Ava Corinne!

So here is the story:

Tuesday morning at about 4:00 a.m. I woke up with a crampy feeling. I got up, peed, and went back to bed. At about 6:00 the same thing happened and I thought..."hmmm..maybe!?" I felt the cramps off and on until about 8:00 a.m. when I decided to get up and go tell Rob.
Based on what it felt like, they were happening about every 10-15 minutes and lasting about 30 seconds. We got up and went for a walk around our neighborhood, the contractions still feeling very manageable. When we got home I decided I should probably do some last minute preparations on the house, so I cleaned the bathrooms and threw in a load of laundry. The pressure was getting a little more intense so I decided to call my doula (aka: mom) and have her come over at around noon. She stopped by the store to pick up a few "birthing snacks" and was over shortly thereafter.
We decided to sit down and start to really time these things to see what we were really looking at. They were lasting about 1 1/2-2 mintues and were about 8-10 minutes apart. Until all of the sudden we had a short break. We went about 16 minutes in between a few, but they were lasting longer at 2 minutes each and seemed a bit stronger. Out of nowhere, at about a quarter to 3:00 in the afternoon they switched from that time to being only two or three minutes apart. At first I thought it was a fluke so decided to just play it out for a few minutes to see if this really was a pattern we were developing. After several of really fast ones like that I decided I'd better call my midwife, Brigitte, this was about 3:00 in the afternoon.
Now that they were coming on fast and strong I decided to go up and start a tub to see if that would help to keep me focused in my hypnosis cues I had been practicing. On the way up the stairs I lost my focus, though and had a moment where I felt almost frantic. I had to stop half way up the stairs to work through a contraction while Rob rubbed on my lower back, which helped a ton! We got upstairs finally and the tub was almost done filling up for me. Once I got into the tub, Rob put on a hypnosis CD for me while my mom supported my head and whispered cues into my ear. It was intense at this point. I new that I had to focus or else this wasn't going to be the experience I had hoped for and would be very painful. So I focused. Rob took pictures and I look like I was asleep! My midwife got here at about 3:45 and things moved very fast from there. She did an internal exam and said that I was fully dilated and that whatever I was doing was perfect becuase I was moving right along. The next few contractions pretty much just took over my body. I felt my body pushing, without the actual conscious effort of doing it. I was so into my hypnosis that I couldn't even waver from it long enough to form a sentence to anyone or I knew I would lose focus , so I would instead communicate by saying as little as possible and just say things like "pushy!" when I felt my body pushing, or "talk" when I needed my mom to give me cues. Finally, during a nice strong push I felt a pop and my water broke! I pushed maybe four or five times, for a total of 12 minutes and Ava was born! Counting from the time my contractions picked up steadily at about 8:00 a.m., my labor lasted a total of 9 hours, 50 minutes.

She weighed in at 8 lbs. 4 oz, measuring 21 inches long. She is so beautiful and healthy and has picked up on nursing like a little pro. At first Jocelyn was a little apprehensive and acted shy around Ava, but she warmed up quick and always says things like "Baby Aba coot!"
I've been recovering great, and almost feel like I'm back to normal already. We're trying to get
some sleep during the nights but we've had plenty of help with Rob being home and my mom taking a few days off of work to help out.