I have a spare couple of minutes so it's time for the birth story. 

On Friday, September 30 at 3pm I woke up from a nice nap. I felt like baking some zucchini bread and cranking up some music. My due date had passed and I hadn't had any signs that labor was on the way. At 3:24, I felt what I thought could be a contraction so I glanced at the clock and decided if I felt something like that again I would write it down. Eleven minutes later I felt the same thing so I started keeping track. They kept happening 10-12 minutes apart and about 30 seconds long. I thought Jonathan would get home early from work at 4pm since it was a Friday so I didn't call him because I didn't want to make him panic. I figured he would be preparing his out-of-office information anyway in case I went into labor over the weekend. Well, he got home at 5pm and I showed him the times I had written down and he was in shock. I still wasn't convinced it was the real thing somehow. We called our doula, Tara, and she said to have dinner, take a walk, and if they stopped to not be discouraged.  Around 9pm while we were walking Shinobi they started increasing until they were 2-3 minutes apart but still only about 30 seconds long. I would stop and do a side-to-side lunge move that really helped me relax and then keep walking when it stopped. They slowed down a bit once we were done walking, but we called Tara again. She said to try and get some rest and keep updating her if things changed. It was 10pm by now and we laid down to rest. We definitely weren't able to rest though. At this point I think I pretty much had my eyes shut to focus until the moment she was born. Jonathan helped me relax and breathe in low tones and gave me tons of encouragement while lying in bed and getting up to go to the bathroom. There is absolutely no way I could have made it through this without him. This phase lasted until 2:30am and continued to build in intensity the whole time. There were many moments I wanted to quit. Jonathan called Tara and she came over. She massaged me a lot and had me try different positions. When I started to scream out "my spine!" she suggested we go to the hospital because that meant the baby was starting to get pretty low. We made the quick drive and I was checked in at 3:20am. Unfortunately, my doctor was sick so he couldn't be there as planned, but at that point I didn't care if a veterinarian showed up :). The nurse checked how dilated I was. I was so afraid it would be a low number because I didn't think I could go on much longer. When the nurse said I was 8cm it was just the boost I needed. My water broke and started to leak a little and Tara and Jonathan helped me change positions every few minutes. A little before 5am I was feeling like pushing so they got the squatting bar set up. At 5:16am my beautiful girl joined the world and everything else faded away. The doctor put her right in my hands and I put her immediately on my chest. After that, it was the usual "tidying up" procedures and we haven't looked back. 

It's amazing how instantly we just loved her and can't remember anything else. I feel so blessed to have had Jonathan and Tara praying for me and supporting me. It was definitely a team effort. After this experience, I am amazed at God's creativity in designing the birth process and creating our little girl.