Aaliyah Destiny 8lb 3oz born at exactly 39 weeks after a ROUGH 18 hours of HARD labor. Some highlights: Her cord was extremely short and had wrapped around her somewhere in the early part of pregnancy. Early enough to where it never developed coils as it should have. In fact it was so short that her placenta was at the edge of coming out as I held her. This caused her to send me into labor. but prolonged it for hours until my water was able to break on its own about 15hours in. It gave her enough pressure on my cervix to help it get past the “lip” it was stuck behind for hours. She came out blue and not breathing after they had to unwrap the cord from around her. Daddy caught her and they laid her on my back.

They gave her 4 rescue breaths and rubbed her down and instructed us to talk to her. After I held her and talked to her, she let out the sweetest cry! Thankfully I was still able to get my home water birth. All unmedicated. I have God to thank for that. If I would have planned a hospital birth it would have took a completely different route. My contractions were on top of another. So I had not even seconds of relief in between. The second they tried to ease off, another came in full force. Chances are, as hard as I labored, the hospital would have tried to induce me which would have sent baby into destress or worse and I would’ve ended up with an emergency c-section. But she’s here now. We’re both alive and well. My healing process is taking longer than I wanted but due to the constant contractions for hours, my abdomen is beyond sore and will take more time to heal. But look at this sweet face..she is so worth every tear and every ounce of pain!