Niko is here!

Neil and I are proud to introduce our son, Nikolas Ichiro! We will be calling him Niko. His middle name is a traditional Japanese name that means "first son". He was born at 10:34 p.m. on Tuesday, September 2. He was 8 pounds, 1.5 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.

I was induced at 6:30 a.m. and had my bag ruptured at 7:45 a.m. I was in active labor by 11 a.m. and at 2:30 p.m. I was told that I was dilated to 9 cm. But after a second check - only 5 cm. I was pretty exhausted by this point. I had gone without any pain medication and the contractions were pretty intense by now. I had always heard that induced labor was more intense due to all the pitocin and I was now a believer. I had my epidural at 3:30 p.m. and was in much better shape by 4 p.m.

I was in labor for several more hours and only dilated to the same 5 cm at 7 p.m. and the baby's heart rate was beginning to become irregular. The doctor started to talk to Neil and I about a c-section. I really, really, really did not want a c-section. We had hired a doula because I had heard that they can severly reduce your chances of a c-section. We had asked to go another hour and see where we were after that - nothing changed. It was now 8 p.m. and my doula suggested that we could try one last trick and see where we were in another hour.

Sara (our wonderful doula) had me lean over a birthing ball and wrapped a long scarf-looking thing over my belly and began to shake and move my belly. After about 30 mins of this, I was dilated to 9 cm and the doctor was able to wiggle me to get the full 10 cm. His head was still not lined up correctly and it lead to a long pushing session. I pushed for 2 hours and at the end, my epidural had worn off completly. After he was delivered, we were told his cord was very short and was wrapped around his body and that's why there was so many problems delivering.

It was the most wonderful and painful thing that Neil and I have ever gone through, but totally worth it.