Marcelline Samus was born just an hour and a half shy of her due date on September 27th, at 1:29 AM. And wow, my little lady did not give us much warning at ALL. It's been a little over two weeks now, and I'm finally getting around to posting this. It's been crazy to say the least. SO... on Thursday, the 26th, Marci's EDD, i was feeling large and crappy as usual, and i had told myself that I was going to make a bunch of different kinds of Fudge to bring to the nurses in L+D for whenever Marci decided to come. It was mostly so i could take my mind off of how miserable i was, and keep busy.

I had been having prodromal contractions for about two weeks at this point, so while walking around the grocery store grabbing all the ingredients i needed, i was having contractions and moving pretty slow. I got some weird looks. The contractions were nothing unusual, and no worse than they had been for the past two weeks. I even posted a picture on my facebook and commented that i was sure Marci wasn't coming today. (sadface)

I got home around 4:30 from the store, and started cookin up the fudge! At about 8 pm, my contractions began to get a little worse. Not too terrible, but instead of being able to work through these ones, I would have to stop walking or moving, and just breathe through. at 8:45 i decided to start timing them. by 9:45, they were 1.5 min. long and about 5-7 min. apart consistently. I called my Doctor and she said to wait another hour to see what they do, and to call her back then. So we waited another hour, and all the while I was still cooking the batches of fudge, because dammit, I'm stubborn.

So at 10:45, the contractions were a minute long, and about 3-5 minutes apart, but still, not too terribly painful. I called my Doctor back, and she said that it could be true labor, and we should head on into L+D. We had already been to L+D two weeks ago when the prodromal contractions started, so we weren't getting our hopes up just yet. We figured it was false labor again. So, Hubby and I took our time. I finished the last batch of fudge that i had been working on, and we gathered out stuff together.

We ended up getting to the hospital at around 11:45, and got checked into the room. I went into the bathroom and got changed into my birthing gown, and as soon as I sat back down on the bed, my water broke all over the place. It was so sudden, and very much unexpected, and i got it all over the floor, and just started laughing. If we had waited another 10 minutes, we would've had a very messy car! I called the nurse in to tell her, and then had Hubby call his family and mine. My family lives an hour and a half away, and they had wanted to be there for the birth, so they started coming up immediately. Little did we know how things would progress from there...

I had regular contractions, that weren't too bad, until about 1 am, when my doctor came in and checked my dilation. I was at 4 cm, and she said it would probably be a while before i would have to start working. I had told them I wanted an epidural, but at that point, I was feeling fine, so we had held off.

I had been walking around a bit, so the nurse came in to put the belly monitors back on me. i leaned forward in the bed, and was holding onto the nurse's arm, and out of absolutely NOWHERE, i had a crazy huge contraction and felt like i had to push with all my life. I told the nurse that i felt like i needed to push, and she just kind of laughed, and told me "nah, we just checked you 10 minutes ago, you're only at 4 cm, it's not time to push yet. Don;t worry!". I laid back down, and a minute later i had another crazy big "push" contraction, that was so bad, i immediately threw up while having it. It flew out of my mouth so fast i had no idea it was coming. I shed my birthing gown and was fully nekkid then. Just totally didn't give a damn. That's when i demanded my Dr. come back in the room, and I told her i needed to push. She also just looked at me like I was crazy, but said she'd check my dilation to put me at ease.

Well, she checked, and i saw her eyes widen. She looked at me and laughed, and said, "Ok, well I will never doubt you again, you're fully dilated and effaced, and I can feel the head! So ya know what, we're gonna push!"

At that point, she asked me if i still wanted an epidural, but said that by the time they got it all done, the delivery might just be over. I thought about it for maybe 10 seconds, and then just said "Fuck it, lets get my baby out!". They got me all set up, and i had one giant push, which popped her head out VERY quickly. My doctor told me to look down, and i could see her little hair covered head sticking out of me, which was very unnerving for me. i decided to close my eyes at that point because i was scared shitless. After a few more minutes and a few tiny contractions, I had another big one, and one more huge push, and my Hubby told me her shoulders popped out one at a time, and at 1:29 AM, she flew out of me. They immediately put her on my chest, and she was all purple like the Grimace. I laughed, and cried, and looked at my Hubs who was doing the same, and all i could say was, "Look what we made!" they cut her cord, and she cried a little, and we immediately started breastfeeding. She latched like a damn pro! I was so proud. They said she came out so fast that her head wasn't misshapen or anything when she came out. She was beautiful. But i am slightly biased lol. She was born 7lbs, 8oz, and 19 inches long. Totally healthy, and had great color! My family ended up missing the delivery, and while i had originally wanted my mom and sister in the room during the delivery, I was actually really glad it was just me and my husband in the end.

I was happily shocked that it wasn't as painful as I was expecting. Oh, and the nurses thought it was hilarious that i was making them treats while having contractions. They absolutely loved the fudge too.

So it's been two weeks, and Marci is an amazingly good baby so far! She eats like a friggen MOOSE. At her 1 week appointment, she had gained over a pound since birth, which my doctor tells me is amazing for a baby who is EBF.

And now the pictures!