Annika Meredith Grace

Yes, our newest little one has arrived.  Annika Meredith Grace was born September 15th at 12:39am.  She weighed about 8lbs4oz, and was 20 3/4 inches long. 

 Annika will make it into the Top Ten for most mauled child!

Her labor and birth went really well.  Lots of hard, intense work, but I was able to birth her naturally and we were blessed to avoid any special circumstances that might have changed that.  When we recalled that Corrina made her way into the world in 15 minutes, down the birth canal that is, we were flabbergasted that Annika was birth in about 5 minutes.  Not to be confused with the long labor!  In less time than her big sis, Annika took about 16 hours from start to finish.  Luckily for me only about 3-4 hours of that was active, hard labor.  A neat thing about Annika's birth is that she actually crowned in her bag of waters.  Once she crowned the doctor tore the membranes so Annika could breathe the air of her new world. 

I had awesome support from Dave and from our friend Gloria who is a trained Doula.  As well, another friend who is also a Doula passed along information and her experience with Hypno birthing.  Hypno birthing in essence is practicing meditation to achieve focus and relaxation during labour and birth.  The positive messages and soothing guided breathing and meditation made a complete difference in relaxation, and I think progression of labor too!  I actually put on my meditation throughout early labor and took naps!  Love it!  I highly recommend at least looking into Hypno birthing if you are hoping to have a manageable natural labor and birth. 

She is a darling!  We are quickly developing a great routine with lots of eating, playing and sleeping (thank you Baby Whisperer).  We are much better at giving Annika what she needs than we were with Corrina.  it's great to have a head start.


And Just for fun, a little Who's Who?

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