I woke up at 3:30am throwing up with what I thought was the flu since my mom had been there that weekend with the flu. I would have a few contractions afterwards but they would taper off. At different points over the next couple of hours I would think "yeah, this is it!" but then the contractions would change and become less painful or less frequent or whatnots. Anyway, I basically leaned over the counter or couch and rocked my hips from side to side.

I finally quit throwing up and my sweating ceased. I thought I could finally lay down and get some z's before everyone else woke up (I had gone downstairs so as not to keep waking everyone up with my vomiting). A few minutes after I had lain down on the couch I felt a small pushing contraction which brought me to the land of the awake quickly. It actually felt like those sensations I had been having for the past 7 weeks cause the baby was so far down on my cervix. After 20 minutes of nothing happening I was starting to fall asleep again when this huge ferocious pushing contraction hit me and I felt the baby come down the birth canal and begin to crown... but I was in the land of denial cause my water hadn't broken, etc... so I reach down to make sure and sure enough I feel her head!

I hollered for my dh and my dc made it downstairs in an instant. My oldest dd quickly assessed the situation and ran back upstairs to tell dh to hurry up that the baby was coming now. Little did he realize, she actually meant the baby was coming now, not that I was simply in labor. So here he is trying to figure out who to call while I'm resting and waiting on the next urge to push. Everything he asked I simply said no to because I was just wanting to concentrate on pushing out the baby, applying counterpressure, etc, etc.

I finally have another urge to push and I pushed while applying counterpressure to the weaker regions and attempting to hold her head all at the same time.... well she came flying out with nothing but her feet still inside of me. I saw she had the cord looped around her neck twice and I kept telling Paul to unwrap the cord because I really wanted him to touch the baby. So here I am trying to pick up this wet and slippery new babe while he unloops the cord... he also realized that she had landed on a penny and it was stuck to her head. That actually made him smile for the first time through this whole thing.

It was sooooo amazing! I pulled her on up to my chest and she opened her little eyes and just started looking around. My oldest daughter was already right beside me and the others came running up to see the new baby. My youngest son declared, "My baby!" immediately, while my younger daughter said, "I just love this new baby!" (and continued to repeat that to anyone who we met for the next week). The other two just oohed and awed over her. She never cried - just made small peep when I was massaging her back. She coughed a couple of times over the next hour and expelled the fluid from her lungs. We cut the cord about an hour and a half after birth. Oh and she's nursing very well and has been sleeping through the night from the very beginning. That was a major surprise as I had been expecting to wake up several, if not many, times a night.

I didn't tear at all, I bled very little and I had very little pain during that whole process. In fact my afterbirth pains were the kickers. I was up and going so soon afterwards. I do tend to overdo it a lot so I forced myself to take it easy for two weeks... every time I started to do something during those two weeks I would start to bleed a bit heavier and brighter, so I know resting up was the best thing for me. But I got around just fine and life was great (still is). I normally take 6 to 8 weeks to fully recoup after having a baby (this was number 5 for those who don't know) but this time I was up and going from the beginning without feeling like I had been beaten from the inside out. I also stopped bleeding by 2 1/2 weeks as compared to the full 5 1/2 to 6 weekes I normally take. No one could believe it when I showed up at my eldest son's baseball game when she was only 7 days old - looking and feeling like a million bucks!

Anyway she was born Monday, April 7, at 6:35am and weighed 6 lb 14 oz and was 19 3/4 in long. She finally got her name when she was two days old. What's really neat is that I had decided to name her after my Aunt Mahaley who died as an infant long before she was born. Well after I made the announcement to the family, another aunt said that it was neat she was named after her because Morgan Haley is the first baby born at home since Peggy Mahaley.

Anyhow, I guess that's all for now. I'm still not sure when my water broke but I guess it really doesn't matter much at all! Thank you for letting me share my UC story with y'all!