Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

This is a photo of her being weighed. Such a sweet and gentle scale.

At exactly midnight on July 13th, we welcomed Fina Marie Blair into our family. Weighing 6lbs, 10 oz. 20 3/4 in long. 9 days past her due date but looking at her she was not very post dates! Maybe my dating was a little off.
Her birth story will always blow my mind. Okay all my NICU friends, gasp now, after much research and a lot of faith in my wonderful Midwives, Doug and I decided that we wanted to do a home birth. I am not here to defend that decision but I do want to tell you about how Fina came into this world.
After many contractions since 38 weeks, contractions that never turned into labor, I was 3 to 4cm's dilated at my appointment Monday morning. My sweet midwife listened to my concerns about having a late baby and agreed to break my water on Monday evening to get things going. I had usual contractions all day Monday then arrived at my Midwifes office at 7:30pm. We decided to leave Cooper at my parents house because we knew we might be going into labor that night. She broke my water at 8pm. It was nice clear fluid. I was still about 4cm's at that time. She told us to order out birth tub and go home and get some rest, she felt confident that labor would soon begin. Contractions were stronger when they happened but not more often. The tub people arrived and set up and begin to fill the tub. Because it takes more than one hot water heater to fill it up, they showed Doug how to finish and left us. At around 9:45 we got into bed to try and rest. My contractions were still anywhere from 3-6 min apart. I rested a bit but felt uncomfortable laying down. At 10:20 I woke Doug up to finish filling up the tub. The contractions suddenly got much stronger and more regular but still not lasting very long. At 11 they began to get closer. I decided we should call our Midwives. She called back at 11:04 and I was able to talk to her through a few contractions. She said she felt I was actually in labor and that she would come over. At that point things really changed. I was swaying back and forth in the door way of Coopers room leaning up against the door jam during contractions. Then, I felt a change and and urge to push. I said, "Doug, I think I need to push, is that possible?" He said "highly unlikely". Then I had a contraction and could not help it. I said " I think the baby is coming" then I felt scared because we were alone still. He asked me if I wanted to lay down and that sounded awful. I looked at the tub he was filling and said "are you done?" He said "I think its full enough" I walked over to the tub, dropped my shorts, climbed in, knelled down and put my hand down and felt my babies head crowning. At that moment my midwives walked in and I said very urgently and loudly "she is coming out" and with a few grunts and hardly any pain, my midwife and I pulled up a healthy baby girl. This was 3 min after our midwives arrived at exactly Midnight, just 45 min from when I talked to her on the phone thinking I still had lots of time.
I sat back in the tub and we admired our beautiful girl. We sat in the tub for an hour. She hardly cried and was so peaceful. Classical music was playing. Shortly after she was born, my sister and dear friend and mom arrived to help us with labor but were greeted with a baby instead. When I was ready, I passed our baby off to her daddy and Doug got some skin to skin time with his new girl. My sweet midwives helped me to shower in my own shower, checked me over, then wrapped me up and I had champagne and cheese in my living room while whey weighed and checked out my baby (yes she got eyes and thighs at home). After many hours of making sure that we were healthy and that Fina was nursing well, they tucked us into our bed and left us. Doug and I were so relaxed and happy with our new baby girl.
Cooper arrived as we woke up in the morning. He walked into our room and I said "Cooper, who is this?" He said "It's Fina" as if she had always been there. He checked her out, cuddled with us and then went about his day. He has been so great so far.
Giving birth to Fina was fast and lovely. Now, back to my family.