Wow! It's really hard to believe that this "journey" is actually over, although we will be staying in contact so I'm sure I'll keep this updated still! A year and a half of time put into preparation and carrying this baby and now it's done. As much as I was ready to have this baby and be nonpregnant again, I have to say it's still a little sad. But what a journey this has been! God has done so much! Anyway, I am here now to share the final stage of this awesome journey with you, so here goes:


Sunday night, January 17th, 2010, as I was getting our boys ready for bed, I squatted down to turn their radio on and as I stood back up, my water broke! It started off as a slow leak, which kind of made me think maybe I peed on myself, lol, but I had JUST gone to the bathroom. Back to the bathroom I went to look, peed again just in case and as I stood back up, the fluid came gushing out! I had never had my water break on me prior to labor starting. In fact, they broke my water with our first son and with our second, I didn't let them break it and it didn't break until I pushed him out. I have to say that I was really not wanting my water to break prior to labor, because I feared the necessity to be induced. I am a huge advocate of natural labor and I went through induction with my first and never wanted to do it again! I was always under the mindset that once your water broke, you HAD to get to the hospital and start induction, because you supposedly had 24 hours before the baby had to be out! The reason is due to infection setting in. However, what I found out instead was that the risk of infection comes mostly b/c it's introduced and far too often it's introduced while in the hospital b/c they won't keep their hands out of ya! lol Anyway, because I'm using midwives, they do things much more naturally and they felt no hurry to rush me in. I just kept and eye on my temperature and was very careful not to do anything that would introduce infection. So, I went into the clinic on Monday afternoon to be checked out as contractions still had not even begun to start, besides some painless braxton hicks. She checked my cervix and I was dilated to 4cm. My body was obviously close to being ready and she said that a high percentage of women go into labor within 24 hours after broken membranes, however there's no way to know for sure. She recommended I take castor oil that afternoon to try to bring on labor, as my body was so ripe and ready, she was confident that that would do it. So, at this point, I was game for anything to get it going so I didn't risk being induced! 2 ounces of castor oil it was at 4:30pm! Yum! About an hour and a half later, the contractions began! They came every 2 minutes for an hour and intensified as the hour went on. I was at the point where I felt like it was safe to go in to the hospital, but before I made the call, they nearly stopped. GREAT! I was so geared up for them being "the ones" and then they came every so often. But, it did develop a lot of uterine pressure and back pain and I waited a good hour to two hours and finally felt that it would be best to go on in to the hospital anyway. I felt that since we were dealing with others and not just us, it was best to at least get an idea of if my cervix had changed or something, especially since I developed the pressure in my uterus. I could always go back home or would know if I needed to stay. The midwife was ready for me and when we got there at 10:15pm, I was 5 cm. She mentioned the idea of giving me a little pitocin just to get me rolling, as it wouldn't take much and since I was 5 cm already, it wouldn't take long. As I was getting worked up and admitted and talking about our options, the contractions were starting back again and slowly beginning to regulate to some extent. Around 11pm, we decided that we would wait and give it about an hour or so to see what these contractions did first before we started pit. As opposed to using it as I was, we felt that we would be okay with the small amount (thankfully they had a wireless monitoring system that would allow me to do all the things in natural childbirth that I wanted, including the tub!) of pit and that it might be best, especially for the parents' sake. We still waited a little and at 11:30pm, I got on the birthing ball and contractions began coming every 4-6 min decreasing to every 3-5 min by 12:30am. Because this happened, there was no need for pit! Yay!! This was a God-thing! God knew the desires of my heart and He met them! On top of that, God had the perfect plan and why I ever was concerned, I don't know! I knew He wouldn't let me down, but my silly doubtfullness got the best of me at times. I continued to labor for a while and after the contractions really continued to intensify and come closer to 2-3 min apart, I asked my midwife to check my cervix. Midwives are not ones to check your cervix much, if at all, during labor. However, because we needed to tell the IP's when to come, I wanted to know where I was at. I was at 7cm and we felt it best to call them into the hospital. We had an empty room across the hall set aside for them and the baby after his delivery, so that's where they were going to go wait til it was time to push. My labors with my boys were both abot 9 hours long and I expected a little shorter, but considering I had only been in labor for 2 hours, I thought we'd still have a few more hours. After she checked me, I got in the tub. As I was in there, my contractions intensified even more. I wasn't in there long, maybe 20-30 min at most as I got too hot and actually got sick. So out I came. Back to the bed I went and the contractions at this point were much stronger and even closer together. They were so strong and intense that I was praying that it was almost time to push, but at the same time I couldn't imagine that I would already be ready! I mean, it had only been about 40 minutes roughly since she checked me and I was 7cm! In between contractions, I would open my eyes slightly and I could see my midwife getting things "ready." I began thinking, "there's no way I'm almost ready, am I really ready??" With each contraction, the urge to push intensified. With my boys, I used OB's in which there was always a "process." You check the cervix and when you're 10 cm, THEN you get ready to push. You don't push until THEY tell you to do so. My midwife was sitting on the end of the bed and after a contraction where I felt like I could push, I told her that I felt the urge(expecting she would check my cervix). Instead she said, "you do what you feel your body telling you to do" with my response as, "so you WANT me to push?" and she said, "if you feel you need to, then yes." Sorry for the little dialogue there, but I feel all these little details are important! At least they are to me. :) So with the next contraction, I began pushing. With each contraction after that, I could feel him descending. We decided it was time to bring the parents in there as we were getting very close. I had a contraction right before they came in and I could feel him right "there." They walked in, got set in their "positions" (the midwife had me draped and was sitting on the end of the bed and had a stool for the mom right beside the bed as the dad stood behind her). The final contraction came and his head began to crown. At this point, there was no stopping. I continued to push intermittently until he was OUT! Praise the Lord! She handed him directly over to his mother and them moved over to the warmer. I did not see as much of the scene as my husband did, but from what I could see (I could barely open my eyes from the labor I had just been through) it was beautiful and they were thrilled! We hugged and they moved out to their room while they cleaned me up. Shane was able to get a look at him, but I wasn't at this point, but it was fine. After I was cleaned up and the baby was cleaned and in good shape, they came back to our room where I got to hold him. What a precious site it was to see the new parents with their baby!

