Thursday, Dec 9 I woke up around 5 am having a few contractions. I went to the bathroom and saw that I was also starting to have bloody show. I felt excited...I was sooo ready to meet my baby girl...perhaps she would come soon!! Through out the day I continued having random contractions, nothing timeable, but definitely contractions. I also continued having bloody show. By the time Glen came home that evening I was pretty sure we were going to have our baby soon. I told him we better get things ready for labor. By about 7 pm I started keeping an eye on the clock and my contractions had gotten to 7 minute apart. At that point they weren't too painful yet, but as the evening went on I had to stop what I was doing and breathe through them. Glen got busy setting up the birth pool and getting everything ready. I rushed around the house picking toys up and folding laundry. I could not bear the thought of having a baby and looking around and seeing a cluttered house. =) Finally when everything was set up and cleaned to my satisfaction we put Decklin to bed and relaxed. At about 11 pm we went to bed. By this time my contractions were getting pretty painful so I didn't know if I could sleep through them or not, but I knew I should try anyhow. I did fall asleep and managed to sleep till almost 1 am, when a particularly strong contraction woke me up and then the sleeping was over for me. I laid in bed for the next few hours, relaxing through the contractions and watching the clock to see how close they were. They were still about 6-7 minutes apart. They would last around a minute and a half. I was doing pretty good handling the pain, but my back was the worst! I definitely had more back labor with this baby than with my 1st. Finally about 4 am I woke Glen up and begged him to stay awake with me and rub my back. I think my words were "I'm tired of doing this by myself!!!". =) It took him a bit, but he finally woke himself and rubbed my back through contractions and timed them. They were still about 5-7 minutes apart and 1-1/2 minutes long. Then things started to pick up a bit and soon they were  4 minutes apart. At 5:30 I told Glen I was ready to get in the birth pool. He got it filled up and I came downstairs at 6. It felt so good and I stayed in for a few contractions until they started to get farther apart again. I got out then because I was afraid the water was slowing things down. Glen checked my dilation at that point (yes I think I have a budding midwife..er..midhusband on my hands) and I was around 4-1/2. I was so dissapointed that i hadn't progressed farther. I thought surely after 12 hrs of labor I would be farther along. I told Glen he might as well go take a nap and let me try to get things going. I was discouraged. My contractions were very painful and strong, lasting 2 minutes or more, but they weren't getting any closer than 7 minutes apart. The general rule of thumb is when the contractions are 4 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute consistently for 1 hr, that's when you call the midwife and things are definitely going somewhere. And since a natural tendency is to compare things to an experience you've already had, I compared my labor to when I labored with Decklin and it was entirely different. With him my contractions got steadily closer and closer together until they were 3-4 minutes apart and continued that way. With this one my contractions were soooo long and hard, but not close. So I started thinking I wasn't truly in labor. I was texting my sister, telling her "I'm so discouraged...I don't think I'm gonna have this baby today, but I don't know how I can just deal with having contractions all day long". I called my midwife at 9 and told her what was happening. She gave me a few ideas to try to make things move and said to call her if the contractions got closer. I got off the phone and burst into tears. I told Glen "I HAVE to either be in labor or not...I just can't deal with this!". Since Decklin had just gotten up and I felt unable to handle things with him I went upstairs to lay in bed. Glen's sister came over around 10:15 to watch Decklin and Glen came up a bit later to see how I was doing. I remember how I was laying in my bed, sooo discouraged, enduring very painful contractions, but still thinking it was just the beginning of labor since they were 7 minutes apart. Glen came in and asked how I was doing. I told him I was miserable, haha, and that I couldn't just keep doing this forever. So he suggested that he check me again and see if by any chance anything was changing. He did and, wow, were we surprised to find I was almost fully dilated and the baby's head was pretty far down already. My emotions changed from discouraged to excited as I realized I WAS going to have a baby and very soon it appeared! All that laboring was NOT in vain. =) Glen called my midwife and let her know and she said they'd be on their way immediately. I went and got in my birthpool again and, oh my, did it feel good!!! My friend Rachel came over at about 11 and she pulled out a magic touch on my back. I had given up on Glen making my back feel better as he simply didn't have "the touch". But somehow Rachel was able to find the right spots and helped relieve my back labor. I was sooo thankful for that. It was snowing like crazy and the roads were bad so my midwives didn't get there until noon. By then I was fighting the urge to push. I was afraid if I started pushing we'd have a baby but no midwife. My midwife checked me when she came and said I had a tiny bit of cervix to get past yet and if I wanted to I could push a bit. She also broke my water at this point to help things along. At this point fear kicked in that I'd have to push for 3 hrs like I had with my first. I looked at Glen and said "I'm so scared...I don't know how I can do that again". At about 12:15 I started pushing and I could feel it was different this time...I could actually feel her moving down with each push. With Decklin I always felt like my pushes were doing no good...I couldn't feel him moving down. With this one I KNEW something was working. Although it still felt like I could never get her out, I knew I would have to. And my dear dear hubby was the best support. He believed in me and kept me believing in myself. And my sweet little Decklin.  He never got worried about me or anything, would just come and give mama kisses and even at one time brought me snow to eat. It was soo precious to have him there, to see his sweet little smile the whole morning. And of course Rachel and my 2 midwives were AWESOME! Rachel continued to give just the right pressure on my back, even though she had to lean over the side of the pool and she's 4 months pregnant!! She later told me her legs were aching by the time it was over!! Bless her heart! And my midwives coached me through my pushing, telling me when to push and encouraging me that I was doing great. And of course I can't forget Glen's sister Martha. She was SUCH a blessing, taking care of Decklin and getting me water and other little things. And then at 12:51 I gave my final push, I knew she was sooo close and I wanted to hold my baby girl. And oh the joy when she was born!!! I was still in the pool so they pulled her up out of the water and she was soooo gorgeous. The first moment scared me as I saw she had the cord wrapped around her neck 2 times, but they quickly loosened it and she gave a few "sputters" and started to breathe. My midwife handed her to me and I fell in love!!! She was PERFECT!!! I just could hardly believe my long awaited baby girl was finally here. Decklin was quite amazed at a baby coming up out of the water. He just kept pointing and saying "baby baby!". We tried to get him to say her name, but he wouldn't say it so Glen announced that it was Natalie Rose. Natalie means "Born at Christmas" which we thought was quite appropriate. And her middle name is special because it is my mom's name and also my middle name. It fits her perfectly!!! Glen cut the cord and they took her and wrapped her up to get her warm. Decklin immediately had to check her out. After we were all cleaned up a bit they got me settled on the couch and Natalie nursed for awhile. She was quite a little piggy right away!! She knew exactly what to do. She was still looking really gray, like her blood hadn't quite starting circulating right. But then they gave her a bath and of course that set her to wailing quite loudly and she pinked up real fast!! They bathed and dressed her and weighed and measured her. My little princess was a peanut! She weighed 7 lb 6 oz and was 19-1/2 inches long. Compared to her brother she was TINY!!! A whole lb and 2 inches smaller. They brought her back to me and she just looked so gorgeous...just perfect and sweet. My heart nearly burst with pride and thankfullness.
I thank God for my 2 precious children and the beautiful home births we've been able to have. I know many people never have the privilege of having children and we are so blessed.

