I am so proud of my daughter. She has already proven her strength of will by deciding that she would be in charge of her fate and would be born on her own terms, not ours. Liv was not keen to the idea of induction, which makes me happy because I know the horror stories of hours of induced labor only to be sent for a c-section because it wouldn’t progress. Monday night we decided to go out for the last time as a family of 3 since Tuesday would be spent preparing for the induction that night. All through dinner I was having strong contractions, but I didn’t think much about them until things slowed down right before bed and I had time to pay attention to them. I figured that if I could fall asleep this wasn’t labor, but falling asleep took some effort and when I woke up with intense cramping pain at 2 AM I thought this might be it. I laid in bed for an hour timing them, 5-6 minutes apart and painful enough to make laying in bed difficult so I moved downstairs at 3. I tried rolling on the ball, searching the internet, walking around the downstairs - nothing slowed them down or made me forget about them. At 4 I laid down on the couch and tried to close my eyes, but they opened in pain exactly 5 minutes apart for an hour. I bit the bullet and called the doctor, and while waiting to hear back I woke Kyle up, it was 5:19. I called my mom, Kyle called his dad - they were both on their way. The doctor called back and said come on in and after a tearful goodbye to my baby boy, we were on our way by 6:00. We were put into triage at 6:45 and hooked up to all the monitors, waiting to be checked by a doctor. After laboring on the bed until 8 AM, a resident came in and checked me. We were already 5-6 cm dilated and I grabbed Kyle by the arm and said, “there is no way we are having our baby in triage.” They put us into a room pretty quickly and the fun began. The IV was started, monitors on and fear set in. I had been managing the contractions in bed in triage, but they were painful and I really wanted to get up and move around so when they mentioned an epidural I said sure. Two seconds later the midwife on call came into the room and said she’d be managing my labor and asked if I’d like to get on the ball. She said the IV could be removed and the monitors still worked on the ball so get out of bed (there goes the epidural, but I did decide that I would ask for it if I needed it). I rocked on the ball for about and hour and a half and the contractions weren’t getting any closer or more painful so I asked if I could walk around. It took about an hour to get the “mobile monitors” to work, but once we started walking I could feel the change instantly. The pressure was intense and the contractions were closer and required me to not only breathe but moan to get through them. With every wave of pain, I gave myself over to the contraction and to Kyle. He was more than amazing, he held me through each and every second of pain and I relied on his love and strength to get through it. She checked me again after about an hour of walking around and I was 8 cm and fully effaced, the clock said 12:40. For the next 20 minutes the contractions seemed to stretch into each other with no break in between and I needed Kyle now more than ever. I love that man so much that words cannot even do it justice. Then I felt it, that pressure that is unmistakable, that urge to run to the bathroom - I needed to push. It was 1:00, the midwife checked me and there was still a lip so she broke my water and I immediately started pushing. Two pushes later and Liv came into the world at 1:16 P.M. It was such a peaceful labor and the feeling of her body passing from mine and entering this new and exciting world is something that will stay with me always. That surge of relief and love that comes with the culmination of labor was overwhelming as they laid her teeny body onto mine for the first time. She was so calm and didn’t even cry. I am totally and utterly in love and as I type this she is laying next to me watching her mama and is simply happy. I have been blessed with a content, peaceful, and quiet baby who honestly doesn’t cry (I can’t believe I just wrote that because I don’t want to jinx it) and her big brother who loves her and protects her already. Life is good and I couldn’t ask for a more perfect family. We are complete.