Wouldn't be without it: A Gift, A Miracle

Wow! I had another baby. Just looking at photos again of her birth after all this time has made me cringe a little but you know what i'll get over it :) My desire to have another baby is stronger than my will to avoid pain (but that's still pretty strong)

Now if anyone doesn't want to hear any nitty grittys of how Macey came into the world. Stop reading here. I really like to share my birth experiences and especially remember them.

First to hit it off. Some pre-birth pics!

Cooking meals to freeze for the first month after bubby came.

At My friend Imogen's wedding 2 weeks before my due date. And yes my feet were SORE at the end of that long day. But so worth it for you Immy xo

So Macey came on the 12th August 2011. For some reason in the last scan I had I was given two dates one was the 10th and one was the 12th. So she actually came right on time even though I "thought/hoped" I would go early.

The day started out like any other for a heavily pregnant lady about to pop but I think River knew something was going on because he was particularly challenging so I promised him i'd take him to the park (mistake number one). When it was time to go I had started having more regular but mild contractions. I popped into my neighbour for some reason and she agreed to accompany me to the park (few) I don't know how I would have got River and I back in one peice if she wasn't with me. My contractions got stronger and stronger & River was getting clingy & ended up spewing over my should (oh dear a sign of things to come with dealing with the fact he's not the one and only anymore?)

Well after that ordeal I came home and after numerous phone calls to Jimmi telling him I was ready to have him by my side the last call was a little more like "You can come home now!" Yes they were getting stronger and stronger.

My mother in law Cathy came over as well to watch over River when it was finally time to go to the hospital & it was actually really good and fun (as fun as it can be) to have her there counting my contractions & encouraging me to walk through it (which really helped). Pretty sure they were a minute long and a minute appart before I actually left the house screaming out the window of the car backing out our driveway. Go me I say! But really I couldn't have done it without Cathy, Jimmi & of coarse River who was patting me on the back through my contractions (what an angel). Pretty sure that was 9:00pmish...... then it was to the hospital and as I jumped in that chair & got pushed up the birth suite I must have had like 5 contractions.

To put it plainly the midwife who greeted us seemed cold and hard (not my kind of birthing buddy) but anyway she did her job. The other midwife was in training and I think I began scaring her when after a few goood loooong haaaard sucks of gas I started standing up on the bed

"wow wow Neet, what are you doing?"

To explain what was in my mind would be to exhausting to me right now but I know what I was thinking and it made sense to me at the time :) After that I promised to take the gas right and I did. after like 1 1/2 hours (which went by really fast) I was getting ready to push of coase they didn't believe me & were telling me to take the gas down but I couldn't. I knew I needed it because my contractions were coming over the top of each other and I needed the edge off it and that's what the gas does for me. It is magnificent. It is really a gift from heaven for me :) I love the stuff and am a total advocate :) Anyways... After telling everyone in the room to "Not listen to the midwife because I knew my own boddy" & slapping. Yes slapping my poor husband in the face for telling me something i apparently "didn't want to hear" it's safe to say I had totally scared the trainee so much so that Jimmi said she let go of my hand and backed away to the other side of the room. ggggggrrrrr..... I can be horrible sometimes. She was lovely and afterwards i'm pretty sure I apologised for anything mean I may have said or done (or at least I meant to.)

So anways before all that. I'm pushing and pushing and then out pops this head but it just stays there. Hold on she's supposed to just slip out in one push like tiny little River did. So after questioning whether she was ok or not and then giving the final push SHE CAME OUT!!!!!

WHAT A MIRACLE

And WHAT AN INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL, PERFECT LITTLE GIRL SHE WAS!

AMAZING.

I was honestly shocked and amazed! I literally could not get over how perfect she was. She attached on straight away and I have not had a problem breastfeeding ever since (she's now 6 months almost)

So after meeting this perfect little angel it all became so real and glorious. Our whole new life. But we were really stumped. What on earth to call this perfectly pretty little girl.

Well our criteria was it had to be elegant but cute. Pretty but still cool. hmm and it had to have a whopper of a meaning. so we searched our brains and crossed off a few names that were on the top of our list during pregnancy because nothing was "going"

Then we decided it had to end in an 'ie' sound. So we tried a bunch of names and then finally it was between Bonnie and Macey. Bonnie because she had such striking blue eyes & Bonnie means beautiful in I think Scotland. And Macey because we thought it just sounded totally cool. Then we found out the meaning which is "Gift of God" Well that pretty much did it for me. Jimmi needed a little bit more time to make sure we'd made the right decision. But that is exactly how I felt the moment she was born like Heavenly Father was handing her to me (not the midwives). It only took us two weeks of calling her Bubby but Macey it was. We gave her the middle name Louise because it's my Mothers' middle name and it flows so pretty and do you know what it means? Warrior! Oh yeah. Macey Warrior Princess! haha

So I actually felt a little guilty when Macey was being born because I felt like I hadn't bonded with her enough, hadn't decided how much i really wanted/needed her in our family. But then when she was passed to me I felt the Spirit so strong and knew that Heavenly Father was blessing our lives so much more than we could have imagined with this little gift. Here's some pics of her first few days.

with our little princess & the midwife's finger :)