She's HERE!!!!

I'm happy to announce the arrival of Carolina Pearl Howard, born Sunday, October 24, at 8:42 in the evening. She weighed 9 lbs, 3 oz (!) and was 21.5 inches long. I do feel a little bit like I deserve a medal!
It's been a busy week since she was born but here's the scoop. Also, it's pretty long so I'm going to break it up with photos even though they won't be pictures of what's happening in the story.

So, being on bed rest from weeks 35-37 I thought that I would just go into labor the minute I was taken off bed rest. But obviously that didn't happen. Since I had been having contractions for weeks and I have a history of fast labors, combined with the fact that my amazing midwife, Susie, lives about an hour away, at 38 weeks Susie decided to do an exam to see if I was dilated (while OBs often do cervical checks routinely, midwives often do not as it doesn't necessarily tell you anything useful and can sometimes lead to infection). I was 5 cm dilated and about 50% effaced. Since I had walked around for a while at 6cm with Finn I didn't necessarily feel like I would go into labor at any minute (although I did hope I would!).
Then on Thursday, October 21, I had some harder contractions throughout the night so I called Susie that morning to let her know. She was attending a birth in Springfield (about an hour north) so she told me to lay down and not do anything to get things going! As soon as that birth was over, around 4pm, she and her assistant, Cindy, came to the house. She checked me and I was 8cm and 80% effaced. The baby was still high up so we started lots of natural/homeopathic things to get labor going. (At this point I still wasn't having any timeable, painful contractions, just the same mild cramps I'd been having all along.) My best friend, Tiffany, and my mom and sister, Erin, came to the house and it looked like the herbs, etc. were working and from about 8pm to 11:15pm we walked up and down the street, around in the house, got on hands and knees, got in this crazy pretzel position to bring down the baby, and even had to lay down in bed for an hour or so to concentrate on getting through my contractions. As it got closer to 11:15 the contractions just started fizzling out. Finally Susie tucked me into bed and said I should get some rest. I told her, "I really don't think there's any way I can go to sleep but if you say so..." and then the next thing I knew, it was 5:15 and there was a houseful of people sleeping on my floor, couches, etc! Susie checked me again and things had not changed AT ALL.
Everyone went home and I felt really discouraged. I kept taking the herbs and trying other things to get my labor started again but nothing helped. Friday was also Susie's birthday and she said she hadn't delivered very many babies with the same birthday as her so we were really hoping it would be that day. Friday passed with virtually no contractions. Saturday we went for a hike at Radnor Lake, hoping that would stir things up. Nope.
Finally on Sunday morning as we walked around the neighborhood with the kids we called Susie and asked her if she'd come over after church and see if anything had changed. We attend the same church but she said she was planning on staying home because 3 of her 5 kids were home to celebrate with a birthday lunch. She said she would come over around 4pm. We went to church in the meantime and enjoyed getting out of the house and being with people. Once the kids were in nap/rest time I resumed the herbs, pretzel position, and hands and knees, hoping to help bring her down. By the time Susie arrived at 4pm and checked me I was 100% effaced and the baby HAD moved down. Hooray! So we called back the troops and my mom and step-dad, Benton, took Maggie and Finn for dinner and we kept doing all the same things. I think this would be a good time to tell you that the herbs I took, tincture of black and blue cohosh, taste like dirt dissolved in nail polish remover. One time when I took it it was so nasty that I immediately threw it all up. I took about 15 doses of this over the course of four days. The kids came home at 7 in time for Finn to go to bed, which he did, and then things got going.
Erin and my mom and Tiffany came back to the house. Right at 8pm Susie checked me, said the baby was low enough that she felt comfortable breaking my water so she did! About a minute later I had a VERY intense contraction that lasted about 2 minutes. Thirty seconds after that I had another CRAZY-long, CRAZY-hard contractions. Okay, this was for real now! So from 8pm to 8:40pm it felt like one long contraction. It was a little hard to manage because the contractions were so long (4 minutes!) with a very short break in between, and sometimes one would start to wane and before it was even all the way gone another one would start. I never get rude or mean in my labors but I do remember getting mad at Grant that his back rubs didn't seem to help. I didn't say anything but I was mad at him, even though I knew it wasn't his fault. After a little bit I started feeling like I was going to throw up and I wanted to push. They called for Maggie to come in and she did. Even in the middle of it all I had the presence of mind to try to convince her to stay, that I was working hard but it was okay. She stayed approximately 5 seconds and then turned around and left! Oh well. I pushed for about 5 minutes and then I was holding her in my arms! Tiffany was there the entire time and took so many great photos, and then as soon as Carolina was born Maggie, my mom, and Erin all came into the room so it was just like one big love fest for Carolina.

My best friend Tiffany, who is a wonderful artist and photographer, took some amazing photos that Grant will put together in a slide show so I can't wait to post that.
Meanwhile we've had my mom here for the first week and my in-laws for the second week and it's just been a sweet time with our family. Carolina was pretty jaundiced, requiring us to go to the hospital overnight, but she's doing great now. The big kids are having fun with the various grandparents staying here and Maggie thinks she's won the sibling lottery. Finn's having a little harder adjustment but he's really doing pretty well, too. I just don't know how I got so lucky to get to mother all these wonderful children. Thank you God!
Here's a photo of my sweet little guy to finish off the post.