So, 3 hours and 17 minutes of labor! Wow! I was being impatient for it to start and God blessed me with a short labor even still! It truly went beautifully and I couldn't have asked for a better experience! My midwife was amazing and I will never use an OB again. To see the miracle of childbirth preserved like it was through her was awesome and made our experience that much better! She allowed my body to work and do what God intended it to do! My husband was the best coach a laboring woman could ask for! He never left my side and did everything I needed him to and more. He encouraged me the whole way and was my cheerleader! My nurse was also wonderful. She specifically loves working with natural childbirths and she just added to the wonderment of the experience! I have to give much thanks to a fellow surrogate & doula, who although she lived out of town and I haven't even met her, she was there for me, even in the middle of the night, to cheer me on and give me advice! She was so very helpful.....more than she may ever know! Thanks Ash!

For all those curious as to how I feel now that I've had this baby whom I carried and felt for 9 months, I feel great! I never once felt any attachment to him through the pregnancy and the attachment never came after he was born. To me, he is like a nephew. I love him dearly and look forward to watching him grow, but I am VERY happy to turn him over to his parents and it is a TRUE honor and blessing to see them all together and see this new family that God has so ordained! I could never have imagined the wonderful feelings I would have afterwards. I feel "released" and closer to this family now more than before.

Thank you all for sharing in this wonderful journey with us and for all your prayers and support. God's glory has shown through this. There is so much more that has been involved that I would love to share at some point that would really show God's glory and faithfulness even more! But for now, I'm off and thank you all again!

Wow! What a weekend! The intended parents came into town this weekend and accomplished a handful of things! The big thing was the hospital visit. We took them to the hospital so they'll know where to go, park, etc and we met with the supervisor of Mother/Baby. He gave a tour of the Labor & Delivery and Mother/Baby Unit and we discussed many things to be prepared for the big day! This will be their first experience with a vaginal birth (considering all goes as well as mine have in the past) so it was good for them to see the rooms and discuss details of what they'll experience to some extent. We also met with a social worker and made sure she had everything she needed to help make this whole experience as smooth as possible! The big thing was them having their own room with their new baby, which does not appear to be a problem, as I might very well go home early anyway since I won't have a baby for them to look after. They were very excited after this visit as it made it even more real for them! Saturday night we met back up with them and headed to my parents house. Shane's mom joined us and they were able to meet my parents, Shane's mom (his dad was out of town) and my sisters and their children. We had a wonderful time that night and they really enjoyed getting to know our family. Then, this morning (Sunday morning), we met again and headed to church. Our Sunday School class was so wonderful as they provided breakfast and gifts in honor of their presence. We had a morning of sharing, prayer and a wonderful "lesson", as our teacher did his own short lesson in regards to this family and the surrogacy. We were all so overwhelmed by the great love and support our class showed! Shane and I have been so blessed to share this journey with our class and to finally share them personally with P&K was wonderful! They were so blessed and overwhelmed by the love that our class showed!! I am 37 weeks, a little less than 3 weeks from the due date. However, I would LOVE it if he decided to come a little early! lol I won't complain at all! :) Well, God has the perfect time for his arrival and I know it'll be perfect!