do it ever again. So Donnellyn called another midwife and had her come to us. I am SO glad we stayed home. I am very sad that Donnellyn wasn't able to be there; she is amazing and we love her dearly, but the experience of staying home was so wonderful it totally makes up for it. My friend Hollie also came to our house for the birth. She is a Doula, basically a trained birth assistant. Doulas help with things like helping you find comfortable birth positions, helping dads know what to do to help, providing relaxation helps like essential oils and hot packs, that sort of thing. For me, Hollie pretty much spent the whole time applying heat to my back. I was having lots of back pain and the heat helped immensely. When I was at about 8 cm, I got into our bath tub to finish labor. When I was pregnant with Hannah, I wasn't sure about birthing in the water, but now I recommend it to everyone. It was an even better experience this time, since I was able to labor in the water for a while before I actually started pushing. In a nutshell, this birth was everything I had hoped for with Hannah but didn't get because we didn't get there in time. All of the things I wanted to do differently, I did, and as a result, my recovery has been a million times easier and the birth experience was wonderful. With Hannah I was left with so many what if's and "I wish's." This time, I don't have any, which is a wonderful feeling.
