Lela has arrived!

We had a precious little girl on Friday, May 15th at 7:09 PM. She weighed 7 lb. 10 oz. and was 20.8 inches long. We named her Lela (LEE-luh) Katharine Alberta Smith. The birth was natural and a large part of the labor was in water. We had two midwives attending (one in training) and our friend Sarah as an assistant and massage therapist.

Here's the brief version of the birth story: Labor induction with breast pump began at 8:15 AM and by 11 AM thing had progressed enough to break my water. Jack says labor got really intense around 3 PM and by 5 PM I was ready to start pushing (though it was another hour before I was TOTALLY dilated (had 1 more cm to go). I did much of the hard labor in the waterbirth tub, but by around 6:45 PM the midwife suggested I try the bed again, as I had made more progress there about an hour before. It only took about 3-4 more rounds of contractions (4-5 pushes each) to give birth to Lela. Jack caught her with his bare hands (guided by the midwife) and put her on my chest right away. A few minutes went by before we discovered she was a girl. After about 10 minutes Jack cut the cord (we wanted to wait until it stopped pulsing). The placenta was born shortly after that.

We were discharged in 24 hours and spent our second night at home together in bed.

Baby Lela is now 2 weeks old, eating like a horse, making all sorts of noises, filling lots of diapers, and is truly a joy in our lives. Praise God for this beautiful miracle.