Today is my due date, and Misha is already 15 days old! How cool is that? Because Sasha was 8 days late I really didn't expect this, but it was a welcome gift.

I wasn't going to do this, but I think these are valuable information later, so here is the birth story. I don't remember it perfectly because it was more then 2 weeks ago, but here is my best guess. I think this isn't really appropriate for my other website. So here it is:

I also wrote another article about it HERE 

At 3:30 Monday morning I woke up because my back was hurting. I got up to pee and I realized that the hurting back was contractions. I had about 5 contractions in the next 10 minutes. They weren't horrible, but I knew that this was labor. So I woke up Ilija and asked him to start setting up the birth tub. I didn't have anything prepared yet because I wasn't even 38 weeks pregnant and I definitely didn't expect the baby to come so soon. Ilija said "are you serious" and I assured him I was serious and he got to work. While he did that I cleaned the bathroom and my bedroom so that everything would be nice while I was in labor. After about an hour of that my very consistent contractions slowed down. Finally at around 5:30 I went back to sleep for an hour or two. I had some more contractions, but I could sleep through them.

When I woke up again they had pretty much stopped. I started to doubt that I was in labor, but we mobilized the troops anyway. My dad helped to gather things and fill up the tub and I told my midwife that we needed a liner for the tub.

It was a Monday so our babysitter was here to play with the boys anyway. So Ilija and I hung out in our room watching White Collar on the tablet. Around 11:00 he left me to labor by myself in the room. I tried a few different positions, and I was having to start concentrating/breathing through contractions. They still were "early labor" though.

Finally around 1:00 I asked him to come upstairs and start squeezing my hips during contractions. I knew I was in active labor for sure. At around 2:00 I had him call the midwife. She arrived around 2:30. They stayed for a little while, and I got into the tub. They checked the baby's heart tones and everything was fine. I wasn't ready to have the baby yet and they needed to gather some things, so they left again. My contractions were started to slow down in the tub, and I wanted to get the show on the road, so around 3:30 I got out of the tub. Contractions started coming much harder and much faster. I told Il to call the midwife and they were back by around 4.

By that time I was having lots of long contractions. I would pace in my bathroom and then when it started lean over the counter and have Ilija push on my hips. I tried to relax my whole body and picture my cervix opening up. I adjusted positions of my legs/hips to find ones that felt like they helped open me more. I kept getting louder and louder during the contractions, and definitely felt the need to moan during them. My legs were getting tired so I tried getting on the bed and leaning over a stack of pillows. That didn't work very well though, so I returned to my bathroom standing.

Then at some point I felt the need to bear down. I told the midwife that, checked to see if I could feel a head, and then got quickly in the tub. On my second contraction in the tub I gently bore down and felt my water break.

I think a few more contractions happened in the tub on my hands and knees where I tried to breath the energy out of my mouth instead of pushing so hard with the contractions. I needed to let the baby come slower then last time so I wouldn't tear. As soon as I felt him crowning I turned over and leaned back against Ilija. A few more contractions and I delivered his head. I still couldn't see him, but then on the next contraction I delivered his shoulders and whew! what a relief. It is an amazing feeling when that baby finally explodes out of there. :)

We brought the baby up to my chest and he just hung out there with us for a few minutes. It was 5:01. At some point I said "Ilija get your phone, we need a picture!" So the student midwife took a few pictures.

Then I went to the bed and delivered the placenta. He was awake and cried right away. He also latched on very quickly when we were snuggling on the bed together. He has been a champion breast feeder, sleeps a lot and has gotten snuggled to death by his brothers. They were so excited when they got to meet him for the first time. "He is so cute!"

I tore a little bit and got some stitches, but the recovery has been fairly easy. The worst part was the contractions for the first few postpartum days. They were awful, but they did flatten my belly very quickly.

I love snuggling and kissing Misha, I love laying on my back and stomach and I LOVE seeing all the boys together. Ilija is different this time around too. He is so excited about and connected to this little one. He isn't worried anymore or too distracted to enjoy. He is just totally smitten.

We are very happy to have our little man here! He is getting bigger and looking different all the time.