Willa's Entrance Into the World

I don't even know where to start...there's so much I could say.  So I will start with our birth story.  A little over a week ago life took a drastic change for our family but the change has been better than I could have ever imagined.  

I started having contractions on Friday night but they were sporadic so I went about my weekend as usual.  At that point I had a feeling that despite all of our efforts she was not going to turn.  This made me a little sad because that meant labor wasn't going to go at all like I had wished (I know...I know...it rarely does).  But I had a strong feeling that I needed to come to terms with it and know there could be a very good reason why she wasn't turning and I shouldn't worry about it.  On Sunday, I became more uncomfortable but made it through church okay.  When I got home it hit...nesting...  I went crazy-cleaning toilets and folding laundry in between contractions.  It got to the point where I would have to stop and take a deep breath during contractions so I figured it might be the real thing.  After a hot shower didn't do anything for me, I timed them for about an hour and a half and they were consistently around 6-7 minutes apart.  At that point, my doula advised me she thought this was the real thing...so we headed to the hospital at about 10 p.m.  They hooked me up to the monitors and confirmed my contractions. When they checked I was about 4-5 cm dilated.  At that point they didn't waste any time because they didn't want my water to break.  Willa was pulled out feet first at 11:57 p.m.  We heard her gurgly cry before she was even all the way out.

As it turns out, I believe there was a clear reason she was born by c-section.  When they were in there the doctor found a small cyst on my fallopian tube.  He was able to go ahead and remove it.  It's nothing to be concerned about at this point, but who knows if it could have been down the road.  Our little snuggle bug (as dad calls her) was just looking out for old mom and keeping her head up :)  Side note: she also has a nice shaped melon since she kept that pretty little head up and out of the birth canal.

We got home from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon and we are all doing great!  Healing from a c-section has been a little frustrating at times, but I'm thankful to have Seth at home for a while so all I have to do is worry about feeding and snuggling our baby girl.

Please enjoy a few of the million photos I have taken thus far (I'm a little out of control)...

And in case that isn't enough, here is a link to her first photo shoot at the hospital.  These photos will be up until November 12.

http://www.bellababyphotography.com/galleries/thau1029brockmeyer?as=slideshow