My wishes for Natalie...
May you be beautiful, not just on the outside, but on the inside, where it counts most. Be sweet and kind, humble, gracious and loving.
I hope every person you meet is blessed by a genuine smile that come out of your heart and reaches your face.
Be a true lady, with enough courage and heart and determination to do whatever you put your mind to, and yet enough grace to let go of your own will when needed.
Someday an awesome guy will come along and sweep you off your feet (but not till MUCH later!!!!) and take care of you the way your daddy takes care of me. May your home be filled with happiness and Godliness.
Dream big baby girl, reach for the stars. Never let anyone discourage you or tell you you're not good enough. You just dream as big as you can!
Don't EVER buy in to what the world around you tells you!! YOU ARE SPECIAL just the way you are. Don't compare yourself to others. You are PERFECT. Don't ever doubt that!
Have fun in life, laugh alot! A joyful heart is a blessing to everyone around it.
Wherever life takes you...always come back and give mama and daddy a hug! We love you forever and always!
Most of all I pray you love Jesus with all your heart! He loves you with a love beyond comprehension. Give your life to Him and trust Him with your heart. We (your earthly parents) may let you down, we may hurt you and make mistakes. But your heavenly Father will NEVER let you down.

decklin and i went to the park yesterday and i TRIED to take a fall photoshhot. haha..the park isn't the best place for that it turns out. decklin just wanted to play and watch the other kids that were there. i did get some cute ones tho.

i just love this pic...looks like he's looking up at God and saying "me?".

crawling through the "train"...

sliding...such a big boy!!

his absolute favorite thing to do at the park is swing!!!

he is growing sooo fast!! he started saying mama yesterday. he's been saying dada for a while so i was ready for mama to come! lol. he says it constantly. he's such a blessing. i don't know what we did without him!

i'm keeping fairly busy with my sewing business. i'm making girl dresses with matching doll dresses. and some pjs and things. i enjoy doing it and it makes me a little bit of money.

glen's been busy trucking. i haven't gone along for about 2 months now. just different reasons, we've been really busy with stuff at home on the weekends and then it just makes it hard to get around and go. and now i'm waiting for my friend rachel to have her baby. she's due in about 2 weeks. so we're excitedly awaiting the new arrival. glen misses us when we stay home, and i do want to get started going again, it just gets a little harder when there's a little one involved. he doesn't like to stay in one spot very well and i'm afraid he won't know what to do when he has such a small area to crawl around in!

i went to MOPS this morning for the first time. i took my friends rachel and kylie along. it was fun!! decklin wasn't too sure about the whole "Childcare" thing, but he did alright. i just had to go back a couple times and settle him and then he was fine. it's good for him i think, to learn to be ok for a couple hours without mommy. and it's good for me to leave him now and again and learn to let go and relax. it's just the mommy instinct to clutch a child i guess.

here i sit on my lazy butt this saturday morning....

sometimes i hate saturdays....they just aren't what they used to be. growing up saturday we were always together as a family. not necesarily doing fun stuff, but together. we'd work around the house or whatever. now it's just another work day. i cried this morning after my hubby left. i mean, i understand, he has to keep up with his work. it's just...i want to spend time together, as a family....i look forward to someday when maybe saturdays will be right again.

in the mean time....i guess i should be cleaning my house. my fridge needs to be cleaned out. blech.. and my bathroom needs to be cleaned. again...blech!!

last night i had a baby shower for my dear friend rachel. it was lots of fun! she got lots of nice things and we all had a good time. she's due nov 20...can't wait to meet my new "nephew". decklin will have lots of fun with someone to play with. lol..if we can keep him from tearing the baby up when he's little.

my mom was around the other week. she (and my lil sis) flew in to go to my cousin's wedding in sc. they flew into dc and then doug and dinah and us and mom and tori all traveled to sc together. what a ride!! after we came back then i went back to dinah's house and hung out with her and mom  and tori for 2 days. it was fun to be with them again. decky loves his grandma!

well, decky is sleeping so i should run along and get some work done while i have a chance.