Our {Big} Baby Girl is 7!

Where do the years go?! Seriously, it seems like only yesterday we were bringing home a beautiful, baby girl and now instead she is 7 already! We were so busy celebrating and having fun that I didn't even take the time to write on her actual birthday but wanted to go ahead and share some memories now. Guess I might as well just start at the beginning, right? :-)

For various reasons we chose to birth in TN for our second baby, at a house, with a midwife. I was a little nervous about the longer drive, natural labor, etc but also excited and hoping to have a much better experience than with our first in the hospital. We only did one ultrasound and couldn't tell for sure what the baby was (although the opinion leaned slightly more towards girl than boy) so we prepared for either on the big day. I was 4 days over my due date and had been trying a little of everything to get things started but nothing seemed to work so far. We went to the chiropractor who did some acupressure to stimulate my uterus, in addition to the regular adjustment then headed out to eat with a friend before going home to see what would happen.
After leaving the restaurant I realized while driving home that I seemed to be "leaking" something. I called Blake, who was driving separately, and told him we should pull over to check if my water had broken. Um, yeah, it had. Completely. Which I quickly found out after standing up. Ha! I almost immediately started having pretty hard contractions so we debated whether or not we'd have time to drive all the way home (30 minutes further away from the birth house than where we were) and then the whole way back or if we should just head out from there. The only drawback being I somehow didn't have the baby bag we had packed in the car with me so I wouldn't have much for it to wear. We decided that was still best though and called my parents so they could pick up a couple of outfits and then meet us there to watch Dathan during the birth.
Long story short, we made it to the house and I got cleaned up and changed. The doula arrived and then the midwife (finally!) thankfully since by then I was hurting pretty bad and wanting to get in the birthing tub. She had to check me first and was surprised to find I was already a 7! (she had convinced herself since I was so calm and quiet during the contractions that I probably wasn't far along....which is also why she didn't hurry to get there) Anyhow, the tub was filled by then so I got in, which felt good for a few minutes but the pain quickly became alot worse and I started feeling different. The midwife was kinda casually walking through the room during a contraction and I said what does it feel like when you need to push?! She got a shocked look on her face (since I was only a 7 like 10 minutes before that) and quickly got some gloves on. I didn't even feel like getting out of the tub so we decided to just try birthing in the water. Three pushes with lots of screaming (on my part, that is, since she was face up! Ouch!) later and out came our baby girl!! :-)
It was an amazing, unforgettable experience to say the least and I wouldn't change anything about it that I can think of. (okay, so I would have preferred less pain and tearing while pushing but all that was quickly forgotten anyway once she got here!) I can definitely say that the beginning of her life was just as unexpected as she has proven to be herself since then but I wouldn't trade either of them for the world.

Our Delancey Paige is the most loving, sweet, stubborn, funny, independent, girl imaginable.....with a personality that is all her own! From dressing up like a princess to playing with worms out in the dirt, she never ceases to surprise us in how she looks at things. I can't wait to see what God does in her life as she continues to grow and learn every day. We are so blessed and honored to have the privilege of raising her. Sometimes I feel like I'm the one that is learning things just from being her momma! I'm so thankful for the Lord giving her to us for these seven years and hope to enjoy many, many more birthdays with our girl! And now I will end by leaving you with some pictures of her day.......

p.s. I almost forgot to add that she asked to get her ears pierced as a special surprise for her birthday. She loves it and they look so cute! So proud of my big girl. :-)