SHE is here

Please meet Norah Jean Burke

She was born this morning, March 31 at 2:18 at home. on our bed.

She's 22 inches long and 7 pounds, 15 ounces.

As soon as I'm off bed rest and am able to put it together, I'll be sharing her incredible, life altering story with you.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl
Mae

Psalm 46:10

"Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the Earth"

Psalm 46:10

Yesterday I woke up with easy contractions 10-15 minutes apart.
I went to bed last night with strong contractions <7 minutes apart.
I woke up this morning with no baby, and not in labor.

I wanted so badly not to be that mom that alerted her midwives and friends too early. I wanted desperately not to have days of practice before my actual labor like I did with Lily. But this is the way God created me. This is how my body prepares for birth. It can be overwhelming...ok, it is overwhelming sometimes, but I am taking this as a blessing. The days of warm up labor with Lily led to a fantastic birth, so I will trust my body, I will trust the Lord, and know that I will meet my baby soon.
I am so grateful that we are having a homebirth. Had I gone into the hospital last night- with a day of early labor and 7 minute growing contractions [I actually broke a sweat through a few], and then suddenly stopped at 3:30, they'd have given me pitocin and started trying to get my baby out when s/he is clearly not ready. My birth team is very excited for me and have been such a huge support the past 24 hours, I know they will be joyful to celebrate with me when it actually is time.

For now, I will continue to wait, continue to grow my baby, and start trusting that the Lord is on my side. He will bring this baby into the world on the date that He set before I was even born.

Hope you're having a great start to your week,
Mae

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This...

No. Baby.
It's probably bored to death like we are, lol.

Today was absolutely, mind numbingly boring for me. I'm sure the rest of the family would describe it as "uneventful" but for some reason I'm just out of my mind bored.

Last night/this morning, baby punched me SO HARD in the cervix that I was sure that my water just popped [which didn't happen until I was pushing with Lily, so I'm not totally sure what that feels like, but I'm assuming that since I'm not walking around looking like I peed myself, that wasn't what it was] but other than that...my body's done nada. I tweeted earlier that I'm not quite so sure that my body knows it's supposed to have a baby soon. It's just behaving so differently this time around! Yes, I should be grateful that I'm not working through 2 weeks of cramps and mucus, or days of per-dermal labor, but it makes me feel like my body's being lazy!

I know it will only be a few more days [please sweet Jesus, only a few more days...] but all this sitting around is making my mind wander...and that's never a good thing!

Last night I went out to my birth center for a "belly painting pj party." It was lots of fun and I got to see other mamas and get cold sticky paint rubbed on me.
Can you guess which belly is my 40+ weeks belly??? Huuuuuuge....

I will leave you with a list of things I've said today
"The baby will come when it's good and ready!"
"This baby is never going to come out."
"Maybe sextractions will help?"
"Well if the chili doesn't give me contractions, at least I'll be less bored because of all the pooping"
"But I don't want to have a two hour labor!"
and of course,
"Lily, don't stick cheese up your nose"

Hope you all had a fun, more eventful weekend than I did ;]
Mae