Birth Story

Well, I know that this is a bit overdue, but I finally have a little time to post a little bit about Aayla's birth:
On Friday morning July 21 at 7:30am we arrived on the Labor/Delivery unit of the hospital ready to be induced - I had no contractions that I could feel up to this point, but I was 3-4 cm dilated and 75% effaced. Sometime between 8am and 8:30am, my midwife administered prostin gel, and I started having regular contractions almost immediately. After staying in bed for the required hour, I was up walking the halls to try to get things going. I was exhausted however (how are you supposed to sleep the night before something like THIS?!?), so I didn't feel up to walking around a whole lot. I did however spend a lot of time in the whirlpool and rocking in the rocking chair. After about 4 hours, Sandy (my midwife) suggested that if she were to break my water, my labor would get very intense, but things would proceed very quickly. So, we decided to go ahead with that - SHE WAS NOT JOKING! Talk about intense! My whole perception of pain has changed dramatically!
Once she broke my water, I immediately went from 4cm to 7cm and from manageable contractions to very painful, intense contractions. They were doing their job though, because in about a half hour, I was fully dilated and ready to push - and less than half an hour later, at 1:15pm, Aayla was born! Praise the Lord!
I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and amazing midwife who both were key in Mike and I achieving our goal of a (relatively) natural childbirth. I really couldn't have done it without Mike's support!!!
I was going to post more, but Little Miss is awake and starting to demand attention, so I gotta go!
A quick picture of Aayla and Daddy.