Aletta has Arrived! (a few months ago ;) )

Aletta Louise Borg was born at 11:37 pm on August 24, 2011. The first contractions started just after midnight on the 24th. By 3:30 am I woke Kyle up to let him know that I was having contractions painful enough that I couldn't sleep. Around 5:30 am we went for a walk around our block to try to keep things moving. We were facing a scheduled C section that Friday if Aletta hadn't arrived by then. Because I had a C section with Judah (he was breech) they wouldn't induce me and the doctor was worried about letting me go too far past my due date (Aletta was born 11 days late).
That whole morning I kept having contractions about 10 minutes apart that were actually pretty intense. Kyle and I went on our 2 mile loop around our neighborhood 4 times that day :) At about 1:00 pm we were getting kind of discouraged. I was having painful enough contractions that I couldn't really focus on anything else but they weren't coming any closer together. At this point I decided to try to lay down and try to rest for a little while. I was able to fitfully sleep until about 3:00 pm. When I got up I decided to call my doctor and see if I could come in and at least get my cervix checked to see if any progress was being made.
We went in at 4:00 pm and I was 3 cm and 70 % effaced. The day before at my appointment I had been 2 cm and 30 % effaced so I had made a little progress. The doctor stripped my membranes again and we headed home to see what would happen. Once we got home my contractions intensified even more but stayed about 8 minutes apart. I just kept doing things around the house and taking care of the kids, stopping to focus when I had a contraction. At around 8:00 pm I was in the kitchen talking to my Mom and I had a contraction. My Mom kept talking and I kind of shortly told her to not talk to me. This signaled to her that my labor was getting pretty serious. She mentioned to Kyle that we might want to head to the hospital (we had been wanted to labor at home as long as we could).
In between contractions I put the kids to bed and finished packing my hospital bag. We left for the hospital at 8:45 pm. It is only a mile down the road so thankfully I didn't have a contraction on the way :) My contractions never got any closer together than 8 minutes which really threw me off. I was discouraged and thought I was still in early labor because of this. When we got to the hospital they put me in a triage room to check me and see if I could be admitted. The nurse checked me at about 9:15 pm and I was 6 cm with a bulging water bag. I was very excited to hear this! I was encouraged that all of these painful contractions had been accomplishing something. At this point Kyle called our friend Heidi (she was acting as our Doula) and told her she better head to the hospital. I kind of regret that we didn't call her earlier because she had a hour to drive, but it all turned out in the end.
I was admitted and taken up to my room at about 9:45. I was still having SUPER intense contractions every eight minutes. I was thankful to have a rest in between contractions but these were worse than the contractions I had with Evie when I was on Pitocin. I decided that I would really like an epidural (they are amazing btw) because we were past the point that it would make my labor stall. I had to get a full bag of fluids before they would give it me so I didn't get the epidural until about 10:30 pm (just shortly after Heidi arrived). I was SOO thankful once the epidural kicked in. I was exhausted from being up the night before and having such intense contractions. Heidi, Kyle and I were able to talk and relax a bit until I was ready to push.
At about 11:10 pm my water broke and they noticed that there was meconium in the water. Because of this there were a few extra nurses present when Aletta was born. Also there were several students that asked to observe because they don't see VBACs very often. Anyway I started pushing at about 11:20 pm and our baby girl was born at 11:37 pm. I was very pleased with how everything turned out. The Lord was very good to us! I'm super thankful to have been able to have a successful VBAC. The recovery this time was so much easier than with Judah. Aletta had to have some deep suction done because of the meconium in the water but otherwise she didn't have any problems. She weighed 6 pounds 7 ounces and was 18.5 inches long.

He is such a good Daddy :)

Evie and Judah came to the hospital the next morning to meet Aletta! They loved her right away :)

Sometimes its hard to believe that we have three children. They are such blessings!

Aletta at about 1 week.

Four weeks!

10 weeks!

Aletta today (11 weeks tomorrow!)
Our little baby is so precious. She is very happy and content most of the time. Aletta is a great sleeper: usually sleeping from around 9 pm to 6 am. This is a huge blessing! I feel better than I have in a long time. Aletta is very smiley and she just laughed for the first time last week :) Her brother and sister adore her! She keeps pretty entertained during the day sitting in her bouncy seat and watching Evie and Judah. It's hard to believe that before too long she will be playing right alongside them :)