Willa's Birth

Oh my goodness, we can hardly believe our little girl is here! I keep looking at her and thinking "oh, you!" Right now she's asleep on her dad who has so diligently fed me, diapered her, walked and rocked her in another room so that I could nap, and tended to our neglected kitties and chickens. On this, her second day of life, we thought we'd update you all (amazing, beloved friends and family!) on how she came into the world.

It all started with Frankenweenie in 3-D at the IMAX thanks to Mary and Guillaume!

This may not be what you were imagining. But hang in there! Wednesday afternoon after attending a baby shower at CJ's work, I let him know that I was not feeling up to hanging around and touring their new building and took myself home. I had seen my sister that morning and my mom came over in the afternoon. Both of them said it looked like Whoosie had dropped lower and noted that I was looking and behaving differently. CJ came home and we decided that instead of just hanging out, we would go on our IMAX date, which was totally fun and ridiculous. And I'm so glad we did! That night, I woke up at 3am and went to the kitchen to have a snack and noticed that my water was leaking! Since the water was clear, I decided in great disbelief to just nap on the couch and wait to wake anyone up till the morning. Around 7:30am, Cj woke up (I did not wake him!!) and I told him I thought my water was broken. His exact response? "Holy shit, holy shit!" We then called our amazing midwife Sam who asked me many questions and basically encouraged me to hang in there and see if things got started on their own, not knowing if I was ruptured or just leaking. Cj went into work for a few hours and I got to work doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, and basically hyper-nesting. Cj came home and mom and dad came by with tons of food and good wishes and then left us. Around noon we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and I was very glad we didn't go too far because the rest of my water started to go while we were out! We hustled back home with no doubt that Whoosie was going to make an entrance sooner than anticipated. 

Still, the next few hours were spent in frenzied calm, taking care of things around the house, calling work,  and moving furniture around to prepare. Bre came over around 2:30 with more food and knitting. We all decided to watch Downton Abbey as my contractions started picking up. I wandered the house while they watched, popping in for dramatic moments and generally feeling very much myself. Cj was timing contractions and probably getting frustrated with me because I kept saying "uh...I think that one just ended." In hindsight, I see that meant I wasn't in active labor yet. 

Fast forward a few hours later, and I was feeling pretty consistently uncomfortable so Cj decided to call Sam. She came at 7:30pm and checked me and while I was almost completely effaced, I was only 1.5 centimeters dilated! Needless to say, I was disappointed and realized I was in for a longer, harder journey than I had imagined. She left us for a while until Cj called her back around 10:30pm as it appeared I was entering into transition. Over the next 2 hours I dilated the last few centimeters and basically went completely out of my mind and into my body. I ended up pushing for a little under and hour and baby Willa was born at 1:30am in our bed to  much fanfare and incredible relief on my part. We had planned a water birth and I certainly spent time in the tub those last few hours of contractions, but it ended up not being the right place for the birth in the end. It was funny because her umbilical cord was fairly short so I couldn't pull her up to see her little face because we waited to cut the cord until it stopped pulsing - and it just kept on pulsing! I will have to check with Sam, but I'm pretty sure it was at least 8 or 9 minutes. Cj got to check her out and reported to me on her features and fingers and we waited 5 minutes or so just to spend a little time with our baby before checking the sex and finding out she's a girl! (Just like mama thought). As Cj reported earlier, she weighed 7 lbs even and was 20 inches long, with some really sweet little fat rolls on her arms and thighs. I realize if she had waited to her due date she would have been closer to 8.5 lbs!!

Sam was incredible, staying until after 4am to care for me and Willa, help start breastfeeding, and provide Cj and I with teaching to help us for the next few days at home. Little Willa appears to be perfectly healthy and took a nice long 4-5 hour snooze her first night in the world. Unfortunately, this mama heeded no advice about sleeping during this time as well, because I just could not stop staring at her! She makes tiny little singing noises sometimes in her sleep (perhaps it's just nose mucus, but so cute) and has so many little faces already.

 Willa Piper Holt, newly born and rosy pink!

After just a few hours together on the outside, we all fell pretty madly in love. She's a calm little soul with a little bit of curly dark hair and the deep blue eyes of a newly born babe. She also has the most incredible daddy, who was a truly remarkable support to me in labor and has been caring for us so tenderly and selflessly these past 2 days. We are so lucky and so grateful to all of you for your love and support.